As Belichick’s magic fades, the Patriot Way is a far cry from what it used to be
Well, at least one thing hasn’t changed when it comes to the Patriot Way. When he loses, nobody does grumpy quite like Bill Belichick.
And there’s been so much of that lately.
“One of a number of things could have made a difference,” Belichick said after the 21-17 setback against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday marked a third consecutive loss. “We just need to coach it better, play it better, execute it better. That’s really the story again.”
If only it were that simple. This time, the Patriots – blown out by an aggregate score of 72-3 the previous two games – actually had a chance to pull out a win at the end at Allegiant Stadium. They didn’t quit, cave or fold up the tent. But they wound up with the same lousy result.
And the story again is that New England just isn’t good enough anymore.
The Patriots are 1-5. That’s another first under Belichick, another in a series of firsts for futility.
Here’s another one: The Patriots had a grand total of -2 net yards in the first quarter. Until Sunday, they had never had a first quarter with zero yards or less. Ouch.
The last time they were 1-5? Go back to 1995 – the year after Robert Kraft bought the franchise.
If you’re into train wrecks or just down for seeing a Belichick team suffer, the pristine palace
that will host Super Bowl 58 in February was the place. Funny, the team wore the New England uniforms. But somewhere along the way – or sometime after Tom Brady departed – they changed the definition of the Patriot Way.
Remember how it used to be? Belichick’s team, resourceful and on-point when it came to situational football, used to be the ones to capitalize on the mistakes of others. During those glory years spanning two decades, they often came back because they could count on the other guys screwing up in crunch time.
Now, with Sunday providing another example, the shoe is other the other foot.
Start with this: The Patriots committed 10 penalties for 79 yards. This is the undisciplined stuff that facilitates losing football games. The flags came early, as in two penalties on two linemen on the first two offensive snaps. And they came late, as in three penalties in the final three minutes. A defensive pass interference call on third down extended a Raiders drive, then after New England forced a punt, holding and delay-of-game penalties backed up the offense and set up the disaster of a game-clinching safety with 1:47 remaining as Mac Jones was sacked in the end zone.
There was also a sweet catchand-run by Ezekiel Elliott in the second quarter that went for a 74-yard touchdown... until it was called back by a holding penalty.
Yeah, there’s another type of Patriot Way showing up these days.
Jones, the third-year quarterback, led a promising drive into Raiders territory late in the second quarter that might have tied the game. Then as he rolled away from pursuit on a second down, he threw across his body and way the head of tight end Hunter Henry. Tre’von Moehrig intercepted the gift to snuff out that threat.
“Just trying to do too much,” said Jones, who passed for 200 yards but didn’t throw for a TD.
Late in the game, two snaps before the safety, Jones threw a deep dime to DeVante Parker, who ran a go route along the left sideline. The football glanced off Parker’s hands, the receiver blowing an opportunity to at least position for a possible go-ahead field goal.
The collection of gaffes is more stunning when considering the man in charge. For a coach who has preached details while enjoying so much success – including six Super Bowl championships with the Patriots – this has to turn his stomach to watch. What a way to achieve a milestone, as Belichick coached in his 500th NFL game, including playoffs, on Sunday.
Asked afterward whether he is taking this Patriots slide personally, Belichick grumbled.
“Right now, it’s just about this game,” he said.
Belichick pushed back on the notion that the same types of miscues have been repeated rather than corrected.
“This game was a lot different than the last two games,” he maintained. “So, you can’t compare those.”
No, the Patriots weren’t blown out against a team coached by a protégé, Josh McDaniels, who previously served as Belichick’s offensive coordinator, and quarterbacked by two other ex-Patriots – Jimmy Garoppolo and Brian Hoyer (Garoppolo didn’t play after halftime due to a back injury, for which he was taken to a hospital for tests).
There was a measure of progress. Yet just like last week and the week before, the Patriots are left to process their reality.
As Jones put it, “You’ve got to watch the film with truthful eyes.”
There’s a lot of football left. That can be interpreted as halffull or half-empty. If the losing continues, the questions about the team’s focus and intensity will escalate.
“It’s up to us to look ourselves in the mirror and see who we are individually and what are we going to bring every day,” said receiver Kendrick Bourne, who caught 10 passes for 89 yards on Sunday. “Are we going to quit, come to work just to work? Or are we going to come to work to really work with good effort so we can change things around?”
The morale is certainly being tested, if it isn’t shaken. David Andrews, the ninth-year veteran center, is the only starter on offense or defense who remains from the last Super Bowl title team. He doesn’t see much choice when it comes to the approach to this crisis.
“Football is like life,” Andrews said. “There’s highs, there’s lows, there’s in-between. When there’s lows, the only thing you do is fight your way out of it. You can’t lay down. You can’t quit. I don’t believe in that. Never believed in that. So, the only thing you can do is keep fighting, keep throwing punches, keep swinging.”
And lately, keep getting off the mat as another version of the Patriot Way.
(USA Today/TNS)