Thorough flop
Failure vs. Bills covered just about all
FOXBORO — Maybe the Patriots and Bills switched uniforms yesterday.
That’s about the only thing that would explain what happened at Gillette Stadium, where Rex Ryan’s squad claimed a 16-0 victory that was far more one-sided than the box score shall forever suggest. It was the first time the Pats were shut out at home since Nov. 28, 1993, which predates Robert Kraft’s acquisition of the organization and the birth of five players on the Pats’ active roster, including quarterback Jacoby Brissett.
“I didn’t think anything was good enough,” Bill Belichick said. “Nothing was good enough at any position in any phase of the game.”
The Patriots’ impressive, Tom Brady-less stretch concluded with a 3-1 record, but a dud on the field. Brissett looked like a rookie quarterback in his second career start, completing 17-of-27 passes for 205 yards, and he made an egregious mistake by fumbling away a second-quarter scoring opportunity with a reckless third-and-11 scramble. He also missed wideopen throws to Danny Amendola for a likely third-and-19 conversion in the third quarter, and to Julian Edelman for a potential catch-and-run for a big fourthquarter gain.
Of course, Brissett also got very little help. Wide receiver Chris Hogan was called for both holding and offensive pass interference to wipe out Edelman’s 90yard catch on the first play of the game. The league’s top-ranked rushing attack, which averaged 150.7 yards through three weeks, only amassed 90 yards, and Brissett scrambled for 23 of them.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski was still limited; his first and only catch of the season happened in the fourth quarter. Brissett was 2-of-10 for 27 yards when targeting Gronk, Edelman, Hogan and Amendola. Brissett only managed to find a rhythm with tight end Martellus Bennett (five catches for 109 yards) and running back James White (five catches for 50 yards).
There were major issues on third down, where the Pats were 1-of12 and the Bills converted 7-of-15 chances. That was particularly egregious for the Pats defense, considering the Bills ranked last in thirddown offense through Week 3.
Offensively, though, where do you begin? They needed an average of 10.4 yards to convert on their 11 third-down failures thanks to, among the mistakes, six penalties for 49 yards. There was a third-and-15 due to a Joe Thuney false start, a third-and-11 due to a David Andrews hold, a thirdand-25 due to a sack when no one blocked Jerry Hughes, a thirdanddue to a Nate Solder chop block, and a third-and-15 due to an Edelman false start.
“Obviously, we were in a lot of third-and-longs, so that wasn’t good,” Belichick said. “A lot of third-down problems are related to first and second down, and it wasn’t good enough on third down. It’s pretty obvious.”
Even the manageable third downs were difficult, such as a failed third-and-5 after they clawed out of second-and-14, a third-and-2 that came up short because of White’s bobbled reception of a pitch, and a third-and-2 that fell apart when Brissett fumbled.
Defensively, their typically sure tackling was regrettable. Belichick’s first-quarter spike of his tablet was one of the few true hits of the afternoon.
“Tackling was definitely a problem, period,” Belichick said.
“You’ve just got to come out on Sundays and do it,” Devin McCourty said of the day’s tackling epidemic. “Obviously, we can’t tackle LeSean McCoy in practice, but you get out there on the field and you’ve got to go tackle him. It’s not the first time we saw him.”
The problems spilled into special teams, too. Stephen Gostkowski missed his second field goal of the season when he pushed a 48-yarder in the third quarter. Cyrus Jones was unsure of himself and of Matthew Slater’s orders to kneel the opening kickoff 3 yards into the end zone, and Jones was tackled at his own 9-yard line. Jones was tackled at the 14 on his next attempt, yielding a mock cheer from the crowd every time he downed a kickoff after that.
“The opening kickoff, defensively not being able to get off the field, moving the ball up and down, a lot of long drives,” McCourty said. “Just didn’t play well.”
As a result, with a long week to prepare and just hours before Brady’s return, the Patriots had one of their most uncharacteristic losses of the Belichick era.
“We think we’re a better team than we showed today,” Belichick said. “But we just didn’t do anything well enough.”