How Saints won and two captains are spurring Pats’ struggles

PATRIOTS FILM REVIEW

The goal of the Patriots’ offseason was to rejuvenate and restore.

To infuse a hollowed-out roster with outside talent and retain key veterans who could carry on their championship culture. So the front office poached top free agents and re-signed longtime captains David Andrews and James White, before returning Dont’a Hightower after a year away. Through the summer, every player, old and new, spoke glowingly about how the team’s past and present were meshing.

Now 1-2 after three winnable games, the Pats’ immediate future feels bleak.

On Sunday, White was carted off with a hip injury. The defense started two second-half series without Hightower, choosing to deploy practice-squad linebacker Jahlani Tavai instead. Bill Belichick repeatedly declined to expound on that decision Monday. All of Belichick’s other explanations for what happened against the Saints boiled down to this: they need to play better and coach better.

The Patriots’ inability to play clean football is slowly becoming more habit than happenstance. They coughed up three turnovers, took untimely penalties and committed special teams gaffes. Brandon Bolden, an annual cog of great special teams, was forced into more offensive action than he had seen in almost six years.

Why? The face of the Patriots’ backfield, Damien Harris, couldn’t be trusted in pass protection once White went down. A consequence of their past falling, their present failing, and their future paying the price.

Here’s what else the film revealed about Sunday’s loss to the

Saints: