Something Is Seriously Wrong With the Patriots, and Whatever It Is Won’t Be a Quick Fix

It isn’t only that the 2014 Patriots are trying to get by with a dysfunctional offense, built from bits and pieces of an overmatched offensive line, wide receivers struggling to get open, and a 37-year-old quarterback who’s making an increasing amount of questionable reads and decisions with each passing week.

It isn’t only that the 2014 Patriots overvalued their defense greatly, particularly in how it chooses to use Darrelle Revis in zone coverage, exposing the future Hall of Famer as a cornerback that can even resurrect Dwayne Bowe from the dead. Chandler Jones, arguably the unit’s bright spot, hit a snag on Monday night in Kansas City, where the defensive end had a nice view of the rear ends of Chiefs running backs Jamaal Charles and Knile Davis.

It isn’t only that the 2014 Patriots were assumed to be better than this, 2-2 after one-quarter of the NFL season, a benchmark that arrives in the wake of the franchise’s most embarrassing regular-season defeat in a generation.

Something is seriously wrong with this team at its core, and if the Patriots don’t rectify the problem before they face the 3-0 Bengals in six days at Gillette Stadium, it threatens to torpedo a season with serious Super Bowl aspirations.

If it hasn’t already.

“It was just a bad performance by everybody,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said. “Just want to make sure we never have this feeling again.”

Sifting through the rubble that was New England’s miserable 41-14 loss at Arrowhead Stadium and looking for answers as to how and why the Patriots have collapsed and looked this dreadful this early in the season for the first time in 14 years, may indeed be a fruitless quest. Here’s what to take out of Monday’s game: They can’t throw the ball, can’t run the ball, can’t stop the run, can’t stop the pass, and can’t catch the ball. Other than that…

Bill Belichick may be a master of adjustment, but he’s never had to deal with a project of this magnitude, a team that proved incompetent as an entire unit against the Chiefs, who the Patriots, in turn, made look like Super Bowl children of destiny. Padawan Josh McDaniels should be under more fire this week, particularly for a vomit-inducing first-half series of play calling from the offensive coordinator. Revis is sure to be chirping a little louder in the weeks to come about how he was more effective under Rex Ryan with the New York Jets. And then, there’s Tom Brady (14-of-23, one touchdown, two interceptions, and two fumbles – one lost), who finally found the bench in the fourth quarter after one of the worst performances of his entire career.

Brady threw for only 159 yards on the night, tied for 26th-lowest in his career. He threw for 149 yards in Minnesota two weeks ago, which means two of the least-productive games of his Hall of Fame resume have come over the last three games. He had a wide open Stevan Ridley at one point 10 yards upfield from him, and decided to force the ball to Julian Edelman and double coverage for an incomplete pass. Later in the game, Edelman wasn’t where Brady expected him to be. It just might be the worst interception Hall of Famer Tom Brady has ever thrown at any level of football.

Even Brady’s notable apologists are going to have a difficult time defending him through this one. Their only ammo is the offensive line, which was, once again, brutal, particularly Nate Solder, who nearly introduced Brady to Middle Earth in Middle America by allowing Tamba Hali to pass Go – untouched – and grind the quarterback to the turf. But then again, Solder isn’t reading the field and ignoring a wide-open James Develin in order to throw into double coverage as Brady managed to accomplish Monday night.

“You never expect these things,” Brady said at his post-game press conference, seemingly already in a much better mood than sour face he exhibited in the waning minutes on the sidelines suggested. “We’ve lost some tough road games before and I know we’re not going to quit. That’s one thing I can assure you.”

But can he? Can Brady with any semblance of sincerity really assure that this team won’t, or hell, hasn’t already quit? That was the feeling on Monday night, when players seemed to interact with each other as if they were visiting a soup kitchen on parole. Watching the Patriots isn’t any fun this year because they’ve been terrible, but there’s also a reciprocal factor there as well. They don’t seem to be having the least bit of fun either.

Everything is an ordeal it seems, not exactly the best environment for a team working toward a common goal, but if Monday taught us anything, this team’s problems won’t be solved as easily as plugging in Bryan Stork. The offense is in shambles, the defense isn’t using its personnel properly, and, perhaps worst of all, there seems to be a bubbling sense of disenchantment with this team. Guys make plays and get up without much hoopla surrounding them. Receivers come up with a big catch and they walk back to the huddle as if it were the green mile. The quarterback looks and acts as if he’s working with 10 bumbling idiots on the field of play with every incomplete pass he piles up.

The Patriots can solve a lot of their problems, and maybe that will take care of the fatal flaw that seems to want to stick its head out and introduce itself before the Patriots find a way to suppress it. But the Bengals are followed soon by the Broncos and Bears and Packers and the Colts and the Chargers.

On the bright side, a 9-7 record still might win the AFC East.

“We’ll see what we’re made of this week,” Brady said.

Doubt it. It’s been four weeks now and there’s been nothing we’ve seen in any of the games that gives a hint that these Patriots are anything more than a group of overrated, aging, disgruntled question marks. Monday was the worst New England loss since the 31-0 drubbing at the hands of the Bills, aka, the Lawyer Milloy game.

Those guys were different. They reacted differently, took criticism differently, and won in spite of everything. We have no idea about the character of this group, but if it’s anything close to what we’ve watched over the first four games, it has one characteristic never before attached to a Bill Belichick-coached Patriots team.

Hopelessness.