Patriots’ mistakes may be warning signs of a startling late-season collapse
Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin sacks Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
COMMENTARY
Where else do you look when the Next Man Up is Just Another Guy?
The New England Patriots have reached a critical moment in their Jenga season, a point in which the integral foundation of the defending Super Bowl champions is losing all semblance of stability. Everything the once-soaring team had constructed through the early months of the season is in danger of falling to pieces.
For the first time since the 2012 season, the Patriots have lost in consecutive weeks, but unlike that last losing streak, which came during weeks 2 and 3 against the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens, respectively, these defeats at the hands of the Denver Broncos and (gasp) Philadelphia Eagles come during a time of the year when Bill Belichick-coached teams are normally ramping up their postseason push.
You have to go back to 2009 to find a time when the Patriots consecutive games at such a late stage of the NFL season: Those ‘09 Patriots suffered back-to-back defeats in weeks 12 and 13 against the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins, respectively.
That was the season of 4th and two, of course, in Indianapolis, a coaching decision on par with some of the blunders that Patriots fans have witnessed the last two weekends involving a foolhardy drop kick and incompetent clock management. It was also the last time New England was forced to play on wild card weekend, a sudden possiblity for the currently third-seeded Patriots.
Oh, sure, four opponents still remain on the 2015 regular-season schedule, but how much faith should you have in this squad when two of the next three weeks bring games against the postseason-hungry Houston Texans and New York Jets? If the playoffs began today — which they, you know, don’t — the Patriots would host those same Jets in the NFL postseason’s opening weekend at Gillette Stadium. The last time Foxborough hosted a wild card game, Ray Rice and the Baltimore Ravens humiliated the 10-6 Pats.
Only nine days after the team sported a 10-0 record, had the inside track on the top seed in the AFC, and seemed likeliest to represent the conference in Super Bowl 50 in less than two months, the decimated Patriots have regressed, falling back into the pack of teams jockeying for postseason position. The road to the Super Bowl may very well go through Denver or Cincinnati. Gone are the vengeful Patriots of the Middle Finger Tour, focused on perfection, replaced by a team without a trio of its most important offensive weapons and a coaching staff that clearly doesn’t trust their replacements.
That all leaves quarterback Tom Brady in some sort of strange limbo, needing to single-handedly rescue his teammates from the malaise his coaches have sunk them into, as evidenced by Sunday’s cutesy calls from the sideline, starring Nate Ebner. Such decisions also leave Brady vulnerable to criticism when he’s forced to make a play that isn’t there.
Facing first and goal from the one-yard line, Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels choose to run James White in lieu of the bruising body that used to house LeGarrette Blount? Not even a Brady sneak, which tends to work from time to time?
A four-yard loss later, Brady was forced to throw, and the Eagles were waiting and ready for it, returning the interception 99 yards for a touchdown.
No, Brady wasn’t very good (29-of-56, three touchdowns, two interceptions) on Sunday.
His coaches were worse.
“We had some good plays in the game,’’ Belichick said. “We just didn’t have enough of them. We had too many bad ones. Just, it’s not good enough.
“There were a lot of plays in the game that I’m sure all of us would like to have back — all of us that played, all of us that coached.’’
Coaching has been all over the map the last few weeks, from the refusal to put together a drive at the end of last weekend’s first half against the Broncos, to the insistence to eschew a conservative approach and run out the clock two quarters later. Against the Eagles, there was the inane Ebner kick and even more dubious time management on display.
Brandon LaFell may not finish his routes and Scott Chandler may struggle to catch anything that Brady doesn’t float to him on a perfect trajectory, but their being in the lineup in the stead of injured Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman isn’t the main reason the Patriots have lost two in a row. The fact that their coaches seem to be approaching the absences of proven performers with a fear of the unknown is the greater cause for concern.
“You’d love to have everybody healthy,’’ Brady said. “I think every team would love that at this point, but it’s just not the reality, so it’s tough. You’ve got to find ways to adjust, and we do plenty of good things. I think tonight there were just some critical errors that it really came down to. Just a disappointing night, but we’ve got to figure out how to win a game next week.’’
Mind you, a year ago at this time, the Patriots were 10-3, on the verge of clinching the AFC East the following week, and everything turned out to be all right after that. It was also a much different conference to deal with. The Bengals never seemed more than a mere wild card team, and New England could afford to hand the Buffalo Bills their first-ever win at Gillette Stadium in the season finale. Unless the Bengals and Broncos fall apart — and both teams are, in fact, peaking — New England could be fighting just to land the No. 2 seed.
Of course, both Denver and Cincinnati have to play each other, as well as face a common opponent in the Pittsburgh Steelers (who rebounded from their loss against the Seattle Seahawks last weekend by routing the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night), so the Patriots control their own destiny. But that’s now four straight games (the two losses and narrow wins over the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills) in which the Patriots have played down to the wire, uncharacteristic of the team we all supposed was the force of the NFL after the season’s first three months.
They’re something different now, something that reminds all too much of that confounding 2009 team.
That was a low point for Belichick.
It’s up to him to prevent another one six years later.
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur and Facebook www.facebook.com/GlobeEricWilbur
Photos: Patriots fall to the Eagles at Gillette
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