The 2022 Patriots feel like an ‘SNL’ skit
The Patriots are set up exactly how Bill Belichick wants them to be, and that's a problem.
COMMENTARY
This is Bill’s fault.
Perhaps you take the same, unusually-optimistic view as the head coach, who seemed satisfied with what he witnessed over the course of the New England Patriots’ season-opening loss in Miami on Sunday. Maybe his team really was only one or two mistakes away from having the Dolphins’ 20-7 win seem like something more competitive. Or, you can just chalk it up as more bad mojo in South Florida, despite the odd, extended stay and practicing at a field that seemingly abutted the airport La Quinta.
Except, what we saw from the Patriots on Sunday did nothing to silence the vociferous criticism that has surrounded this team for months. Head coach Bill Belichick has constructed a coaching staff more likely to be put together at the middle school level, where the head coach can hire his buddies to run the offense, while his son takes charge of the defensive play calling, with nary a bout of protest from the front office.
Belichick and pals had a chance to quiet those critics by doing something they failed to do all during the preseason — present a somewhat-capable offensive product that could make the Patriots a competitive team.
Instead, the whole afternoon felt like a caricature.
After one game, the 2022 Patriots season sure feels more like it’s about Belichick grooming pals Matt Patricia and Joe Judge than it does advancing the talent and awareness of New England’s second-year quarterback. The Buffalo Bills gave Ken Dorsey their offensive coordinator position, one vacated by Brian Daboll, who replaced Judge as head coach of the Giants. That’s a line of consistency that will keep the Bills on their upward track.
On the other hand, Belichick replaced former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels with a pair of unproven advisers with little-to-no offensive coaching past. You’ve heard the criticism ad nauseam. But watching the dysfunction in action during a game that counts? Yuck.
And yet, here we are; Our worst fears, bandied about all summer, right, smack in the way of creating what most would consider a functional football team.
If 2022 is, indeed, about the maturation process of Patricia and Judge, ahead of Mac Jones, then perhaps we are finally approaching the end of the Belichick Era in Foxborough. Because there is no way that Bob and Jonathan Kraft can look at that sort of preparation as reason to keep the consistency and familiarity in the building for the foreseeable future.
Patricia’s sideline presence Sunday, holding the play sheet — with that stupid pencil behind his ear — looked like something out of a sketch on Saturday Night Live. It was like exaggerating the absurdity of reality for the sake of satire. Matt Patricia? I mean, we’re really doing this? And we’re going to keep his name off the title so the Lions keep paying their former head coach? It’s gross.
For better or worse (accentuate the latter), this is the coaching staff that Belichick has built for the final stretch of his NFL career, one that seemed like it would finish whenever he was ready. But what Belichick has managed here is borderline negligence, particularly with the valuable commodity behind center, and the sideline having lost the immeasurable likes of Dante Scarnecchia and Ivan Fears this season. After watching McDaniels, who seemed like the man in waiting for the job in New England, take the head coaching gig in Las Vegas, are the Krafts really willing to patiently wait around while they see what Bill has planned? Or will this become such a disaster in such a short period of time that their only, logical next move would be the unthinkable?
Nobody is actually suggesting firing Belichick after one game. If you want to have the discussion about Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy getting the ax after that embarrassment against the Buccaneers, go ahead. But Hall of Famer Bill Belichick? Please.
If, however, things remain dysfunctional, it’s going to become a talking point. And quicker than you might anticipate.
Which brings us to the strange situation surrounding wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, who was benched for all but one — productive — play during Sunday’s game. There’s obviously some sort of disciplinary issue happening here, one that neither the coaches nor Bourne seem willing to discuss. But the situation also serves as a scary reminder.
This is a coach who was willing to throw a Super Bowl away in order to make sure Malcolm Butler got the message. There’s little doubt he’s going to worry too much about the regular season maturation of his quarterback by taking away what was his most valuable weapon a year ago.
Like Butler years ago, the Bourne benching has Patricia’s greasy fingertips all over it. What’s a victory to Belichick when backing his best buds is most important? What’s giving your quarterback the best tools to succeed when one of those pieces has doubts about the toolbox calling the plays?
The theme this season might be Belichick proving he can put square pegs in a round hole and make things work. Neat. Patriot fans will remember this season forever as the one where the head coach turned a defensive mind into an offensive one. Print the t-shirts. Hang a banner. It won’t be any worse than the 18-1 flag.
Belichick wanted to take the road less taken in building this team, not exactly the way you want to introduce a young quarterback into his second year in the league. Young quarterbacks that take a step back rarely ever again find that way forward. If the head coach is sacrificing that development for a cool vibe in the coaches room, it’s a fire-able offense.
This is Bill’s fault, and unlike last year’s season-opening loss to the Dolphins, it’s not as easy as pointing to a Damien Harris fumble as the reason they lost. In Bill’s mind, it was only one or two plays that cost his team. In reality, it’s been three or four months of incompetency and frugality that just so happened to linger into the season’s kickoff.
The beginning of the end had to start at some point. It’s fitting, at least, that it might have come in Miami, a place that has given Belichick fits over the years.
Defense looked OK though, no?
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