It’s been a few weeks since my last Patriots column where I believed New England should continue to play Jacoby Brissett, mainly to protect Drake Maye. Well, sitting here at 1-6, I can admit having a mobile quarterback does indeed make our offensive line look serviceable.
But at the moment I’m not concerned about the offense — for once.
Heading into the London matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, I wanted to see the Patriots be competitive. It was a winnable game as both teams were 1-5. However, the Pats fell somewhat embarrassingly to the Jags 32-16.
After the game, head coach Jerod Mayo called the team soft and said that the guys were “playing soft.”
I’m in no position to judge if a professional football player is “soft” or not. However, there were times throughout the game when I felt the Jags tried to embarrass the Patriots.
In the second half, the Jags ran the ball 17 straight times. In the NFL, if you run the ball that many times in a row, defenses will tend to stack the box to stuff the run. Even when the Patriots stacked the box, Jacksonville’s running backs found a hole each time to pick up 4-5 yards per carry. That has to be demoralizing as a defense.
I have some sympathy for defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington as he’s missing three key pieces on defense in Jabrill Peppers, Christian Barmore, and Ja’Whuan Bentley. With that said, the Jaguars bullied New England’s defense.
Former head coach Bill Belichick went on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday and spoke out on Mayo’s comments.
“Defensively, the Patriots led the league last year in rushing defense. Yards per carry they were number one in the league, and this year they’re way down in the 20s… It’s the same guys. They resigned Jennings, they resigned Tavai, Dugger, etc,” Belichick said. “… to call them soft, they’re not soft. They were the best team in the league last year against the run… I feel bad for the defensive players on that one because those guys, that’s a tough group.”
I think Bill failed to acknowledge the players that are missing, who played a key role in being such a good run defense last year like Barmore on the line, and Bentley as the middle linebacker.
I think the Patriots have been unlucky with the injuries/suspensions happening to key players and positions (David Andrews, Bentley, Barmore, Peppers). Free agents aren’t going to fill the holes of the team, but what they can do is play harder and not have other teams embarrass them by running the ball up the middle 17 straight times without a stop.
At least we have an easy game against the Jets this week…
