Sunday night’s defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers punctuated an atrocious New England Patriot road season. Going 3-5 on the road, this is the worst Patriots road record since 2009.
The sky is falling in New England. The dynasty is over. Brady and Belichick should retire. In 2014, 2016 and 2017 this was the national media. But this year, this is New England fans. This is the Patriot faithful, emphasis on faith. As in, keep the faith. Stick with this team, and they may surprise you.
This Patriots team is far from perfect; even the biggest homer could see that. There are major problems up front on the defensive line, the latest example being Jalen Samuels gashing the Patriots for 142 yards.
The offense has seemed a tick off all season, with Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon committing huge drops on Sunday. The struggles of this team are well documented; the successes, not so much.
Let’s start with the defense. Trey Flowers is playing out of his mind, accounting for most of the pass rush this defense generates. Stephon Gilmore is a Pro Bowler, blanketing receivers every game with the exception of Corey Davis.
The Pats seem to have a bonafide third corner in J.C. Jackson, and fans need to look no farther than the numbers. The Patriots have held the two top wide receiving duos in the NFL in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs as well as JuJu Smith-Schuster and Antonio Brown to 77 and 89 yards respectively. For years, the Patriots defense was known for one thing; taking away a number one weapon. This is exactly what they have done.
17 points against a talented Steelers offense should be enough to get a win; this defense isn’t built to lock teams down, they are built to feed off an offense that can put up crooked numbers
Speaking of that offense… 10 points? 10? This isn’t the first time this has happened either. The Patriots have scored 10 points in three of their five losses this year. What’s the common denominator here? All three times this happened, it was against head coaches with a lot of Patriots experience: Matt Patricia, Mike Vrabel, and Mike Tomlin.
Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski seem to have lost a step, but that hasn’t stopped them from getting open in back to back weeks, Gronkowski against the Dolphins and Edelman against the Steelers. Let’s not forget, however; this is still Tom Brady, this is still Josh McDaniels.
They will figure out a scheme; they always do. Sony Michel is still a weapon, and James White is always a threat in the passing game.
Finally, let’s focus on the game. The Patriots committed an astonishing amount of turnovers; no way 11 pre-snap penalties happen again. Also, there is the Steelers. Football fans have watched the Steelers for years; everyone knows that they wake up at the exact moment that they need to in order to avoid certain death, and they needed the game more than New England did.
I get it Patriots fans. Things are not normal in New England. But an 11-5 season is nothing to sneeze at. Are you afraid of playoff Andy Reid? Playing essentially a home game in Los Angeles against the Chargers? At Houston, a team Tom Brady is 8-1 against? There is reason for concern. But no reason to panic.
