Nothing About The Patriots Looked Good Last Night

Last night’s game was simple for the New England Patriots, win or go home. Well, the Patriots left SOFI Stadium with the loss, and their playoff hopes long gone. What happened last night was the exact opposite of what we saw last Sunday when the Patriots beat the Las Angeles Chargers 45-0, in what can only be described as a complete team victory. Last night, under the lights, the Patriots fell to the Las Angeles Rams 24-3, and that game can only be described as complete team loss. The only New England unit that shouldn’t be in the dog house is special teams, besides that, the offense, defense, and the coaching, are on the hook for last night’s loss.

Let’s start with the defense shall we? Yes, they only surrendered 17-points, that doesn’t mean they played well. The defense allowed the Rams to march down the field on their first two drives of the game and put the Patriots in a ten point hole. Falling behind double digits is not setting your team up for success. The Patriots defense had a great second quarter. They were able to turn the ball over, put the Patriots offense in a good position, but the third quarter was just as bad as the first quarter. The Rams were able to put together a touchdown that took over eight minutes, and basically iced the game. By the time the game got into the fourth quarter, the Rams were just running the clock. Having one good quarter does not mean you had a good game, allowing the Rams to pick up 132-yard on the ground killed what the defense could do in the pass game, frankly the defense didn’t do their job.

The offense was a mess last night. Cam Newton took the brunt of the blame for the loss, and that comes with being a quarterback, and even more so when you’re the quarterback of the New England Patriots, the season after Tom Brady packed his bags and headed down to Tampa, Florida. But the results of last night’s loss were not all on Newton. Between Cam Newton, Jarrett Stidham, Damien Harris, Sony Michel, and James White, the Patriots only managed to tally 220-yards of total offense.

Cam Newton was bad, he went 9/16 for 119 yards, 0 TDs, and 1 interception. He also rushed the ball 7 times for 16 yards, averaging 2.2 yards per carry. For the second time this season Newton was benched for Jarrett Stidham and things didn’t get much better. Stidham went 5/7 for 27-yards, averaging 5.5 yards per completion. Neith quarterback looked good last night, and both were under constant pressure.

The offensive line which includes Joe Thuney, Shaq Mason, Mike Onwenu, and David Andrews, did not live up to what they are capable of. Michael Brockers and Aaron Donald had their way with the Patriots, and the Rams were able to sack Newton and Stidham a combined six times.

The run game looked somewhat decent last night, but New England quickly found themselves in a position where running the football wasn’t even an option. Everything was just lackluster about the Patriots offense. They never threatened the Rams defense, even when the Patriots were in the Red Zone, it never really looked like the Patriots were going to score.

Now we move on to the coaching. We all remember prior to Super Bowl 53 when Rams coach Sean McVay was gushing over Bill Belichick before the game, but after last night’s performance it should be Belichick gushing over McVay. Belichick said it during his press conference, the Patriots coaching staff didn’t do a good enough job last night.

The Patriots coaching staff was out coached last night. Sean McVay had every answer for the questions the New England had, and Bill Belichick didn’t have an answer for anything the Rams did. To be fair to Belichick, the reason that Belichick may have been out coached could very well be because the Rams just had more talent than the Patriots. The Patriots defense couldn’t stop the run, they took bad penalties at inopportune times, and that’s completely on the Patriots coaching staff. The offense as was already explained did not have a good day.

The Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has taken a lot unfound criticism this season, and even though I have defended him for most of the season, I can’t do that today. Last night McDaniels playing calling had zero creativity, he made zero adjustments, and everything about the offense looked bland. Four straight runs plays in the red zone is the perfect way to sum up McDaniels play calling performance last night.

Last night’s game was bad, if you’re a Patriots fan it looked bad, the result was bad, and now the season is basically over. The Patriots find themselves in a position that they have a 4% chance to make the playoffs, there’s hope, but perhaps at this time, it’s false hope.

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