Bill Belichick is left searching for answers after enduring another blowout loss.
Sunday’s 34-0 defeat to the New Orleans Saints was the largest home loss Belichick has ever seen as a head coach. Coupled with last week’s 35-point drubbing at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys — the largest defeat of Belichick’s illustrious coaching career — frustrations are mounting and patience is thinning in New England.
“Obviously, it was a poor performance today here,” Belichick said after the game on Sunday. “Plain and simple, we’ve got to find a way to play and coach better than that. So let’s go start all over and get back on a better track than we’re on right now. Slow start, and then just couldn’t, could never really get the game under control.”
Team’s don’t typically “start all over” after five games into a season but Belichick, who was his usual, cagey self after the loss, said he’s “done it before” in the past. What Belichick’s restart won’t yet entail is a quarterback change despite him pulling Mac Jones for a second consecutive game.
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“It was 31-0 at the end of the third quarter,” Belichick said when asked why he took Jones out. He later confirmed Jones would remain the starter, saying, “there was a lot of problems — it certainly wasn’t all on him.”
Jones stayed on the sidelines as New England took the field for its first offensive possession of the fourth quarter. The third-year QB never recovered from what was a rough start after throwing a pick-six before finding his first completion in the game. Even when the Patriots found some traction on the ensuing possession, Chad Ryland missed a 48-yarder, which ended up being the closest New England would come to scoring in the entire game.
“Really just not being ready to go, I guess,” said Jones, who finished 12-of-22 passing with two interceptions and a fumble. “As an offense, you want to go out there, you’ve practiced all week, and you feel confident. So, definitely want to get improvement on that. Not any of these games are not starting off very hot, so just gotta improve.”
The Patriots mustered a season-low 156 yards of total offense against the Saints and failed to reach the red zone. With a rushing attack mustering just 45 yards (2.5 YPC), an offensive line providing unreliable protection (Jones’ pick-six and fumble came under duress) and wideout Ty Montgomery dropping a pass that resulted in a second INT, Jones’ struggles on Sunday shouldn’t be seen as an individual failure.
Patriots center David Andrews — one of the longest tenured players and leaders on the team — also recognizes the overall issues plaguing a Patriots team that hasn’t found the end zone since the second quarter of Week 3.
“I got belief in everybody,” Andrews told reporters after the game. “I got belief. If they’re on this football team, they’re here for a reason, right, including myself, including everybody in that locker room, right? We’re all here for a reason, we’re all here for a purpose. We just gotta go out there, do a better job as a football team overall. We’ve got to do a better job helping him. Everybody’s gotta do a better job.”
After getting outscored 72-3 in the past two games, the Patriots (1-4) are on the road to face the Las Vegas Raiders (1-3) in Week 6.
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