It may need been the closest the Patriots would get to a “must-win” sport in a season the place wins had been all the time going to be few and much between.
Taking over a fellow basement-dweller, the Patriots had an opportunity at a uncommon victory in opposition to the Jaguars in London. In the event that they misplaced it, they’d be an extended and sluggish slog to the top of what would really feel like a meaningless season.
The stress was on. (As a lot stress as there could possibly be, not less than, in a sport between one-win groups.) And the Patriots folded, getting embarrassed on an international stage, 32-16.
This is what we discovered…
Patriots have a toughness downside
Toughness in New England, from a soccer standpoint, has lengthy been outlined by a group’s capacity to A) run the ball, B) cease the run and C) cowl kicks.
That is how Invoice Belichick outlined it throughout his tenure, and it is how Jerod Mayo defines it now.
They went 0-for-3 in that regard in opposition to Jacksonville. The whiffs had been so apparent that Mayo pointed to those three elements — and his group’s no-show when it got here to all three — virtually as quickly as he positioned himself behind a microphone after the sport.
“We’re a comfortable soccer group throughout the board,” Mayo defined. “What makes a soccer group? That is having the ability to run the ball, that is having the ability to cease the run, and that is having the ability to cowl kicks. And we did none of these at the moment. They managed the ball for a lot of the day… Again to the drafting board.”
Jerod Mayo reacts to the Patriots’ 32-16 loss to the Jaguars in London. New England took an early 10-0 lead earlier than permitting 25 unanswered factors on their technique to their sixth straight loss.
The Patriots allowed the Jags to common 4.4 yards per keep on Sunday, totaling 171 yards on the bottom in a efficiency that included 17 consecutive runs at one level. They knew the Patriots could not get stops on the bottom, and so they continued to hammer downhill run calls as they drained the clock via the second half.
And if that wasn’t deflating sufficient, the Patriots picked up simply 20 yards on 12 working again carries for a mean of 1.7 per try. Additionally they received gashed within the kicking sport, permitting a 96-yard punt return for a touchdown on the finish of the second quarter.
The query now’s how the Patriots reply to that efficiency. Can they repair their points with scheme modifications or play-calling modifications? Do they should re-shuffle their personnel? Or is it one thing extra intangible — perspective, focus, power — that wants an overhaul?
A sport like that one, when you’re bullied by one of the worst teams in football, left the Patriots with extra questions than solutions within the quick aftermath.
Gamers appear to be supporting Mayo’s take
Patriots gamers, in the meantime, appeared to agree with their head coach after the actual fact.
“He stored it actual with us,” Kyle Dugger stated. “And I am glad he did.”
“Coach Mayo’s not going to return in right here and say one thing he hasn’t stated to us within the locker room,” Drake Maye stated. “We’re not powerful… I feel he does an amazing job of relaying the message to us. And the fellows know… We gotta discover one thing. What we’re doing is not sufficient. Gotta man up.”
Drake Maye reacts to Jerod Mayo calling the Patriots a “comfortable group” after falling to 1-6 this season with a loss to the Jaguars in London.
“He stated it nicely. We have gotta look within the mirror and perceive what he is saying,” Jahlani Tavai stated. “And if we’re OK with being comfortable, then some folks will fall off and the remainder of us who wish to show that mistaken will step up and ensure that would not occur.”
“Jerod simply stated everyone gotta examine their ego once they are available in,” Daniel Ekuale told the Boston Herald. “And I agree with him. I really feel like a number of guys suppose too extremely of themselves and should examine their ego and are available in and simply play as a group. I really feel like if we play as a group no one can cease us. But when we go on the market and do our personal factor, and play outdoors of the scheme, that is after we get beat.”
There could also be gamers within the locker room, in fact, who do not love what the top coach needed to say. Significantly if they’ve qualms with the positions they had been being put in by their coaches of their newest loss.
However the feedback from Tavai and Ekuale appear to counsel there’s a degree of division within the locker room between these making an attempt to do the suitable factor and people making an attempt to do their very own factor. That in and of itself supplies one other problem for Mayo and his workers. This group is not ok or buttoned-up sufficient to beat any degree of dysfunction behind the scenes.
Doug Pederson ought to thank the Patriots
Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson regarded like he may be about 10 minutes away from being informed by group proprietor Shad Khan that he was being relieved of his duties.
The Patriots received out to the roaring begin they’d been hoping for, using a game-opening landing drive to a 10-0 lead that they carried into the second quarter. Then the wheels got here off.
After an eight-play landing drive, the Jags pressured a four-and-out and drove the sector rapidly because of a 58-yard completion from Trevor Lawrence to Brian Thomas Jr. All of the sudden, they’d the lead.
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4 performs later, after one other stalled Patriots drive that noticed Hunter Henry soar offsides on third down, they notched their 96-yard punt-return rating. After one other penalty on the additional level — this one a impartial zone infraction name on Tavai — the Jags opted to go for 2 and succeeded.
As a substitute of Pederson dropping his job at halftime, he was the proud proprietor of a 22-10 lead. New England’s butchering of its double-digit benefit led to the highest-scoring quarter in seven years for Jacksonville.
The run was not established
Whereas Alex Van Pelt’s opening script was way more profitable than his first sequence of play calls in Week 6 in opposition to Houston, the place the sport went from there was a head-scratcher.
To start out the sport, the Patriots dialed up 10 move performs for Maye in opposition to simply two runs. Eleven performs and 68 yards later, JaMycal Hasty was in the long run zone, taking a brief blitz-beating throw from Maye for 16 yards and a rating.
From there, the Patriots ran it eight extra occasions within the first half. The end result? A lack of two yards. Dealing with a double-digit deficit within the second half, the Patriots tried simply 5 extra speeding makes an attempt for the rest of the sport.
Nonetheless, the harm from the failed runs within the first half needed to have stung. After a Joey Slye subject aim on their second drive of the sport, the Patriots ran it 3 times on first down within the second quarter — for -1, 1 and -4 yards — serving to result in three straight punts.
Handed Jacksonville the sport
Whereas Maye wasn’t the problem (extra on him in a minute), the Patriots nonetheless had their points within the passing sport. Ja’Lynn Polk, whose issues catching the football have plagued him now for weeks, had three potential completions bounce off his arms. Kendrick Bourne additionally had a crossing route hit his mitts and fall incomplete, turning a possible landing drive right into a Slye field-goal try.
The Patriots had been restricted to a level by DeMario Douglas’ illness, which took their prime playmaker on the place off the sector. However it’s value questioning why Kayshon Boutte did not see extra targets on this one. He completed with two, catching a fade down the sideline for 33 yards and drawing a nine-yard pass-interference penalty.
Polk, in the meantime, had three targets that yielded no catches, and he slipped on the Wembley Stadium turf and fell on a possible two-point conversion.
The child regarded good once more
Maye flashed his high-end potential in his first begin in opposition to the Texans, however his newest efficiency may’ve been higher. There have been nonetheless the indicators of his eye-opening bodily expertise — he scrambled for 15 yards, he discovered Hunter Henry for a 12-yard pickup in a scramble-drill state of affairs, he dropped one within the bucket to Boutte, and he fired a fastball up the seam to Ok.J. Osborn for his second landing move of the day — however his misses gave the impression to be diminished, too.
He wasn’t excellent. Maye practically threw two picks; one was dropped by the Jaguars, and one was damaged up properly by Osborn. However the rookie completed with no turnover, and he made a heady play to get the ball to Hasty for a landing when staring down an unblocked rusher in the course of the sport’s opening drive.
Maye completed the sport 26-for-37 for 276 yards and two touchdowns, giving him a ranking of 109.7, which might’ve seen a bump had his teammates been extra sure-handed.
Gonzalez regarded knackered
Was Christian Gonzalez drained after the transatlantic flight and the early kickoff time? Even when he wasn’t, he definitely had his arms full whereas monitoring rookie first-rounder Brian Thomas Jr.
We thought it might go this way.
This regarded prefer it was going to be a difficult week for Gonzalez, regardless of Thomas not having fairly as huge a reputation as another receivers Gonzalez has shut down in his first couple of seasons. And it was.
Thomas ran away from Gonzalez briefly on his 58-yard catch within the second quarter. Whereas Gonzalez did a superb job to get again onto Thomas’ hip — getting his hand on the soccer as Thomas reeled it in — the Jags nonetheless ended up with an explosive acquire to place them in place to attain.
Gonzalez was additionally on Thomas when Lawrence discovered the LSU product for a two-point conversion quickly thereafter.
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