I figured out why Bill Belichick’s post-Miami spin that it was "just two plays" was so hard to listen to.
It’s because one of them -- the strip-six allowed because of blown communication -- was sadly predictable. And not just because the Patriots had a blown communication on the previous drive that resulted in a free rusher sacking Mac Jones.
It was predictable because the same communication breakdowns on the offensive line have been rampant all summer. Free rushers. Missed assignments. Mistakes that have nothing to do with a lack of talent and everything to do with execution.
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So what’s the setup that leads to stuff like that? You look at the player on the scene -- Trent Brown -- and expect more. But you look at the coaching as well. And there’s Matt Patricia, offensive line coach, along with assistant OL coach Billy Yates.
I have absolutely zero doubt that Brown knows what he should have done on the strip sack. He just forgot. Or didn’t see it correctly. Or didn’t have enough communication on that play. And the “why not?” that follows inevitably goes back to the coach who is already spread wafer-thin trying to be the play-caller and pseudo-offensive coordinator.
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Who decided on that cockamamie setup? Bill Belichick. So when a breakdown like that which -- was wholly predictable based on what we’d been seeing all summer (even a dummy like me said OL communication was one of the biggest keys to this one) -- costs the Patriots a game and Belichick acts like it was a lightning bolt that struck from a clear, blue sky, it’ll cause an eyeroll.
The other big play I am more prone to excuse because Kyle Dugger is a net-positive for the team and was a real bright spot Sunday.
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His failure as the safety was that he didn’t play it safe. With 18 seconds left in the half on a fourth-and-7, you stay the hell back and DO NOT let Jaylen Waddle get even with you because once he does, he’s as good as gone.
Dugger coming up into traffic and not giving himself room for error was like a centerfielder diving for a sinking line drive. Keep it in front of you, it’s a single. Dive and it may be an inside-the-park homer. Dugger hopefully learns learn from it. He’s a dynamic player and was otherwise terrific and part of a nice defensive performance.
The arrow’s pointing up with the defense. Roster changes, scheme changes, new players stepping into leadership roles -- all of it is cause for optimism. So good job over there and Belichick deserves credit for that, even though it’s hard to fathom that Tua is 4-0 against the Patriots when he’s clearly the kind of tremendously average quarterback Belichick used to pick his teeth with.
But back to the "why." It’s off-putting for Belichick to be spinning positive and talking about the teams being close in total yards after a loss. Because he sounds like former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette with that "more days in first place than the Yankees" stuff he used to sell at the turn of the century.
Between Sunday’s postgame comments, The Boston Globe interview last week where he boasted the Patriots were "pretty high up there statistically" on defense in 2021 and last month’s excuse-making after a bad performance by his starters in the final preseason game, all of it is so weird and foreign from Bottom Line Bill.
And it's because he's proactively defending decisions he made as football overlord that led to things like a strip sack that ruined the opener. He’s the one who traded Shaq Mason and didn’t re-sign Ted Karras, who switched the offense and didn’t have a succession plan in place for Josh McDaniels, which led to Matt Patricia being asked to wear too many hats (and brand new hats, at that). He’s the one who decided Kendrick Bourne watching almost the entire game is “what’s best for the football team.”
Belichick acts like he had no hand in creating avoidable adversity. But he did. And a really promising second-year quarterback with a roster that has been -- for the most part -- nicely overhauled since 2020 shouldn’t be scoring seven points and lamenting mistakes that cost them 14.
Or hearing the greatest coach of all time give them head-pats for Sunday being "a pretty competitive game from a yardage standpoint."
I understand the mentality behind taking victories where you can find them. But this was a playoff team in 2021. It was striding in the right direction. And the only reason they’re now celebrating baby steps is because the decisions made set them back.