Patriot Talk: Week 10 Rant and Bye Week Expectations?

NE@TEN: 10-34 Loss (7-3 Record)

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong this afternoon went wrong. From injuries, to inconsistency, from defense, to special teams, to dropped passes and missed assignments. Where do I even begin? We can now officially say that the Patriots will not have the number 1 seed in the playoffs, that belongs to Kansas City. If we continue to play like this moving forward, we can kiss a Superbowl ring goodbye. We can’t beat Pittsburgh like this, or Kansas City, or Houston, or even the Chargers. If a trip to the Superbowl is granted, we won’t beat the Rams, Saints, or any other NFC team, quite frankly. It was THAT bad. Let’s (try) and break it down (while holding together emotion, like our defense held Tennessee).

I’m in no mood to break down the stats for the offense, nor the defense, because it’ll only make it look worse. Everyone played poorly. Brady completed 21 of 41 passes for 254 yards and no touchdowns. That’s just 51.2% of his passes being completed. On the brightside, no interceptions! Sony Michel returned from his knee injury to put up a mediocre performance, racking up a whopping 31 yards on 11 carries! Even better, James White, our standout running back, had 1 carry for an astounding negative 5 yards! James Devlin to the rescue, as he had the lone TD, and his second career 6 point play. Thank God for our most effective positional player, the fullback! It’s all thanks to our offensive line, who forced Brady to throw the football away more than 3 times! If that’s not enough for you, they also allowed 3 sacks today, weren’t they just terrific? I know what you’re thinking, and it’s a lot to take in, James White is primarily a pass catching back. My bad, here were his stats: 5 catches, 31 yards. Only his worst game of the year! But it wasn’t all bad, Edelman had 9 receptions for 104 yards… and got injured. Oh, and Gordon had 4 receptions for 81 yards. 44 of those yards came on one play, and after that he wasn’t good. He was also targeted 12 times. Yes, 12 times. He caught 25% of the passes that came his way. He dislocated his finger last week, and his fingers were taped up today, but Brady kept forcing him the ball over and over again, and he either dropped it, or the pass was off due to the fact that Brady was under pressure or was just way off. Back to Brady, he really showed he’s a 41 year old today. Putrid. That word can also describe McDaniels play-calling, forcing Brady to heave one down the field to “flash” Gordon (not ideal Josh, not ideal). The Patriots made Malcolm Butler, the worst ranked Cornerback in the league, look good.

Ah, onto the defense. Let me get comfortable here. The ever-so inconsistent defense, that outside of Stephon Gilmore and Trey Flowers, screams mediocrity. About Gilmore, he let up 5 catches on 7 targets for 90 yards and a TD. Just last week, we were boasting this guy for being “elite”, and then mentally checked out against MARCUS MARIOTA. Just terrible. Arguably Gilmore’s worst game as a Patriot, and it couldn’t have arrived in a more ugly fashion. At least Flowers wasn’t bad. That’s about as much as I could muster about this defense who limited Aaron Rodgers but couldn’t buy a stop against the Titans.

Onto next week, the Patriots have a good matchup. For real this time, I am certain they won’t lose next week. They take on a team I’ve never even heard of called “bye week”. Says on wikipedia they’re undefeated this season, but they’ve also never played. Should be an interesting matchup. On a real note, this team has to bounce back and get it together like we all know they can. Now that I’ve gotten all the anger out of my system, I can now think rationally, and say that this will not happen again. This defense is a wild card, but Gilmore will be much better the rest of the way. Michel and Gronkowski have another week to heal up, and Edelman can get a rest on whatever he sustained today. Belichick will rally the troops, and maybe decide to show up week 12 against the Jets, who just got obliterated by the joke of a team called the Bills (led by Matt freaking Barkley). Josh Gordon’s will hopefully be a non-factor by then as well, ,which means he will catch a lot more than 25%.

Prediction- Gronk is still made of glass and Patterson is not a receiver. Wait, that’s a statement not a prediction, let me try again. 0-0 tie vs Bye Week.