Can things get any worse for the Patriots? Mac Jones suffered a high ankle sprain in the Patriots loss to the Baltimore Ravens and will now be out for weeks, all but assuring this season is a wash for the Pats.
This was the one thing that could have actually made me feel worse about the Patriots and their offensive coaches, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. It’s one thing for this offence to stumble about and constantly fail to impress with two fools (yup, I’m going there) coaching them, but it is another thing when these ‘coaches’ have now gotten the franchise quarterback hurt on a meaningless drive.
Why did Matt Patricia and Joe Judge keep Mac Jones in the game for that final drive? The game was already over as Lamar Jackson had just added his 5th touchdown of the day to put the Ravens lead up to 11 (37-26) with 3 minutes to go in the 4th Quarter.
How was Mac Jones, who struggled to get the ball down the field for that entire quarter, going to pull off two successive scoring drives in a row? It just doesn’t make sense why they wouldn’t just put Brian Hoyer in the game and run out the clock. THE GAME WAS OVER!
Yet, on that final INT, Ravens DE Calais Cambell broke free from the pass protection (what a surprise) and absolutely crushed Jones, catching the QB’s leg under his body weight and bending it unnaturally to the side.
And, when I saw Jones screaming in pain and hopping over to the sideline on one leg, I knew it was going to be serious.
I just hoped that it wouldn’t be THIS serious as now he will miss vital snaps and game experience that sophomore QBs need in for their progression. Now, both Jones and the Patriots are going to suffer a horrifyingly bad season all because of the blunders of three people.
And those three people being Patricia, Judge, and Bill Belichick.
It’s Patricia and Judge’s fault because they are clueless defensive/special teams coordinators doing a terrible job at coaching the offense.
With these two already having proven that they have little to no game IQ or awareness as they have already driven the Lions and Giants franchises, respectively, into the ground, it’s baffling that they were given full responsibility over the offense.
And that blunder falls solely on the shoulders of Bill Belichick.
In his arrogance, he believed that he was smarted and better than everyone else in the NFL and thought that he could get by with not having a dedicated, trained offensive mastermind calling the plays and creating the offensive gameplans for Jones and the offense.
The NFL doesn’t work that way, Bill. You can’t be arrogant and get away with it, even if you are a 6X Super Bowl winning head coach.
Rival coaches have learned and adapted to the ‘Patriot Way’, and they have supplanted the Patriots as the cream of the crop in the NFL. Do you think Sean McVay, Andy Reid, or Sean McDermott would have used some washed up defensive and special team coordinators to coach their offenses and manage their franchise QBs?
No, of course they wouldn’t. They know better than to just rely on their arrogance and vanity.
Hmph! This is so frustrating as the Patriots, who had an outside shot of making the playoffs this season (in my opinion), will now get smoked by the Packers, Browns, Colts, Lions, and Bears, putting them at 1-7 or 2-6 after eight games.
What’s worse is that Patriots fans can’t even get excited about the 2023 draft as Bill Belichick is going to be the guy drafting some overvalued, backup level player with a Top-10 pick. I hate to say this but it’s seeming ever more likely that the time for Belichick to move on is coming closer and closer.
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