For the love of all that is good in this world, Robert Kraft, FIRE MATT PATRICIA AND JOE JUDGE!!!! The Patriots and their pathetic offense once again muffed another game as they turned the ball over on the last play to lose 30-24 to the Raiders.
I wasn’t even going to talk about this game until the final 25 seconds happened.
Instead, I was going write all about the Bucs embarrassing 17-point choke job against the Bengals that all but ensured the Bucs are going to finish with a losing record for the trillionth time in the franchise’s history, which would also happen to be the first time in Brady’s storied career.
But no. No, my good old New England Patriots had to not only give up a last-minute TD pass from midfield to let the Raiders back into the game at 24, but then also had to ruin my Sunday by running the most BONEHEADED PLAY in NFL history.
The Miami Mircale, the Minneapolis Miracle, the Butt Fumble, The Immaculate Reception (if you’re a Raiders fan; oh, and happy anniversary to that game), that Colts punt attempt (you know the one) back in 2015 against the Pats, Jimmy Garoppolo and Dan Orlovsky’s safeties, Jim Marshall running into his own endzone, and Malcom Butler’s INT against the Seahawks in the Super Bowl all have nothing on this play. It’s that bad.
You know, I would talk about this game as a whole, but there’s nothing to say other than the Patriots defense played well (mostly), the Raiders were lucky to play against a really bad Patriots offense, and the Pats offense is WORSE THAN AN XFL TEAM. And that’s an insult to the XFL.
Okay, back to the play. With literally 3 seconds left, the Patriots offense found themselves in a 3rd and 10 situation at midfield.
The offense, which was abysmal once again as it only had 112 passing yards, 2/13 on 3rd down, scored a grand total of 1 offense TD, and finished with just above 300 total yards (thanks to Rhamondre Stevenson’s monster 172 yards, 1 TD on 17 carries), had somehow managed to get the ball to their own 45-yard line after the Raiders scored a controversial (Cole’s toe was out of bounds) game-tying TD the drive prior.
Now, if Matt Patricia and Joe Judge’s brains had the collective IQ of 10, they would have done the smart thing and had Mac Jones (13/31, 112 yards; or, in other words, pathetic) take a knee and send the game to overtime. You know, what every other NFL OC would have called.
But not Dumb and Dumber. Nope, those two believed it was a good idea to have a draw run with Stevenson right down the middle as all of the Raiders defenders backed off the line of scrimmage and protected the endzone.
“Wait, didn’t you just say that Stevenson was a monster out there with 172 rushing yards and 1 TD? Clearly, giving him the ball was the best thing Dumb and Dumber did today,” you may be wondering if you haven’t watched the game or saw the highlights.
And that would be correct…with one major caveat. THEY DIDN’T KEEP THE BALL IN STEVENSON’S HANDS!
I can’t even believe I’m writing this, but the play was to have Stevenson run as far as he could before getting surrounded by the Raiders, then he would lateral the ball back to one of the receivers, and then they would lateral the ball back to Mac Jones, and then he would do something to score. That makes ZERO sense, right?
Well, it was even worse on paper as Stevenson got the ball, ran as far as he could, and then lateralled it to Jakobi Meyers, who, in return, rushed for around for a bit before lateraling back to Jones. Going to plan so far, right? NOPE! The only problem was that he lateralled it back to CHANDLER JONES, the Raider defensive lineman, as all four Raiders lineman were still hanging around Mac Jones behind the line of scrimmage.
So, in a moment that must have completely shocked the former Patriots defender, CHANDLER Jones intercepted the lateral, stiffed armed MAC Jones to hell, and then returned the ball 50 yards to win the game 30-24 for the Raiders, keeping them alive in the AFC Wild Card hunt and dooming the Patriots chances.
I’ve never seen such incompetence from an NFL offense in any era of the game. Even the 1970’s Tampa Bay Bucs teams knew that you don’t lateral the ball to the opposing team at the end of the game when you’re both tied and set for overtime.
What Patricia, Judge, and Belichick have done to this playoff-caliber team (yes, the defense alone has been good enough to earn them a playoff spot) is nothing short of sabotage and they should be tried for treason against the Patriots organization by Robert Kraft. Patricia and Judge should be instantly axed from their jobs tonight for this blunder and blackballed out of the NFL for being the worst ever coaches.
If Rhamondre Stevenson wasn’t such a great running back and the interior of the O-Line (Trent Brown isn’t getting a pass for his play anymore) wasn’t as good as it is, then this Pats offense would have gone done as the worst unit to have ever stepped onto a football field.
It’s an actual miracle there hasn’t been a revolt in that Patriots locker room against Patricia, Judge, and Belichick.
As for Belichick, his time as the general manager and authoritarian leader of the Pats is OVER. Even when the Patriots were winning Super Bowls and forming the greatest dynasty the NFL has ever seen, the man couldn’t scout talent to save his life. There are some many cases of the Patriots drafting busts over literal All-Pro and Pro-Bowl caliber players.
And he’s only gotten worse as the Patriots regressed into the abomination they are today.
Robert Kraft better find his cohones and relieve Belichick of his general manager duties once this season is over, regardless of if the HC threatens to retire if he loses his privileges. As we have seen with countless other teams in the NFL, such as the 49ers, the Jets, the Eagles, the Cowboys, the Chiefs, and the Broncos (despite their poor record), there are other great defensive minded coaches in this league.
And they are all substantially younger than Belichick.
I love Belichick as much as the next Pats fan and will respect what he’s done for the organization forever, but his time is up. He’s essentially the Arsene Wenger (the former great Arsenal manager/coach from 1996-2018) of the NFL. A great head coach that failed to adapt to the modern way of scouting, analyzing players, and running franchises, resulting in his teams continually underperforming from the lofty standards of the past.
Unless Belichick is okay with taking a back-seat role and just coaching the team, then I don’t see how he will stick around for another year with the Pats (7-7) as they are looking at another year outside the playoffs since Brady left.
All great things must come to an end, and Bill Belichick’s time as the Patriots head coach is no exception.
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