The positivity surrounding the New England Patriots following their win over the New York Jets in Week 8 lasted only seven days. The team of first-year head coach Jerod Mayo, after all, failed to keep the momentum going in rather underwhelming fashion.
Squaring off against a one-win Tennessee Titans team in Week 9, the Patriots came out flat. Their offense struggled to consistently move the ball once again, while the defense ran out of steam late. The result was a 20-17 overtime loss to drop New England to 2-7 on the year.
Naming one particular reason for the defeat is not possible; the Patriots’ loss was multi-faceted between offense, defense, special teams, and — once again — coaching. The latter in particular finds itself under scrutiny again after some curious decisions.
More changes along the offensive line
The Patriots appeared to have found an offensive line grouping worth building around last week, but they decided to switch things up yet again. While the left side of the line consisting of tackle Vederian Lowe, guard Michael Jordan and center Ben Brown remained intact, the Patriots inserted rookie Layden Robinson at right guard and kicked Michael Onwenu back out to right tackle again.
Whatever the team’s intentions with that group, it did not perform as desired early on. Robinson in particular proved to be a weak link yet again — a continuation from earlier in his rookie season. As a consequence, a change was made in the late second quarter: Onwenu moved back inside again, with Demontrey Jacobs returning to the right tackle spot.
“Mike ended up kicking into guard,” explained Jerod Mayo after the game. “We felt like, we needed to match up with one of their best players. Again, when you watch the film, you’re going to see the interior of the pocket at times was soft. We thought putting our best player in there was the best thing to do for the team.”
The new group did not prove to be a particular improvement, but the initial decision to start a Robinson-Onwenu pairing over Onwenu-Jacobs has to be questioned. The Patriots knew the Jeffery Simmons-led Titans defensive line would be a problem, so why make the change in the first place?
End-of-half management
The Patriots’ young coaching staff learning on the fly is nothing new, but there are definitive areas where it has room for improvement. Managing the end of the first half is one of them, and it was again an issue on Sunday.
Down 7-3 with 1:48 left in the second quarter, they set up shop at their own 15-yard line following a Tennessee punt. The Patriots came out swinging, with two straight Drake Maye passes moving them to their own 38 with 1:38 to go and three timeouts left. The team could have played all its cards at that point, but it decided to trust its running game on back-to-back plays.
New England ran the ball on 2nd-and-1, gaining no yards. On 3rd-and-1, Rhamondre Stevenson lost a yard, forcing the Patriots to punt the ball to the Titans with a chance to add to their lead.
They did not, but questions still remain. Why Alex Van Pelt decided two straight runs would be the way to go after the Patriots had a) looked solid throwing the ball, and b) gained a total of 8 yards on five non-scramble carries up until that point is anybody’s guess.
Not going for 2 at the end
The Patriots moved within an extra point of the Titans on the final play of regulation, a highlight-reel scramble drill touchdown from Drake Maye to Rhamondre Stevenson. At that point, the team seemingly had its opponent on the ropes — to a point where a two-point conversion attempt to end the game right there appeared to make sense.
Ultimately, Jerod Mayo decided against that move. Hindsight is, of course, 20/20; had the Patriots won in overtime there hardly would be any debate about kicking the extra point after the late touchdown.
Still, a 2-6 team putting its trust in its best offensive player once again might not have been the worst idea either. Of course, Drake Maye himself also might not have been as prepared as he would have hoped.
“Shoot, I was just trying to catch my breath,” he said during his post-game press conference. “I couldn’t even think about it. I think just looking back on it, it’s easy to say — we’re out there that long, on such a high-intensity drive, I think it’s hard to go for 2. I think it’s easy to look back and say that now. Our defense is fresh and coming out in overtime trying to get a stop. They did a good job of running the football today.”
At the end of the day, the decision not to go for the conversion might not be aggressive but it is certainly justifiable given the circumstances. The same cannot be said for what happened in overtime.
Driving into the wind
Speaking about his game-ending interception after the game, Drake Maye dropped an interesting nugget: the Patriots were driving into the wind in the extra period.
“I think we’re throwing into the wind, got to put some more on it,” he said. “Just a dumb decision; something you’d like to have back.”
Why does the bit about the wind catch the eye? Because it is something the Patriots had control over.
At the coin toss to start overtime, the victorious Titans decided that they would want the football first; this makes sense given that a touchdown would have won them the game on the first drive. In turn, Patriots captain Joe Cardona was left to decide the direction each team would drive into.
In that scenario, going with instead of against the wind seems like the sensible approach: doing so might increase a kicker’s range and prevent long pass attempts from hitting the wall as well, like Maye mentioned. For reasons unknown, however, the Patriots seemingly did not consider the wind to be a factor at the start of the extra period.
