The Patriots seem to be at another inflection point.<\/p>\n
Earlier this season, head coach Jerod Mayo said his team played soft in an overseas loss to the Jaguars. The comment lit a fire under his team, and they took down the Jets at home the following week.<\/p>\n
This time, New England suffered another ugly defeat in Miami\u2019s house of horrors. The Dolphins dropped 24 points in the second quarter alone, essentially dooming any chance of a Patriots victory by halftime. Players insist they were prepared before the game, and Mayo felt his team was locked in during their Saturday meetings. But both Mayo and his players acknowledged a lack of focus during the matchup.<\/p>\n
In his Monday presser, the head coach confirmed personnel changes could be on the horizon due to some particularly poor efforts. This isn\u2019t new for the new-look Patriots, who have already cut linebacker Raekwon McMillan, cornerback Marco Wilson, and center Nick Leverett after strings of bad games.<\/p>\n
Whether we ultimately see full-on benchings or simply reduced roles, here are the players who could be on the hot seat for New England this week against the Colts.<\/p>\n
KYLE DUGGER<\/strong><\/p>\n New England gave up seven completions of 15+ yards and four passing touchdowns for the second week in a row on Sunday. Tua Tagovailoa\u2019s 128.9 passer rating was also the 2nd-highest allowed by the defense this season, eclipsed only by Matthew Stafford\u2019s 146.6 rating in Week 11.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it was very disappointing, especially when you play an offense that is very similar to the offenses we played earlier,\u201d Mayo told reporters on Monday. \u201cThen once you get into the Red Area, communication has to be on point. The field\u2019s getting shorter, there\u2019s less space, there\u2019s more movement, and it was definitely disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n One player never loses a game, but Kyle Dugger had by far the roughest outing among Patriots defenders. The team captain missed three straight games due to an ankle injury, and he\u2019s struggled since returning against LA. After missing three tackles in Week 11, Dugger took another massive step back against the Dolphins.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say we just weren\u2019t communicating the right way,\u201d Dugger said after the game. \u201cThat\u2019s basically just beating ourselves, it doesn\u2019t have anything to do with them. They are who they are and they are talented, but a lot of the issues in the first half was us beating ourselves and miscommunicating, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Dugger did seem to be affected by his injury on Jaylen Waddle\u2019s long touchdown, but most of the safety\u2019s mistakes seemed like mental errors.<\/p>\n