Image courtesy of the Arizona Cardinals
Rock bottom appears to be wherever the Patriots decide it is at this point.
New England hit a new low again on Sunday, getting manhandled by the Cardinals despite the somewhat respectable 30-17 final score. The Patriots were never really in the game and even started pointing the finger postgame when it comes to continued offensive struggles, particularly in the red zone.
Drake Maye was 19-23 for 202 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He, along with Christian Elliss – who left the game in the second half with a head injury – Christian Gonzalez, Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson were pretty much the only guys who showed up regularly in this one. Gonzalez was outstanding against Marvin Harrison Jr. and single handily kept him out of the end zone twice. Both Stevenson (69 yards) and Gibson (33 yards) ran extremely hard.
The tackling was brutal again on defense and the Cardinals racked up 395 yards of offense. Arizona also went an absurd 10-15 on third down while the Patriots were 0-6. James Conner rumbled over defenders on his way to 110 yards on 16 carries with two touchdowns.
There was even a well-timed camera shot from CBS of a disgusted Robert Kraft and son Jonathan when they were pretty clearly discussing the play calling on offense.
To quote the Marty Huggins character in the movie The Campaign: “it’s a mess.”
“At the end of the day, we are what we put on film,” said Jerod Mayo. “We are what our record is…I told the guys in there and it’s the same thing I’m telling all of you, we all have to take accountability, what does that look like? Accountability isn’t really the ‘my bad.’ The accountability isn’t coming in saying things like ‘oh, if we would have just did X, Y and Z…’ no, we’ve been talking about that all year.
“Accountability is going out and correcting it and that’s about action. It’s not about just sitting there saying ‘my fault, my fault,’ you have enough of those and that’s what you have out there on the field today.”
The most glaring decision and therefore story postgame happened with just over and then under five minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Pats trailed 16-3 with 5:45 on the clock and had just gotten a nine-yard run from Gibson down to the Cardinals’ four. Facing 3rd-&-1, Gibson was stuffed. On 4th-&-1, New England got the same result on a handoff to Stevenson, turning the ball over on downs with 4:54 left.
“It was disappointing,” Mayo said when asked if he had a conversation with Van Pelt. “I said this…I think the first week of the season, there comes a point in time with a football team where everyone in the stadium knows what the play is and we’ve just got to move bodies. We weren’t able to do that.”
When specifically asked about the option of Maye running it, Mayo replied with “you said it, not me.” Mayo was then asked a follow up as to whether or not it’s his final call in those short yardage situations.
“It’s always my decision,” he added. “The quarterback obviously has a good pair of legs and definitely a good job of running the ball, we just chose not to do it there.”
Maye was also pretty blunt about whether he would be comfortable running it there.
“Yeah, that’s a good point. I was a good quarterback sneaker in college,” he said. “I’m a big dude. I’m heavier than people think. So, I think maybe a conversation to be had. I think it’s tough to stop a 6’5″ dude for one yard. So, I also think (Rhamondre’s) pretty good at getting one yard as well. Just unfortunate that it happened, but definitely there’s a time and a place for it.”
From that point on, Arizona punted, but Maye had a ball go off of Kayshon Boutte’s hands at the Arizona 45 a few plays later. A one-yard TD run for Conner with just over five minutes left in the game soon made it 23-3. A dime from Maye down the right sideline to Bourne set up a pretty little shovel pass touchdown to Douglas to cut it to 23-10. Arizona had a five-minute answer as the defense continued to get pushed around and whiff on tackles. Eventually, Conner punched it in again from a yard out.
New England got one more rushing TD from Maye to cap a six-play drive, but the Pats otherwise went out with a whimper.
Early on, the disastrous start took off with a missed Joey Slye field goal after the Pats won the toss and chose to receive. The Patriots trailed 13-3 at the half and were out-gained 204-89 despite Maye starting 10-10.
At 3-11 with two matchups against Buffalo and a meeting with Justin Herbert and the Chargers – which could be in a national television window on Saturday December 28th – remaining in the season, it’s hard to imagine things getting any worse at this point.
But, they probably will. It’s hard to acknowledge, but the Patriots are now what we all used to laugh at for 25 years and rock bottom is now the standard.