The Patriots not only suffered a 37-26 loss to the Ravens today, they also lost quarterback Mac Jones with an ankle injury late in the fourth quarter. Needless to say? It was a disaster of a home opener.
Here are seven points from today’s game.
1. Mac’s injury: Jones appeared to hurt his ankle late in the game and was helped to the locker room. X-Rays were negative but according to sources, Jones has a high ankle sprain and is scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow.
2. Turnovers: Story of the game. The Patriots turned the ball over four times and it cost them the game. Jones in particular was careless with the ball. He threw three interceptions. Two of them were on forced balls.
3. Parker breaks out: DeVante Parker had a break out game catching 5 passes for 156 yards. He averaged 31.2 yards per catch. It will be interesting to see if he can continue to play like he did today. Jakobi Meyers being out created more of a target share but Parker can also be a streaky player.
4. Jackson goes off: Lamar Jackson had a monster game. He threw four touchdown passes, rushed for another and had 107 yards rushing. He played at an MVP level and the Patriots had no answers for him defensively.
5. Defense struggled: The defense was really good against Miami and Pittsburgh but they struggled yesterday. The offense put them in bad field position with the turnovers but when the team needed them to make a stop in a key situation yesterday, they didn’t get it done.
6. Stevenson shines: Rhamondre Stevenson led the team in carries and rushing yards and scored a touchdown. He ran the ball effectively and made some good cuts for a back his size. He has morphed into the lead back and at the very least will split carries with Damien Harris moving forward.
7. Out coached: It is not often we say that Bill Belichick was “out coached” but he was yesterday. He admitted as much yesterday in the post game presser.
“The Ravens made more plays than we did. They’re a good team. They were able to take advantage of our mistakes. We weren’t able to capitalize on I would say probably as many of theirs, so. All the way across the board, just a few plays here and there that we need to play better, need to coach better, need to do better. But, you know, certainly made too many mistakes today to be able to win.”
He is right in saying that the Ravens made more plays and capitalized on turnovers but the coaches needs to do a better job of adjusting, especially on defense. That is the strength of this team. They need to be better.