Photo – Dolphins Wire/USA Today

As if a fourth straight loss to Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa wasn’t bad enough, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick may be faced with a sudden hole at quarterback.

Mac Jones suffered a back injury in the 20-7 season opening loss to Miami. Jones had X-rays after the game that came back negative, but it’s just another layer that now gets added to the misery cake the team has to eat for the next 24 hours before preparing to play a Steelers defense that forced five turnovers in an overtime win against the defending AFC champion Bengals on Sunday.

Jones threw for 213 yards on 21-of-30 passing with an interception and fumble that turned into a touchdown. Jones was not available to the media after the game after originally being scheduled to speak. The offense had just 271 yards of net offense and Kendrick Bourne – arguably the team’s best receiver – was benched for all but a few snaps. Following the game, Belichick said it was not for disciplinary reasons.

Right now, the entire operation feels more like the one George Costanza dealt with at Kruger Industrial Smoothing than it does a well established NFL franchise.

“Well, it’s obviously a disappointing start here,” said Belichick. “It was really a pretty even game. Two big plays, 14 points, really skewed the game. Moved the ball. We couldn’t get enough points, and we got into their territory. We got in their six, seven times, whatever it was, and it was 7 points. So we’ve got to do a better job of finishing. Defensively, gave up a big play there at the end of the half and a couple field goals, but still need to play better on third down… not enough good things to win. A couple bad plays really hurt us. Need to finish some drives better on both sides of the ball and make an impact. Just build on this and go back to work.”

As for the curious Bourne benching when guys struggled to get open all day?

“We did what we thought was best,” he said.

The Pats offense took the field first and looked efficient, running a lot of the older concepts. Jones led the team on a balanced drive spanning eight plays and 53 yards, but that ended when Jevon Holland picked off a fade in the end zone intended for DeVante Parker.

Miami settled for a 49-yard field goal on the ensuing drive. After trading punts, New England took over at its own 15. After an incomplete pass, Jones was strip sacked by Brandon Jones, who flew in on the backside untouched thanks to some miscommunication between Mac and Trent Brown. Melvin Ingram recovered the fumble in the end zone for a 10-0 lead with 7:34 left in the half.

The Pats punted the ball away with 4:05 remaining in the quarter, pinning the Dolphins at the eight. Tua led a 10-play drive that seemingly stalled out with a 4th-&-7 situation at the New England 42, but with 24 seconds left Tagovailoa hit Jaylen Waddle on a quick slant he and did the rest, sprinting to the end zone for a dagger TD to make it 17-0 at the half.

The defense forced a quick punt to open up the second half and Jones finally found a little bit of rhythm. The Pats marched 92-yards in 15 plays, capping off the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Montgomery to make it a 17-7 game midway through the third.

“What was it, 10-0 and you give up that play, even if we just make the tackle, we go 13-0 into the half, it’s way better” said Devin McCourty of the crucial touchdown for Miami just before the half. “I think…giving up the touchdown and coming back out on defense, I thought we did a good job to come back in the second half after giving up that play the first drive to get a three-and-out and get our offense back on the field. Again, it’s just too much to overcome. I think within the game, like that play, I wasn’t sitting there like, man, we lost now, but it definitely, when you have a play like that where it’s just like — I don’t want to say easy, but a play where they make a good throw and catch and just tackle him right here, it definitely, I think it hurt us, but it didn’t knock us out of the game.”

The Dolphins chewed up just about all of the remaining 4:44 left in the third quarter with an 8-play, 50-yard drive that ended with a 49-yard field goal to make it 20-7.

The offense could only muster a punt, a turnover on downs and a fumble by Nelson Agholor on its three final possessions of the fourth quarter, despite the defense doing its best to give Jones and the rest of the offense multiple opportunities to make it a game. Defensively, things were pretty good, aside from a rib injury forcing Adrian Phillips out of the game. The Dolphins only had 65 yards rushing and made Tua look mediocre at best.

So, now what? The offensive line still needs work, Mac may not be 100% and the Steelers will always have a “thing” for the Patriots, which means Pittsburgh will be a miserable place to play next Sunday, especially when the sharks in the NFL water now smell blood around this Patriots franchise for the first time in years.

“I think everybody is a work in progress until the end,” said Matt Judon. “It ain’t over until it’s over. We’re not tucking, and we’re not ducking no smoke. We’re going to go back out there and work. We’ve just got to work harder, honestly. We want to win games. We want to be a good football team. We want to have a chance to compete. So with that, a work in progress. It ain’t over till it’s over. We’ve got 16 more of these, and we’re not going to hang our hat on the first one.”