FOXBORO, Mass. — The roster will not be nice and the product on the sphere is ugly. There is not any doubt about it. Accidents have piled up for the New England Patriots, too. These are unimaginable to miss regardless of the very fact each crew is compelled to cope with them.
However the Patriots’ loss to the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on Sunday proved greater than that.
New England’s offense was gifted advantageous subject place after an interception and blocked punt. The Patriots turned these into simply seven factors. In the meantime, the Dolphins had a punt blocked, a botched snap on a subject purpose halt an try and a separate dangerous snap which took them out of subject purpose vary.
It is troublesome to consider the Patriots misplaced 15-10 to third-string quarterback Tyler Huntley regardless of all that, however it’s true.
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Of all of the regarding issues that came about for the Patriots, although, Jerod Mayo’s teaching employees may sit atop the checklist. And never simply because the group took 12 penalties for 105 yards. The offensive plan — New England threw the ball 34 occasions in comparison with 19 runs — felt backwards.
“Look, there are positively issues that I’ve to do higher as a head coach,” Mayo mentioned. “I’d say the employees, they’re nonetheless – they’re getting on the identical web page, and as soon as once more, like I mentioned earlier, it is about getting higher each week, and that goes to communication between the employees after which clearly I’ve to do a greater job as a complete.”
Regardless of all the pieces that came about in the course of the preliminary 58 minutes, the Patriots had a legit likelihood to win in crunch time. They superior to Miami’s 12-yard line with 1:08 left in regulation. New England did so following an 11-yard rush by Rhamondre Stevenson and 10-yard run by Antonio Gibson.
These two runs helped the Patriots enhance their common to 7.9 yards (!) per rush within the sport. It was a franchise document, per the Boston Herald’s Doug Kyed.
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Alex Van Pelt’s offense then proceeded to throw the ball on 4 consecutive performs, together with an overturned landing by Ja’Lynn Polk. The Patriots wanted 12 yards and had all three timeouts. Why not give the ball to the operating backs, particularly contemplating the well-documented struggles of the Patriots’ offensive line? New England concluded with 4.1 yards per go try — their common on the bottom almost double.
It was perplexing at finest and game-costing at worst.
“There have been a bunch of conversations about that,” Mayo mentioned in reference to operating. “We ended up throwing the ball. That is what we determined to do, and in the end it is my resolution. I’d say we averaged over seven yards a carry, I am undecided, in order that positively was a part of the dialogue. We simply did not end it up.”
It wasn’t the one such resolution, although. How concerning the finish of the primary half?
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The Patriots began a drive from their very own 5-yard line with 1:43 left within the first half. Stevenson took a handoff for eight yards on the primary snap, which helped New England advance it to its 13-yard line run the clock all the way down to 1:09 left. Somewhat than run the clock out, although, the Patriots threw two consecutive incompletions. New England punted on fourth-and-2 with 55 seconds left.
The Dolphins have been in prime place so as to add factors and lower their deficit. That they had first-and-10 on the New England 28-yard line with 42 seconds earlier than the half. A extra competent offense would have tacked on just a few extra yards and transformed at the very least a subject purpose. Miami threw three incompletions and did not execute a particular groups snap.
Fortuitously for Mayo and firm, they did not quit any factors like they did throughout a virtually similar state of affairs towards the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2. That was the excellent news. The dangerous information, although, is that Mayo, who will get on error-repeaters, seemingly did not be taught from his personal mistake.
In a season that is going nowhere quick, the Patriots want indicators of optimism for the longer term. To date, Mayo and his teaching employees haven’t been amongst them.
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