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The New England Patriots traveled across the pond to London to play the Jacksonville Jaguars. Facing a 1-5 team seemed like a winnable game for the Patriots, especially with rookie star Drake Maye now taking the reins at quarterback. However, the team couldn’t get much going in Wembley Stadium and lost 32-16. After a huge upset win against the Bengals in Week 1, New England has lost six straight.
Defense Was Terrible Again
The defense has been the Patriots’ hallmark for the past few seasons. While the offense has struggled post-Tom Brady, the defense could usually be counted on to keep the team in games. That has not been the case the past two games as the New England defense gave up 41 points to the Texans last week and allowed 32 points this week. Giving up 32 points to the 1-5 Jaguars is perhaps worse. Jacksonville has only scored 20 or more points twice this season. A notable gash for the Patriots’ defense in this game was when Jaguars wide receiver Parker Washington scored a 96-yard punt return touchdown with 1:34 to go in the second quarter.
While quarterback Trevor Lawrence was not much of a factor against this Patriots secondary, second-year running back Tank Bigsby made the defense look like Swiss cheese, rushing for 118 yards and two touchdowns. This was also Bigsby’s first game as the starter after Travis Etienne got injured last week. The fact that the second-year back was able to come in and immediately exploit this defense is troubling. The two rushing touchdowns by Bigsby and a failed two-point conversion by the Pats in the fourth quarter were the difference.
Maye Is Not Getting Any Help
Quarterback Drake Maye continues to impress, completing 26 of his 37 passes (70%), throwing for 276 yards and two touchdowns in this game. While Maye threw for more yards than in his debut last week, the team around him is still terrible. It’s no secret that the Patriots have a weak receiving corps. rookie Ja’Lynn Polk, who had fairly high expectations coming into this season as a second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, has been a disappointment so far. Polk had multiple drops in the game against the Texans and dropped his first target in this matchup along with more drops later on. This is ironic as he said to reporters earlier in the week that he has the “best hands in the league.”
The rookie wide receiver did not record a catch in this game. Polk has 10 catches for 78 yards and one touchdown this season so he will need to step it up if he wants to gain any respect, more playing time, or targets from Maye. The Patriots’ running game was the worst part of their offense today though. After coming back from injury, Rhamondre Stevenson had an abysmal game, rushing 7 times for 18 yards and zero touchdowns. New England’s running game as a whole recorded just 15 carries for 38 yards. That’s just 2.5 yards per carry.
Final Thoughts
Top to bottom, this Patriots team is not getting it done right now. Their pass catchers can’t make any valuable contributions. Besides tight end Hunter Henry who recorded 92 yards, no receiver went above 50 yards in this loss. Running back JaMycal Hasty had the next most receiving yards with 49. Along with the weak receiver play, Stevenson has struggled recently. After a strong start to the season where he rushed for a total of 201 yards and two touchdowns in the first two weeks, he has rushed for over 50 yards just twice. Rhamondre will need to be a bigger part of this offense for the team to succeed.
With the Patriots losing to the 1-5 Jaguars, who else can they beat? Games against the Titans and the Cardinals are the only winnable remaining matchups. Unless the team has another shocking win against the Bills like in 2023, the rest of their schedule is looking bleak. The defense is creating a dangerous trend with how they’re playing although they are missing multiple defenders. They include Jabrill Peppers, who is on the commissioner’s exempt list after a domestic violence incident. Defensive tackle Christian Barmore is dealing with blood clots and may not return this season, and linebacker Ja’Whan Bentley was placed on injured reserve on September 25th with a torn pec.
Drake Maye continues to look good and is the only bright spot on this team currently. But it doesn’t matter if the team around him is incompetent. Jerod Mayo and the rest of the coaching staff have to change something real fast, whether it’s different play-calling or coaching the players extra hard in practice, what we saw on the field in London was not acceptable. This team isn’t going to be good this year but hopefully they can turn it around slightly. In my Patriots game predictions article, I predicted the team to win this game, but I guess it’s wrong that I had faith in them. That puts my prediction record at 5-2 so far this season.
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