FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There are losses and then there are losses that leave a mark on a team. Monday night’s 41-14 embarrassment in Kansas City, which saw the New England Patriots fall to 2-2 on the young season, was one of the latter.
New England was dominated on both sides of the ball — both on the ground and through the air — in a loss that left a mark on the visitors. It comes on the heels of a hold-on-for-dear-life home win over the Oakland Raiders, a team that just fired its head coach.
Make no mistake, projected as near locks to return to an AFC title game rematch with the Denver Broncos by most prognosticators, coach Bill Belichick’s team is a middling squad searching for an identity after getting its teeth kicked in by coach Andy Reid’s Chiefs.
“We just didn’t do a good enough job really in any area; no consistency offensively, didn’t do a good job defensively against the running game, didn’t convert on third down, in the red area. Offensively, we weren’t good on third down,” Belichick said after watching the film of a game in which his team was down 17-0 at halftime and allowed 303 yards of offense through the first 30 minutes.
“We just dug ourselves a hole and then a good pass rush team, like the Chiefs are, we put ourselves in a bad situation in the second half and they capitalized on it. It’s pretty much what we talked about last night. I wouldn’t say a whole lot has changed after watching the film this morning.”
Things won’t get any easier for New England as they have a short week to prepare for a Sunday night matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals in Foxborough. The Bengals are coming to town with a 3-0 record after a bye and playing maybe as consistent football as any team in the league.
But that’s what’s next, right now, the Patriots are reeling from a dismal performance that was arguably the worst game most in the team’s locker room can remember.
“I think the biggest thing we’re going to take away from this game is we got to play a lot better if we’re going be a good team and win games,” safety Devin McCourty said. “I’m disappointed as this is the most embarrassing game I’ve ever been a part of. We lost in every aspect. We’ll definitely learn something from this and learn a good amount. But now, it’s all about fighting and getting better and trying to play better next week.”
There is certainly not going to be much finger-pointing to worry about, either. Maybe the one good thing about a team playing putrid football across the board is that everyone lives in a glass house and therefore will keep their stones to themselves.
The offensive line has struggled. The receivers have been subpar. Quarterback Tom Brady has missed plenty of throws on the way to a 79.1 rating through four games.
Defensively, the front has been pushed around and the pass defense, though statistically impressive, hasn’t exactly been a point of fear for opposing passers, certainly not Kansas City’s Alex Smith, who completed 20 of 26 throws for three touchdowns on the way to a 144.4 rating.
“We took one on the chin,” defensive tackle Vince Wilfolk said. “They beat us like we stole something. It’s pretty bad, but we have to correct mistakes and move forward. This is a short week. We will watch the film and hopefully we never have this feeling again because it sucks to have this feeling. We knew it was going to be a tough game. They basically destroyed us.”
And that’s not something that too many teams have been able to do in the Belichick era in New England.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski is far from impressive at this point in the season, one reason why New England has the 30th ranked passing attack through four weeks. Gronkowski has been a shell of his All-Pro self, even though he leads the Patriots with three touchdown catches among his 13 receptions for 147 yards (11.3 avg). So, what is wrong?
“I would say everything — including myself — blocking, throwing, catching. Whatever it is, we’ve got to go out there, work together and get better. (We need to) do our jobs,” Gronkowski said.