The New England Patriots have already surpassed their 2025 loss total, getting beaten for a fourth time this year on Sunday by the Green Bay Packers. And it was a thorough beating as well with the team struggling to hold onto the football and prevent the big passing play.
The end result was a 45-27 blowout loss at Gillette Stadium. Let’s see what the game taught us about the Patriots.
Maybe they just aren’t good enough
Look, we all want the Patriots to get back to the Super Bowl this year, and we hope that they are good enough to do
that. The problem is, they have gone up against who I would consider the cream of the crop of the NFL in five games so far this season, and came away on the losing end four times, including two blowouts.
I’m not saying that the Patriots won’t be a fringe playoff team, and I’m also not saying that they’re bad. But when all is said and done, they just might not be very good either.
Yes, they are missing a lot of players, but at a certain point you just need to be able to win games, and they have not been able to do that against quality competition this year, outside of the Bills game in Week 4. There is still time for them to turn things around, but there should be real concern that they are simply not good enough throughout their roster to compete with the true contenders in the NFL in their current shape.
Turnover woes continue
The Patriots are now tied with the Colts for the worst turnover differential in the NFL. They are at -11 for the season after giving the ball away four times and forcing zero takeaways on Sunday.
Obviously, this has a lot to do with the offense, as they have yet to have a game where they didn’t turn the ball over, which is unacceptable and a losing recipe. However, the defense has forced only eight turnovers in nine games, which ranks only 25th in the NFL.
When you turn it over at a near-constant rate on offense, and you also can’t force turnovers on defense, you’re going to have a hard time winning games. The fact that the Patriots are 5-4 and have yet to win the turnover battle even once this season is therefore kind of incredible and indicative of the type of team and potential they do still have. However, they also have been undisciplined all year long, and the place where that shows up the most is the turnover department.
Christian Gonzalez wasn’t worth the price tag on Sunday
Christian Gonzalez is one of the best cornerbacks in the league, and the highest-paid. On Sunday, however, he didn’t look the part.
He consistently got torched, and it didn’t matter who it was. Matthew Golden torched him, Christian Watson torched him, and the only reason no one else torched him is because he didn’t cover anyone else. When all was said and done, he was credited with 10 catches given up for 187. yards and a touchdown.
There won’t be many games like this for the Patriots star, but one is too many for a player earning an average of $33.75 million per year.
Drake Maye’s decision-making was puzzling
Drake Maye has the potential to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and has played like it multiple times this season. He has also made some very questionable decisions, and that’s exactly what happened on Sunday as well.
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The first drive of the game ended with him throwing an interception across his body; because he seemingly missed the fact that Mack Hollins had settled into a zone, threw it directly to a defender. Then, after Kyle Williams —we’ll get to him — dropped what should have been an easy touchdown, Maye tried to go back to him, but a bad ball ended in another interception.
His third pick might have been his worst. He stared down Eli Raridon which allowed safety Xavier McKinney to read the throw and step in front of it for the interception.
Maye can make all the throws, and has sky-high potential, but if he can’t cut down on the turnovers, the Patriots aren’t going anywhere this year.
Kyle Williams is not ready for a big role
I have defended Kyle Williams this season in part because even though he might be a one-trick pony, he is very good at that one trick. However, when you fail to consistently get open, and then drop touchdown passes when you actually do create some space, you are going to get criticized.
Williams was supposed to be the Patriots’ WR5 or WR6 entering the season, and has been thrust into a bigger role because of injuries. His inability to consistently rise up to the occasion in that bigger role is still disappointing.
Gabe Jacas needs to do some growing up
After a less-than-ideal start to his Patriots career, second-round draft pick Gabe Jacas has been awesome this year. That said, he has had too many pre-snap penalties — and Sunday was more of the same.
Twice in against the Packers he line dup offsides, with one of them giving the opponent a first down, and the other turning a manageable 3rd-and-6 into a much more difficult 3rd-and-1. He’s not always going to be a force rushing the passer — he wasn’t on Sunday — but the pre-snap penalties need to stop regardless of his production elsewhere.
Mike Vrabel and Co. were thoroughly out-coached
At times, the Patriots looked completely unprepared for this game. The Packers, on the other hand, never looked stressed and seemed to have all the answers on both offense and defense. Despite having been up and down this year, they they were a big up on Sunday, and, to me, it all starts with coaching.
The Patriots might want to believe that they have a coaching advantage in a lot of matchups, and oftentimes they do. They definitely didn’t have one against Matt LaFleur and company, though.
Injuries keep hitting the team
Once again, the Patriots are unable to finish a game without multiple starters getting hurt. Ben Brown, Carlton Davis, Rhamondre Stevenson, Brenden Schooler and Will Campbell all left the game and didn’t return.
While it will be seen how severe all of those injuries are, the team just keeps losing contributors. They did have a lot of injury luck last year, but they are on the the opposite end of the spectrum in 2026.
The NFL season is a war of attrition, and the Patriots are losing that battle this season.
More bad officiating
We could say this every week, but the refereeing is not on a label worthy of a billion-dollar organization such as the NFL. On the first Drake Maye interception, Maye was clearly blocked in the back; they threw the flag, but then, inexplicably, picked it up. There was a defenseless receiver penalty on Pop Douglas, where, again, they picked up the flag after throwing it. There were other missed calls as well, including the first catch given up by Christian Gonzalez.
A trip to Europe awaits
The Patriots travel to Germany to face off against the Detroit Lions this coming Sunday. They will fly out on Wednesday, giving them some time to regroup before a game against a decent team.
Despite their 6-3 record, the Lions are good but not great, and the Patriots should in theory be able to compete with them. I expect them to bounce back from the loss to the Packers, but whether that is enough to win the game or not, we’ll see.
