A blowout. A rout. A drubbing.
No matter how you want to label it, the New England Patriots’ defeat against the Jacksonville Jaguars was a lopsided affair. While the team of head coach Mike Vrabel did have its chances to keep this a close game, it kept find a way to shoot itself in the foot on offense, defense and special teams. The final score of 35-6 is not a coincidence but a fair reflection of both teams’ performances in Week 3.
Needless to say, and like we already discussed previously, most of
the Patriots’ was quite bad. And after watching the tape, we are ready to put some grades on their second loss of the year. Don’t expect many good ones, though.
Patriots film review from NFL Week 3
Quarterback: Questions about Drake Maye’s shoulder aside, the biggest issue that keeps plaguing him appears to be a mental one: once things start trending downwards, he finds himself in a spiral he can’t get out of. The result is a quarterback looking for plays that aren’t there to be made, and one actively making bad ones worse. Sure, his supporting cast is not necessarily playing its best football at the moment either — in part due to injuries — but Maye himself is not looking like the MVP runner-up he was last season either. Against the Jaguars, he had three more bad turnovers and despite Josh McDaniels relying on some of the Patriots’ most basic concepts to get the pass game going finished with an EPA of -0.44. It was his seventh straight game with a negative expected points number, and another one where the good moments were dramatically outshone by the bad ones. As for Tommy DeVito, he did have a 20-yard completion to Romeo Doubs but overall looked like the backup he is. | Grade: D
Running back: Congratulations Corey Kiner on the longest carry by a Patriots running back on Sunday: your 7-yarder after Drake Maye was pulled takes the crown. That very much is all you need to know about New England’s run game versus the Jaguars. It was bad. A large part of it was the blocking (the three RBs gained only 10 combined yards before contact on the day) and a lack of schematic diversity (you can only run duo so much). The backs themselves also left some to be desired, however, with TreVeyon Henderson’s lack of vision and Rhamondre Stevenson’s uneven creativity both exacerbating the other problems. And it wasn’t like Jacksonville sold out to stop the run, either; New England was unable to run into relatively light boxes all day. | Grade: C–
Wide receiver: There was some good and some bad from the wide receiver position. Mack Hollins continues to show a good rapport with Drake Maye, including on a well-timed 21-yard pickup on a curl route to convert a 3-and-5 on the opening drive; however, his fourth-quarter taunting penalty to turn 4th-and-1 into 4th-and-16 was as unnecessary as they get. DeMario Douglas had a 38-yard pickup in the second quarter and nearly connected with Maye on another big play later in the drive, but he still has not developed into the volume target you would want. His timing with Maye is simply off at times while his routes appear to be just a tad too imprecise for a steady down-to-down role. Speaking of which, Romeo Doubs has not provided that either and continues to be quiet as the supposed main man with A.J. Brown out. Kyle Williams and Efton Chism are non-factors, with the former’s lack of production particularly frustrating: he very much remains a one-trick pony whose one trick doesn’t look so powerful outside of preseason and who could have fought his way back to the ball on Maye’s second INT. Chism, meanwhile, was in no position to catch Maye’s first pick, but does deserve credit for salvaging the blown-up double pass in the second quarter by hitting Hollins for 16. | Grade: C-
Tight end: It was a rough outing for a Patriots tight end group missing its secondary option, third-round rookie Eli Raridon. Hunter Henry was the clear No. 1 again, but he and Maye connected only once all game for a modest gain of 5 yards. His ability to beat zone coverage is still solid but the ball is simply not finding him as readily as it did a year ago. His blocking, meanwhile, is an issue — something that is also true for Cameron Latu, whose role on the team very much could come into question once players start returning from the injury lists. He did little as a run blocker (in fact, his presence very much might alert teams to what a play is going to be), had one penalty each on offense and special teams (and could have had a third had the officials not missed a face mask call in the first quarter), and was replaced by rookie Tanner Arkin down the stretch. | Grade: D
Offensive line: Let’s start with the positives, namely the left side of the line. Will Campbell continues to look promising, while Alijah Vera-Tucker had possibly his best game yet next to him. The further right we go, the more problematic things get. Jared Wilson did bounce back as a pass blocker but failed to generate an adequate push in the run game; the right guard position lost their Mike Onwenu replacement, Greg Van Roten, in the first half and replaced him with first-timer Walter Rouse. It proved to be a downgrade from a downgrade both in the run game and in pass protection. Then, there was Morgan Moses, who looked as old as he ever has since joining the team last year. Maybe it was the foot injury he was dealing with heading into the game, but the veteran right tackle simply wasn’t right before getting replaced by rookie Caleb Lomu — who was shaky himself — in the late third period. | Grade: C-
Defensive line: The Patriots are missing Khyiris Tonga, and unless DaQuan Jones can fully replace him are in a vulnerable position along their interior defensive line versus the run — that is one of the big takeaways from Sunday’s game. Cory Durden and Joshua Farmer simply do not have the size and raw power to consistently hold the line from the nose, and if Milton Williams and Christian Barmore have quiet days for whatever reason the interior is suddenly not as stout as it should be. One positive, however, was the play of young edges Elijah Ponder and Gabe Jacas: despite a heavy workload at an injury-ravaged position, they logged seven combined quarterback disruptions and were the most consistent source of pressure on the day. They were still a bit hit-or-miss with their assignments both against the run and the pass, but they are fairly low on the list of problems right now. | Grade: C+
Linebacker: Robert Spillane and Christian Elliss were among the best players on the field last week against the Steelers, but their impact was far less pronounced in Jacksonville. Elliss was solid again particularly coming downhill, but Spillane was a bit more inconsistent, His tackling (two misses) and spot-drops into coverage were especially uneven. Trevor Lawrence completed 11 of 14 downfield throws over the middle of the field — wisely staying away from the perimeter — and the linebacker’s ability to defend his zones was part of the reason for his success. The second level wasn’t bad per se, but it will continuously be challenged by opposing offenses if they see matchups they like. | Grade: C
Cornerback: Pay no attention to his PFF grade, Christian Gonzalez was again very good against the Jaguars. His only blemish was slipping on a third-down pass to Jakobi Meyers while coming out of his back-pedal, resulting in a 14-yard pickup. Other than that, he was excellent again in man or zone looks — prompting the Jaguars to simply look elsewhere for most of the day. This meant a busy day for Carlton Davis and Marcus Jones, who both gave up some completions as well. Jones giving up a 17-yard touchdown on third-and-goal while being outmuscled by Parker Washington was tough, and overshadowed what otherwise was a competitive outing that also included a second-quarter interception plus another near-pick later in the game. The biggest problem might not have been the cornerbacks’ performance so much as how they were used: the Patriots fared well with a man-heavy game plan the first two weeks, but ditched it for more zone in Week 3. | Grade: B–
Safety: With two of the Patriots’ top three safeties out, late-August trade pickup Jaylen Reed was moved into a starting role. His debut as the starter in place of an injured Craig Woodson was a mixed bag: he provided good coverage on the Marcus Jones interception, helping knock the ball into the air for his teammate to catch it. However, he missed a tackle on a 23-yard catch-and-run and was in coverage on Trevor Lawrence’s touchdown pass to Jakobi Meyers to move the score to 14-3 in the late second quarter. Fellow starter Kevin Byard was relatively quiet outside of a hurry on a blitz, as was practice squad elevatee Mike Brown as the No. 3 at the position for this game. | Grade: C-
Special teams: The Patriots have seen better days from their special teams group. While they did limit Parker Washington’s impact as a punt returner, they gave up a 42-yard kickoff return and were unable to get their own return game going. Even when they did, a holding call against Cameron Latu backed the team up after a 31-yard runback. That was not the biggest problem for the group, though, which also saw Kyle Williams field a kickoff seemingly headed out of bounds for an effective net loss of 31 yards. To make matters worse, Andy Borregales shipped a 38-yard field goal try wide to the right at a point in the game where it was still competitive. | Grade: D
How would you grade the Patriots’ performance against the Jaguars? Do you agree with our assessment? Please head down to the comment section to discuss with the rest of the community.
