Tom Brady had a front-row seat from the FOX broadcasting booth for the brutal beatdown the Green Bay Packers put on the New England Patriots on Sunday.
The loss was as eye-opening as it was embarrassing for a Patriots football team that looked nothing like a playoff contender. Instead, they looked like a banged-up, undisciplined mess of a team that would be lucky to scratch away enough wins to be branded as pretenders for the postseason dance.
It's the unflattering reality the team now faces, even with a 5-4 record.
Injuries have been an absolute killer for the Patriots this season, and those issues continue to stalk them like a hockey mask-wearing creep on a campground. Veteran cornerback Carlton Davis went down with an injury in the first half,
and the team also lost interior offensive lineman Ben Brown. Running back Rhamondre Stevenson got shaken up late in the game.
And then left tackle Will Campbell hobbled off the field in the fourth quarter with an injury. Keep in mind that the team is already missing A.J. Brown, Romeo Doubs, Mike Onwenu and Alijah Vera-Tucker.
It's unending.
Yes, injuries stink. They are a serious problem that the Patriots have no control over. But they do have control over taking care of the football and avoiding costly turnovers. And Drake Maye failed to do that under center in Sunday's game.
The third-year quarterback reverted back to the same stuff that got the team beat earlier in the season, and it led to three interceptions, bringing his overall total to 11 in the season. In the end, he went 21-of-38 passing for 299 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
It would help if the Patriots could run the football, but the ground game has looked atrocious. Not even Derrick Henry could save the team's rushing attack behind a shaky offensive line that has struggled with run blocking. That group combined for 94 yards and one touchdown, with most of the yardage coming in garbage time.
But even as bad as the offense played, the Patriots' defense was equally bad.
Patriots star cornerback Christian Gonzalez would probably love a neurolyzer to forget what honestly looked like the worst performance of his NFL career. He got beat multiple times in coverage by Packers wide receivers Matthew Golden and Christian Watson. It's rare for any quarterback to ever challenge Gonzalez the way Jordan Love did. But it seriously looked like the Packers quarterback was picking on Gonzalez at times in the game.
And Gonzalez wasn't the only one. The entire Patriots defensive backfield got smoked like an early Thanksgiving turkey. Love smiled through the feast with his bib all the way tucked in for a ridiculous 372 passing yards, three touchdowns and a 153.2 passer rating. Granted, Love was on an absolute heater, but this was the kind of performance that will have some questioning whether the Patriots' defense is overrated.
The road won't get any easier for the Patriots with a road trip to Munich scheduled for next week, when they'll face the Detroit Lions, another great offensive team that can run up a score. It'll be a crossroads game for a Patriots team that still has Buffalo, Minnesota, Kansas City and Denver left on the schedule.
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This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: Instant analysis of Patriots' embarrassing blowout loss to Packers
