FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Stephon Gilmore. Dont’a Hightower. Josh Gordon. Julian Edelman.
Tom Brady.
Those are just some of the players that New England rostered the last time they started 2-0. It was 2019 Patriots, who 10-0 before a relative collapse found them at 12-4 and in a Wild Card playoff game that they lost to the Tennessee Titans. It was Brady’s last game as a Pat.
Unfortunately, the streak continues this year as, despite putting up the good fight against the Seahawks on Sunday, Jerod Mayo’s Patriots are 1-1 heading into a short week.
Here are five immediate thoughts from their 23-20 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday:
5 – The first of (hopefully) many for Ja’Lynn Polk.
After putting up a modest one-catch, six-yard performance against the Bengals in Week 1, WR Ja’Lynn Polk was involved early in the Patriots’ Week 2 gameplan on Sunday afternoon.
The rookie pass-catcher started his first career game as one of two New England wide receivers in 12-personnel, and on their second drive found paydirt for his first career touchdown:
FIRST @NFL TOUCHDOWN JA'LYNN POLK!!!!!@jpolk_22 | @JBrissett12 pic.twitter.com/loEvUOB7H9
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 15, 2024
What a frozen rope from quarterback Jacoby Brissett.
Polk was open multiple times in the Pats’ 16-10 win last weekend, but the offense admittedly wasn’t able to get him the football. They seemingly made it a point of emphasis to get him incorporated this week, and it paid off.
As New England’s second-round pick (No. 37 overall), this should hopefully be the first of many touchdowns for Polk in a blue and red uniform.
4 – Patriots pass defense makes first glaring mistakes of 2024.
New England’s defense is their bright spot, it’s their best unit, and they’re the No. 1 reason why they’ll remain in games in 2024. On Sunday, however, they made some pretty jarring mistakes that may have cost them.
During the Seahawks’ second drive of the game, after having held strong through Seattle’s first nine offensive plays, Patriots’ defensive backs Kyle Dugger and Christian Gonzalez had a major miscommunication in the backend that allowed star wide receiver D.K. Metcalf to break wide-open for a 56-yard touchdown.
DK Metcalf WIDE OPEN for a 56-yard TD!
📺: #SEAvsNE on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/nLjzMeiUub— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
On top of the blatant miscommunication from their pass defense, cornerback Marco Wilson left plenty to be desired on the field on Sunday. He was targeted several times for Seattle gains, and committed a critical defensive pass interference on Tyler Lockett in the endzone that led to a Seahawks touchdown. Later on in overtime, Jonathan Jones also committed a DPI on Lockett that wound up being the game changer, as Seattle kicked a field goal for the win on the drive.
Again, their defense is their strength and their secondary is a major part of that, but they could have been better on Sunday.
3 – Have a day, Hunter Henry.
We’ll get more in-depth on the Patriots’ offense in a second, but let’s first shoutout Hunter Henry’s performance on Sunday.
The 29-year-old tight end was a monster for New England’s offense this afternoon, hauling in eight receptions for a career-high 109 yards. He was targeted 11 times throughout the contest and, like Rhamondre Stevenson last week, the offense ran through him this week.
.@JBrissett12 and @Hunter_Henry84 making things happen.
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/yPHlgiEx6n
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 15, 2024
Henry surprisingly wasn’t named a captain this year after being one in 2023 and signing a three-year extension this March. Elected or not, however, the tight end is still a leader on offense. It showed on Sunday.
2 – Pats run defense once again stout.
We mentioned in our pre-game column that the Seahawks, (like the Patriots) want to win by being a run-first football team and if New England is stout up front, they’ll give themselves a chance to win the game.
They were stout, and then some, on Sunday.
Down their top running back in Kenneth Walker due to an oblique injury, the Seahawks still tried their best to establish a run game early, but weren’t able to get much going at all. Throughout the course of the game, Seattle was able to muster up just 37 yards rushing on 18 attempts — good for just 2.1 yards per carry.
It ultimately didn’t matter, as Seattle’s pass offense was on point with Geno Smith throwing for 327 yards and a TD while completing 75% of his attempts.
1 – It’s refreshing to see a capable Patriots offense again.
While they hit a bit of a lull throughout the game on Sunday, and ultimately weren’t able to convert some key plays that may have won them the contest, it’s still refreshing to see that at the very least, New England can move the football and score points.
It may sound silly, but the Patriots offense last season was unable to do anything close to what they’ve done through two games this year.
They obviously still have plenty to work on, as they were only able to complete three passes to wide receiver throughout the contest, but it’s still been a promising start offensively despite Sunday’s loss.
Follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
