The Patriots lost to the Raiders 30-24 in embarrassing fashion on Sunday afternoon and fell to 7-7 on the season. They’re back on the outside looking in to the AFC playoff picture, and the loss was entirely avoidable. New England was up 24-17 with under two minutes to play – and it unraveled on them from that point on.
It was mistakes galore that cost them. Not only on the final play when Jakobi Meyers threw the ball across the field to Chandler Jones who steamrolled across the goal line for a game-winning score, but six penalties – including several drive-hindering false starts – were what really threw a wrench into New England’s plans to win this one.
“Unfortunately here today we collectively made too many mistakes and gave up some big plays that were obviously the difference in the game.” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in his postgame press conference. “We will work to eliminate those and continue to play the good football that we play, but we just had too many mistakes and too many bad plays to win. So, that was obvious.”
These mistakes piled on top of each other, and there’s no better example of it than at the end of the first quarter. New England was actually able to put together a serviceable scoring drive – and scored two touchdowns that were called back before settling for a Nick Folk field goal. The first was a Jakobi Meyers catch for six that was negated by a frantic Bill Belichick timeout, and the other was a 4th and 1 Mac Jones QB sneak for a score that came back after Jonnu Smith was not set before the ball was snapped.
“Yeah, we really didn’t have the play right.” Was Belichick’s excuse for the timeout called on the Meyers touchdown.
On the Smith false start? “It was obviously a mistake on that play too.”
“Look, we’ve talked about situational football. We talk about it every week.” New England’s coach explained when asked about the Meyers lateral that cost them the game. “Obviously, we got to do a better job playing situational football and not making critical mistakes in the game.”
It is week 15. These are the types of things that are supposed to be ironed out during training camp, not costing you games when you’re directly in the mix for a playoff spot.
Bill Belichick is supposed to be the greatest coach of all time. This all lies on his shoulders – and if things don’t change quickly, 2022 could be a legacy-hindering season for the six-time Super Bowl champion.
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