- Brian Symons
- Dec 1, 2020
Author: Sahil Takur
*Written before Week 12
1-4 when down 7 points or less in the 4th Quarter. 1-4 record on the road. 4-6 on the season. When Tom Brady threw that backbreaking interception that sealed the fate of the 2019 season Patriots fans felt something that they haven’t felt in a long time. Uncertainty. After Tom Brady decided to take his talents south, for the first time in 20 years the Patriots had a hole at the most valuable position in football. What transpired over the next 5 months was a slow and painful decline of depth throughout the whole team. The Patriots led the league in Covid Opt outs with 8, including 2 defensive starters Patrick Chung and Dont'a Hightower. Additionally, the Patriots lost 5 more defensive starters from that top unit from last year to free agency. Going into opening weekend there were a lot of questions regarding how this whole operation was going to work. Offensively the Patriots for the first time in 20 years had a dual threat QB, however defensively they were very young and raw.
We are now at week 11, after Thanksgiving, where Coach Belichick always has said the real NFL Season starts. For the Patriots they are in uncharted territory. Currently they are 4-6 which has landed them 3rd in the AFC East and 11th in the AFC Conference. The path to the playoffs is simple, if they win their remaining 6 games then they will be in. When talking about the New England Patriots over the past 20 seasons this feat would not only be surprising but expected. This year however this is all but a certainty. This Patriots team has been one of the most inconsistent teams on both sides of the football. At sometimes they look like the Patriots of old and at times they looked like a team with no identity. They have had solid games against top teams like Baltimore and Seattle, but then on the other hand they have had some duds against the 49ers and the Broncos. The same defense that kept Patrick Mahomes under wraps for 3 quarters was shredded in the air by Joe Flacco and the Jets. The same defense that kept one of the best running attacks in football in Baltimore under wraps also got run over by the 49ers.
Not all is bad in Foxboro however. Over the last 4 weeks we have seen a better version of Cam Newton and we have seen some improvements in the running game and in their overall defensive schemes. There have been many young players that have taken key roles on this team and succeeded. The development of Cam Newton over the last 4 weeks shows that there is potential for him to be an answer at QB for another year or two while they continue to develop Jarrett Stidham. Damien Harris has proven to be the Patriots top back running with conviction and averaging 73.7 yards per game and 5.4 yards per rush.
There are things to observe and learn from from the first 10 games of this season regardless of where the next 6 games take us.Throughout all the changes that New England has gone through over the last 6 months one thing has stayed the same. Bill Belichick. And one thing the teams and fans know about Bill Belichick is to never count.
SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE