MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Bill Belichick walked off the field, his head down, not looking up to see who, or what was in front of him as he made his way to the locker room.
After losing to the Dolphins for yet another time on the road, he had the look of a man walking the plank.
He seemed no less dejected when he met with the media, speaking in whispered tones in a press conference that didn’t last four minutes.
Belichick had to be feeling this loss, yet another to the less-than-inspiring Tua Tagovailoa, who is unbeaten against the Patriots.
He had to be feeling the weight of losing to a first-time head coach, Mike McDaniel, something that rarely, if ever, happens, while watching his Matt Patricia/Joe Judge-coached offense score just once in a mistake-filled 20-7 loss.
In the lead-up to the season opener against the Dolphins, Belichick essentially invited people to put his picture in the middle of a dart board, and fire away at him if things went bad.
He said to blame him if Patricia and Judge, two coaches who had never coached offense, much less worked with a quarterback, didn’t do their job.
Let’s just say the “Blame Bill” brigade had plenty of material following the loss to the Fins.
Yes, it’s only one game, and not necessarily a precursor for the season.
But once again, the Patriots just didn’t look prepared or ready to handle what they knew they were going to face.
And that was with two weeks to fix what was wrong from the preseason.
They even traveled to South Florida earlier in the week to get accustomed to the heat to try and change their fate, and still couldn’t avoid losing.
Everything that could possibly go wrong in the span of four quarters at steamy Hard Rock Stadium, did for the Patriots.
From an offensive line that still had communication issues, leaving free pass-rushers to pummel QB Mac Jones; to a litany of other mistakes, be it a pair of fumbles, a costly interception, along with too many missed tackles.
It’s just not a winning brand of football.
And, making matters worse, Jones suffered a back injury at some point, likely from taking a hit on the blindside from one of those free rushers late in the game. He looked to be in a bit of pain as he slowly walked away from his locker.
So the picture didn’t get better from a dreary preseason. It got worse.
And Belichick’s remarks after seeing his team’s first regular season performance – particularly a shoddy one by the offense – did nothing to allay fears or concerns.
“Well, it’s obviously a disappointing start here,” he said. “It was really a pretty even game. Two big plays, 14 points, really skewed the game.”
It’s hard to call it even, when the offense kept making mistakes, and the defense, while holding the Fins to just 13 points, couldn’t get off the field.
The two big plays?
One was the strip-sack of Jones deep in Patriot territory that resulted in seven points. The Patriots, be it Jones or Trent Brown, didn’t pick up the blitz off the left side, with safety Brandon Jones rushing free and nailing the quarterback, who surrendered the football. Melvin Ingram picked up the ball and waltzed two yards into the end zone untouched.
Basically, seven free points.
The second was Miami deciding to gamble on fourth-and-8 from the Pats 42 yard-line, with 18 seconds left before the half. Jaylen Waddle blew by Jalen Mills in man-coverage – why did they even go with man coverage there? – before Kyle Dugger and Ja’Whaun Bentley collided attempting to tackle him.
That Keystone Cops routine resulted in another seven.
But let’s not stop at the two big plays.
The offense, which didn’t utilize many of the outside zone concepts that failed during the preseason, looked the best it’s looked all summer on the very first drive. Jones & Co. easily moved the ball to the ’Fins 22-yard-line with a nice mix of pass and run plays before Jones put up a 50-50 ball toward DeVante Parker in the end zone.
Going with a fade with Xavien Howard as the defender also didn’t seem like the brightest call. And as it turned out, it wasn’t. The ball ricocheted off Howard and Parker, into the hands of safety Javon Holland for a killer interception to completely change the momentum in the first quarter.
Beyond that, the Patriots just couldn’t produce any explosive plays. It might have helped if their most explosive player, Kendrick Bourne, wasn’t a bystander on the sideline for 99 percent of the game.
He came in for two plays during desperation time at the end, and caught a 41-yard-pass to keep the Pats alive before being replaced, and watched as Nelson Agholor fumbled the ball away two plays later.
They also couldn’t handle the blitz-happy Dolphins, who disrupted the Patriots offense time and again.
“We beat ourselves,” said center David Andrews. “Three, four turnovers, a strip sack for a touchdown. It was more of a ‘can’t win till you keep from losing’ kind of day than anything else.”
Was that play-caller Patricia who decided it was best to have Bourne be a bystander? That would appear to be the case.
And isn’t Patricia responsible for fixing the communication problems with the offensive line?
Or, is Belichick just trusting him with too much?
Since Belichick wants to take the heat, and should take the heat, it’s on him. He was supposed to right the ship and get it right before the season opener.
That didn’t happen.
Of course, the Patriots have plenty of time to right the ship, and make Belichick’s faith in Josh McDaniels’ replacements come to fruition. There’s still time for Belichick to win out.
As the players pointed out, it’s just one game, one loss.
The trouble is, that loss only reinforced everyone’s fears about where this is headed. And it’s not a good place.
