GLENDALE, Ariz. — This stadium that once housed one of the greatest plays in New England Patriots history was basically empty by the time coach Jerod Mayo finally took off his headset. There was little doubt about the result of Sunday’s game as early as the second quarter.
Mayo paced the sideline for the last minute, a man left alone and eager to leave after yet another loss that went like so many of his team’s 10 others this season. There were few surprises. Cornerback Christian Gonzalez was really good. So was rookie quarterback Drake Maye. Pretty much everything else was bad. Ho-hum. Just another Sunday for the 3-11 Patriots, this one ending with a 30-17 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals.
Everyone knew this team was going to struggle. But Mayo made it clear he had different hopes. He wanted his team to be disciplined. He wanted it to get better as the season went along. He wanted his Patriots to be the kind of team that, even if its record wasn’t great come December, no one would want to play it because it was tough, scrappy and capable of playing spoiler.
If that was Mayo’s goal, it’s hard to call his team anything but a massive failure. Instead of a team that’s better than the sum of its parts, the Patriots have become the get-right game for slumping NFL sides, this time leaving the Cardinals feeling good after having snapped their three-game losing streak.
What’s left is a Patriots franchise that can’t wait for the offseason to get here.
There’s little hope and lots of drama. The CBS cameras Sunday caught owner Robert Kraft and his son Jonathan looking frustrated during another poor effort from their team. Later, during Mayo’s postgame news conference, the head coach seemed to take a veiled shot at his offensive coordinator. And all of it came after the Patriots had an extra week to prepare coming out of their late-season bye.
Maybe by the time you’re reading this, Mayo will have already walked back or clarified what he meant when he seemed to take a jab at Alex Van Pelt. But even in a best-case scenario, the whole thing was awkward and weird. All season, the Patriots have been hesitant to call designed runs for Maye despite his mobility because they don’t want him taking any more hits than he already does behind a leaky offensive line.
But after failing to convert on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 inside the Arizona 5-yard line, a reporter pointed out to Mayo that Maye runs well. Might a quarterback sneak have worked in that situation?
“You said it, I didn’t,” Mayo said, a confusing answer that seemed to agree with the premise. When asked a follow-up on his five-word response, Mayo said, “It’s always my decision. I would say the quarterback obviously has a good pair of legs. We just chose not to do it.”
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The Patriots didn’t lose because they were unsuccessful in a short-yardage situation, so it might feel silly to spend so much time on the topic. But it just felt like another unforced error from Mayo in a season that feels like it’s been defined by them.
That’s part of the reason this team so badly needs the offseason to get here. Reset. Make changes. Spend money to get better players in free agency. Get another chance at the draft. Add some optimism, both in the building and among the fan base.
Still, it’s probably going to be a long three weeks because it’s pretty safe to assume how the last three games will go (at Buffalo, then at home against the Los Angeles Chargers and Bills). After 14 games, we know what the Patriots are, and none of it seems likely to change in the next three weeks.
We know Gonzalez is really talented. We also know the Pats hit on Maye, who offers a ton of promise if he’s given a better supporting cast.
But we also know that Eliot Wolf’s roster is among the worst in the league and that the Patriots have gotten worse at pretty much every position besides quarterback in the last year. And we know that Mayo’s preparation and coaching aren’t giving his team enough of a boost, even while recognizing the disadvantage he faces when every opposing team has better players.
None of that is going to change with three games left. So buckle up. There will probably be more of this before the offseason blessedly arrives.
“I kind of sound like a broken record standing up here being disappointed after a performance like that,” Mayo said.
The sad truth of Sunday’s game is that so little of it mattered in the big picture. No one played well enough to change the trajectory of their outlook with the franchise. The offensive line was still really bad. The wide receivers compounded the problem by struggling to get open and dropping passes.
That combination led to a way-too-conservative play-calling approach from Van Pelt, especially in the first half. In the first 30 minutes, Maye’s average depth of target was behind the line of scrimmage. Once Van Pelt opened up the offense in the second half, Maye moved the ball and led the team to two touchdowns. Those scores didn’t really matter, though. The game was long since over.
Last week, Dianna Russini reported that Kraft has told associates that Mayo will be back for another season. That’s not shocking. Almost every head coach in the NFL gets at least a second season to show what he can do.
But it’s also fair to note that even if Mayo enters games at a disadvantage given the poor roster, it doesn’t seem like he’s doing much to elevate the group. He said earlier this season that coaching and game-planning can make the biggest difference on third downs. He noted that most teams run pretty similar concepts on first and second downs, but third down is where coaches make their money.
On Sunday, the New England offense went 0-for-6 on third downs. Meanwhile, the Cardinals went an astounding 10-for-15.
Somehow, it meant that the Patriots came out of their bye looking even worse than before it. Their hopes of being the frisky underdogs no one wanted to play in December? Likely gone.
What’s left is a bad team that appears to be getting worse. The offseason can’t get here soon enough.
(Photo: Mike Christy / Getty Images)
