Have the New England Patriots reached the lowest point in their history?

Monday 12/4/23

Yesterday, I watched the first half of the Patriots-Chargers game. I actually did this on purpose, even though I knew that as I was watching I'd ask myself, "Why are we watching this?"

I guess there was an element of morbid curiosity. I figured this would be about as bad as an NFL game gets. As ugly, boring. I think the NFL is bad right now in general. The quality of play across the league is lower than it has been in some time--arguably ever. There might be one good game a week. Quarterback play has really fallen off. You're limited in how you can defend in terms of tackling.

What I saw before I bailed at the half--though I followed the game at the cafe where I was reading--might have represented the lowest point in the history of the Patriots' franchise. I've been thinking about that. There were a lot of empty seats. It was in the forties, raining, miserable out there. Miserable team, miserable situation. No talent. A back-up quarterback who isn't better than the first round player he was replacing because of poor performance or psychological attrition. Both.

You knew as you watched--and as the fans booed--that unless the defense scored, or something fluky happened, the Patriots would be shut out. Were it possible to win an NFL game 1-0, the Chargers were going to do that. There was no way the Patriots were going to prevail, baring an act of God--or the football gods, like if one of them lost a bet to another--and avoid becoming 2-10, which they are now.

You have the head coaching situation. Someone new will have to come in, but it probably won't be someone that new--it'll be someone who had a lot to do with the person leaving. They are as far away as an NFL team can be from being good again. Who could possibly be the quarterback of this team going forward? Should they draft Caleb Williams--if they're even able to? He won't be the answer or part of a solution. Too weak.

The team almost moved to Connecticut and that was during Robert Kraft's tenure as owner, so it wasn't that far back. I don't know--that's still New England. They are the New England Patriots. It wasn't like New England was losing them and they were going to become the Spokane Patriots.

They were really bad at the start of the 1990s. One year they went 1-15. But I think those teams were more interesting. They weren't interesting. I'm not saying that. But there were still a few players that were worth following.

I guess you could say the defense is a bright spot. The Patriots are the first team since the 1930s to hold another team to ten or fewer points in three consecutive games and lose those games. Teams do not score against the Patriots.

But...I think the Patriots suck the mood out of the room, so to speak. These games are depressing. It's dispiriting to be in a game against the Patriots. If the Patriots had an offense, and they were scoring, and the games were lively, I don't know that the defense would be holding teams to ten points or less. I suspect the Patriots would just be getting beat 28-17. I could be wrong. But I think the Patriots are so bad that they don't bring out the best in anyone.

What can I say about Bailey Zappe? He looks like he's a long ways off from executing basic throws, like he's rusty and hasn't played at all--by which I mean practiced--in months. Obviously that's not the case.

He has a good initial burst in the pocket to create space for himself. He realizes--well, sometimes--when he needs to move quickly. Or, I should say, when the pressure is going to come from in front of him. He anticipates that well. He'll dart to the right, find some room to make a throw...then throw it behind the receiver cutting across the field. Saw him do that a couple times (one was a pass to the tight end, Hunter Henry).

I guess the offense looked a little better. But that's the result of having someone new in there. Whatever bit of juice that gives you. Jones was also dispiriting and I'm sure it was a relief to not have him under center. Well, taking the shotgun snap, since it seems pretty rare that a Patriots quarterback is under center. There's no play action. They're very predictable.

How bad are things, though, when you get shut out, your quarterback doesn't throw for 150 yards, and here is someone saying the offense looked a little better?

The whole thing just looked miserable. The team, the situation, the game, the team/organization's prospects at the moment, the fans, the broadcasters.

Sure, things can change in a year or two. They can. That's not impossible. But we're talking some stark evidence of what the Patriots are now in contrast to what they were for twenty years.

You're not going to be what you were for those two decades. There's never been anything like that in sports, given all of the mitigating factors that exist in the modern NFL. It's like in baseball--we probably aren't going to see anything like the early 1950s Yankees again. Free agency did away with that. But you can be the Steelers, for instance--good most years, a playoff team most years, a champion every now and again.

Watching that half yesterday, though, I also could see eight, ten, a dozen years of being an NFL afterthought.

Whatever it was, it was pretty bad, I'd say.