Don’t Panic: Week 4 Risers and Fallers

The bad losses have been few and far between in the Brady/Belichick era.  Still, there are those few games that can’t help but stick out.

• A 31-0 rout at the hands of the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 of the 2003 season.
• The time the Brady-less Pats were left scratching their heads when Miami broke out the Wildcat.
• Getting lit up in the Super Dome by the Saints in 2009.
• The steamroll by Ray Rice and the Ravens in the playoffs later that year.

You can add last night’s game to that list.  It was as bad of a performance as the Patriots have had in the past 13 seasons. The only positive that can be taken away from that game is that there’s only one direction that this team can go from here.  Well, that, and the fact that the Patriots always seem to get things figured out eventually.

Yes, the offensive line looks dismal, the receiving corps are failing, and the supposedly legendary defense got completely outmanned by the Chiefs, but there’s simply too much talent on this roster to have this trend continue for the entire season.  Belichick will get this sorted out.   Brady will find his groove again.  This team will come together.  The 2003 Patriots looked every bit as shaky after the first four games and sat at 2-2 as well.  Then they tore off 15 straight wins and hoisted the Lombardi.

I know it’s hard to imagine that the team we saw get shellacked last night might possible make it to the Super Bowl, but keep in mind that the 2007 and 2011 Giants, 2010 Packers, and the 2012 Ravens all looked dead in the water at some point during their championship runs as well.  It’s not how you start.  It’s how you finish.  Don’t panic…

…just yet.

Risers:

Matthew Slater (Special Teams) – Slater was one of the game’s lone bright spots. He was relentless in the kicking game, fighting through the crowd to bring down the return man the instant he caught the ball.

Jimmy Garoppolo (QB) – In his first real NFL action, Garoppolo looked like a player who could take over the reigns of a team.  He lead the Patriots down the field for their second touchdown of the night.  Granted, his play came in garbage time against a not-so-motivated defense, but Garoppolo’s performance was certainly reassuring.

Brandon LaFell (WR) – Had two big gains, one for a touchdown.  He finally proved there’s a receiver on this team not named “Edelman” who can catch a ball.

Devin McCourty (S) – Things were such a mess later in the game that it’s nearly impossible to know who to blame for all the defensive breakdowns.  I do know, however, that McCourty made some great heads-up plays early in the game to keep things from getting out of hand right at the start.

Fallers:

Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, Mike Patricia, and the rest of the coaching staff – No, none of these people actually played in the game, but they need to be held responsible for the way their players performed.  This was not a properly prepared team on Monday night.

Tom Brady (QB) – He let the pressure get to him and started making some awful throws late in the game.  Brady didn’t throw a single pick the first three games, but ended up with two last night.  By the end of the game, he just seemed frustrated beyond belief and became exceedingly careless with the ball.

Nate Solder (OT) – This guy was a first round pick?  Can we get a do-over.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Patriots’ player completely fall apart like Solder has this year.  He went from arguably the team’s best lineman, to a veritable revolving door on the outside.

And basically everybody else not mentioned in the “Risers” section – The Patriots just got brutalized.  It seemed like they couldn’t win a single one-on-one matchup the entire night.  Poor coverage, poor tackling, poor execution all around from top to bottom.