Table of Contents
The New England Patriots are cursed. Throw away the six Super Bowls, erase the memory of Tom Brady from your brain, and forget everything you thought you knew about the boys from Foxborough. Even though every time they’re on a primetime game, all of the pre/post-commercial footage shows Boston. They know that Boston is a solid 45 minutes away from Foxborough, right? I digress.
How. Just How?
The lateral heard around the world on Sunday was frankly shocking. I sat on my couch in pure disbelief for no less than ten minutes. Face in hands, no words, no coherent thoughts, just confusion.
I know Meyers is getting a lot of the blame for this, but can we start with Rhamondre Stevenson? There were three seconds left, you were on your own 45, and the play is a simple handoff. If you wanted to go for the win, you call a Hail Mary. Which, apparently, Mac Jones couldn’t pull off. So you run the ball and play for overtime. That’s the only play there. Unless the Raiders’ defense parts like the Red Sea, you get your four or five yards, take the hit, and play for overtime. I understand the desire to want to win the game right there, but after picking up the fifteen yards that he got, there were at least four Raiders surrounding him. Just go down! Live to fight in OT! Instead, as we all saw, Stevenson pitched the ball back to Jakobi Meyers, and chaos ensued.
The Stanford Band is Nowhere in Sight
Great call, Kenny. Anyway.
I don’t know what Jakobi Meyers saw in this play. The camera angle blocked out what exactly he was looking at when he threw the ball back toward Mac Jones, but luckily, we have replays, and dots.
This makes it 100 times worse. Was he thinking that he could throw it back behind the line of scrimmage for Mac to throw a Hail Mary? Is that even legal? Either way, Meyers threw it DIRECTLY to Chandler Jones, and the rest is history. I knew this Patriots team wasn’t going to make any kind of run in the playoffs, but this is a new low. This is an old Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns way to lose a football game. This is the kind of loss that has you questioning your fandom. This is the kind of loss that makes you want to blow it all up, trade Mac, fire Bill, replace Kraft, and let someone else run the show. And the worst part? This wasn’t even the first time.
Feels Like the Second Time
No disrespect to Rodger Sherman, but I don’t know if this is a real stat, and honestly, I don’t have enough time today to fact-check it. But seriously, how can this happen twice to one team? Losing in horrific, and I mean HORRIFIC fashion to two teams that you should have easily taken care of. All I know is that Bill is going to be ruthless to this squad for the rest of the season. They’ll practice that game-ending situation every single day until the season ends. And they deserve it. I know the talent level isn’t up to what the Patriots faithful has been used to seeing for the past 20 years, but this is an inconsistent football team that should be more disciplined than they currently are. And if there is one man who can fix that, it’s Bill Belichick.
