Patriots Simply Aren’t Playing Smart Football

The Patriots let another lead slip away on the road, and everyone wants answers.

They want answers because over the last decade, they've grown accustomed to watching the Patriots outsmart opponents on a weekly basis. The Patriots didn't need to have the most talent, as they were never lacking in brainpower.

Now, it's just the opposite. The Patriots, with Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker, have as talented an offense as ever, yet the team as a whole just wasn't smart.

"Everyone is trying to put their finger on it and really figure it out," Brady said of the team's struggles. "It's frustrating for all of us. We certainly think that when we go out there we have a lot of confidence that we're going to get the ball in the end zone. We had some chances today inside the 5-yard line, inside the 10-yard line, and we get no points. That's the frustrating part for all of us."

Those chances in the red zone were where the Patriots collectively began making bad decisions. Leading 14-10, the Patriots were a chip shot away from taking a seven-point lead, yet that wasn't enough. Bill Belichick opted to go for it on fourth-and-1, and Sammy Morris and the offensive line came up short.

Though there was still plenty of time in the game left to recover, the fact that the Patriots pooh-poohed three points — in a game that was ultimately decided by just one — can't be interpreted as anything but a glaring error in judgment.

If you're looking for a detailed explanation from Belichick, don't hold your breath. It's never been Belichick's style to go into detail about most
decisions, whether they turn out good or bad, and the coach stayed true
to form.

"We thought we could make it," he said after the game. "We went for it on fourth down a couple of times. It's situation of the game, field position, all those things. It didn't work out."

The next poor decision came early in the fourth quarter, when the Patriots had a chance to go up by 11 points. On a second-and-goal from the Miami 5, Brady threw a bullet at Moss, who was double covered. Vontae Davis picked it off, and the Patriots never recovered.

Moss had absolutely no chance to win a battle for the ball. It was an unnecessary pass from Brady, and it's one that, if you're someone who's constantly thrown into the conversation as one of the best quarterbacks ever, you can't make. Ever.

Nor can you make the interception at the end of the game, but at that point, the Patriots had already done themselves in.

But while those mistakes will be the ones discussed and debated on sports radio all week, they weren't isolated incidents. The running game, specifically Laurence Maroney, was successful out of the gate before being all but abandoned in the second half. Maroney averaged 3.4 yards per carry on 10 rushes in the first half, but was given the ball just three times in the second half. Instead, Sammy Morris got most of the touches in the second half, but he picked up just 28 yards on nine second-half carries.

Because the Patriots were playing with the lead, and because the Miami defense made some adjustments to Wes Welker, running the ball in the second half would have changed the game. Instead, Brady was in a position to force passes to receivers who weren't open.

The defense was equally as troubling as the offense. The creativity on defense is simply lacking. The Patriots are confusing nobody, and their average defensive sets allowed Chad Henne to stand in the pocket and look like Joe Montana. Any time a team allows Henne to throw for 335 yards, it doesn't deserve to win.

The Patriots' other trademark has been getting a big play or two from the special teams, but with an average kickoff return of 19.8 yards and average punt return of 9.7 yards, there was no punch.

Brandon Meriweather was at a lack for an explanation after the game.

"You can't explain it. We came out and we gave it our all. Now we need to go back to the drawing board," he told reporters. "You can't explain how you lost. We made a lot of mistakes and had a lot of turnovers that we shouldn't have. But that is part of football."

And so, in all three phases of the game, the Patriots no longer resembled the Patriots. They made bad decisions and costly mistakes, and consequently find themselves in a three-horse race in the AFC East. It's something that New Englanders aren't used to seeing in December, and it's something they'd like to never see again.

Yet each week, there's been more reason to believe the Patriots will fold in the fourth than there is to believe they'll rekindle their winning ways. It's far too soon to say they've reached the end of an era, but if the trend continues, the team of the decade could go out with a disappointing thud.