The Patriots aren’t exactly a lost cause, but suffice to say their start to the season could be going better.
New England finds itself with a 1-2 record after three weeks of play, most recently dropping an ugly 26-10 contest to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Sunday.
Plenty has been going wrong to start the season — with the dearth of offensive weapons and porousness of the run defense arguably being chief among the issues.
All of those factors fall under the umbrella of what’s “really concerning” to head coach Bill Belichick. During his weekly appearance on WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni and Fauria” on Monday, Belichick detailed what he thinks is one of the biggest issues playing a role in the Pats’ early-season struggles.
“It’s the execution that really concerns me. We’re trying hard, just not getting enough done,” Belichick said. “I think you can tell when your team is ready to play. But you’re playing against another team, too, so sometimes that has something to do with them. But in the end, we’ve just got to do a better job of what we’re doing, and we haven’t done that the last couple of weeks well at all. It’s been across the board. I think it’s as much a question of trying and effort as it is execution and basic fundamentals. We’re coming up short and just have to do a better job of playing.”
The Patriots long have hung their hat on the fact that they often are the most well-prepared team entering a matchup. And though preparedness may not necessarily be an issue, the lack of execution in every facet of the game clearly is.
However, the Patriots hardly are foreign to slow starts, so if history is any indication, the expectation is Belichick will find a way to get his squad back on track.
