Patriots’ Alex Van Pelt Deserves Biggest Piece Of Blame Pie For Loss

New England Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt was anything but in his bag at Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Quite the contrary, actually. Van Pelt arguably deserved the most blame after the Patriots struggled mightily in a 15-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

During the latest episode of NESN's "Foxboro Rush" podcast, co-hosts George Balekji and Travis Thomas were joined by NESN.com's Keagan Stiefel and all echoed the same sentiments about Van Pelt.

"If you want to put this game on anybody in particular, it's Alex Van Pelt," Stiefel said. "I've been very disappointed with his the last two weeks, the way he's been calling games."

The Patriots compiled a franchise record 7.9 yards per rushing attempt (!), but got away from the ground game in the biggest moments. New England, which has struggled all season in pass protection, threw the ball 34 times compared to 19 rushing attempts.

"You can't live in a 60-40 world pass to run, especially against the Dolphins, who have been bludgeoned on the ground," Balekji said. "In a game that was always up to par with your game script. It wasn't 21-10. It wasn't 17-10. It wasn't 14-10. It was 10-3. Run the damn football!"

You can watch and listen to NESN's "Foxboro Rush" podcast on YouTube or Spotify.