After a disappointing loss to the Seahawks in their home opener last Sunday, the Patriots had to prepare for their only primetime game of the 2024 season, which was unfortunately a Thursday Night Football game against the Jets.
Playing on a short week isn’t good for any team, especially one that’s coming off a loss. For New England, however, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Injuries were already piling up, as they lost Ja’Whaun Bentley earlier in the week and had every offensive lineman on the injured list in the days leading up to the game.
This led to a lot of changes on the offensive line, including the third and fourth left tackles taking snaps in the game. On defense, it was predictably difficult to fill the void left by Bentley, and the lousy tackling and sloppiness proved that in all four quarters on Thursday night.
Much of that and a long list of other deficiencies inevitably meant that the Patriots would have a hard time leaving MetLife Stadium with a win, which (of course) didn’t happen. In fact, it was absolute destruction by the Jets in every way.
It was such an easy game for New York that one of their star players took the time to talk to reporters after the game to make sure everyone knew about it.
When Hall spoke to New York reporters about the Jets’ offense after the win, he said he was happy they won the game, but stressed that they still have a lot of things to improve in order to win more games the rest of the season.
He referred to the Patriots and explained that the good things they did in Week 3 could be replicated against “a better opponent.”
Breece Hall still has some things to fix on offense:
“I was happy we won, but I still feel like our offense shot itself in the foot (with the penalties) … when you look at the footage again, you think, OK, we can’t do that when we’re playing against a better opponent.”
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) 20 September 2024
If that isn’t a sad reflection of how teams view the Patriots in 2024, what is?
Unfortunately, he’s not wrong about that, and that may be the worst part. The Patriots didn’t play well at any point in the game, and it would be a lie if Hall said anything to suggest they played well. That’s just brutal considering where the Patriots once were, but it’s a good sign of how much growth they need and will achieve during the Jerod Mayo era.
Hopefully it won’t take too long to get back to the top.
