SI:AM | The Patriots Are a Mess

Plus, the Rangers push the Orioles to the brink.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I hope Patriots fans got to enjoy some crisp New England weather yesterday instead of watching that disaster against the Saints.

In today’s SI:AM:

😬 What the NFL is saying about the Patriots

🐦 ​​The Orioles’ lousy gameplan

⛏️ Cowboys get thumped

‘They have no talent’

For more than two decades, NFL fans were able to set their watches by Bill Belichick and the Patriots. Year after year, New England cruised to double-digit wins, thanks not just to the greatest quarterback in the history of the game, but also a deep roster that achieved its full potential by limiting mistakes.

Those days are over. The Patriots stink out loud this year.

New England got blown out at home yesterday by the Saints, 34–0, to drop to 1–4. It was the second-biggest blowout loss the team has suffered under Bill Belichick. The biggest? Last week’s 38–3 loss to the Cowboys.

The Patriots are a mess right now. They’ve scored just 55 points in five games, the fewest in the league. They’re averaging the fifth-fewest yards per offensive play (4.4), are tied for the second-most turnovers (10) and have scored on just 20.8% of their offensive series (better than only the Giants). The defense ranks eighth-worst in points allowed (26.2 per game) and has forced only two turnovers.

Albert Breer came right out and called the Patriots “a bad football team.” It’s tough to argue with him, especially when his opinion is backed up by several people around the league.

“Quite simply, they have no talent,” one AFC executive told Breer. “And it doesn’t help that that’s at the quarterback spot as well.”

“The offensive line is bad, they can’t protect Mac [Jones], and Mac can’t move,” an NFC executive told Breer. “They have no speed on offense at the skill positions.”

An NFC coach told Breer that the Pats “look extremely low on talent” and “have a pretty vanilla plan from what I can tell.”

It’s tough to envision things getting much better for New England from here. For one thing, the defense was dealt a serious blow last week when star linebacker Matthew Judon and promising rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez went down with serious, potentially season-ending injuries. But the bigger issue is on offense. After making the Pro Bowl as a rookie and finishing as the runner-up to Ja’Marr Chase in Rookie of the Year voting in 2021, Mac Jones no longer looks like the Patriots’ quarterback of the future. The NFC coach Breer spoke to called Jones “average at best.” He’s thrown more interceptions (six, tied for the most in the league) than touchdowns (five) and ranks 30th among NFL quarterbacks this year with just 6.0 yards per pass attempt. Maybe the problem last season wasn’t the lack of an official offensive coordinator.

The question now is how far the Patriots can sink. They haven’t finished last in their division since 2000, Belichick’s first season in charge. That’s also the last time they lost double-digit games and the last time they missed the playoffs in consecutive years. All three of those things now seem possible, if not likely. New England’s next game is on the road against a Raiders team that hasn’t looked great but is still the early betting favorite in that matchup. Then the schedule gets really tough, with back-to-back games against the Bills (at home) and Dolphins (in Miami). After the Pats’ Week 11 bye, they have games against the Chargers, Bills (on the road) and Chiefs looming. As bad as things seem now, they’re shaping up to get a lot worse.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Grayson Rodriguez struggled as the Orioles dropped Game 2 to the Rangers.  :: Tommy Gilligan/USA Today Sports

• Gilberto Manzano played “fact or fiction” with five NFL narratives after Week 5.
• Manzano also wrote about the Cowboys’ blowout loss to the 49ers and whether Dallas will be able to move past it.
• Sean Payton and the Broncos failed to follow through on the coach’s trash talk of Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Now Conor Orr wonders where Payton and Denver will go from here.
• Orr also admitted he was totally wrong about the 2023 Patriots.
• The Orioles were totally unprepared for rookie Grayson Rodriguez’s struggles in Game 2, Emma Baccellieri writes, and now they’re on the brink of elimination.
• Carlos Correa did it all for the Twins in Game 2 against his former team to even the series in Houston. Tom Verducci has more on the guy one teammate called “Iron Man.”
• Bills players complained about the quality of the playing surface at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the NFL’s new primary home in London.
• After initially deflecting blame, Miami coach Mario Cristobal acknowledged it was a mistake not to take a knee against Georgia Tech.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Breece Hall’s 72-yard touchdown run.

4. Bijan Robinson’s unorthodox touchdown catch.

3. The Lions’ nifty trick play for a touchdown.

2. The Niners’ identical trick play later in the day, also for a touchdown.

1. Carlos Correa’s diving play for the final out of the Twins’ win over the Astros.

SIQ

Who hit a walk-off homer to give the Astros the win in the first 18-game in MLB history on this day in 2005?

• José Vizcaíno
• Chris Burke
• Lance Berkman
• Jason Lane

Friday’s SIQ: Texas entered Saturday’s game against Oklahoma ranked No. 3 in the country. Who was the quarterback of the winning team the last time either school was ranked as high as the Longhorns were in this one?

• Baker Mayfield
• Chris Simms
• Colt McCoy
• Landry Jones

Answer: Landry Jones. That was in 2011, when the Sooners were No. 3 and the Longhorns were No. 11. Jones and Oklahoma handed Texas one of its worst defeats in the history of the rivalry, 55–17. Jones threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns.

Texas entered this year’s matchup ranked third, with Oklahoma ranked 11th. That was the best combined ranking in the series since that 2011 matchup I mentioned above.