Belichick Moving On to 'Cincinnati'; Brady Stuck On 'Crazy' Patriots Loss to Raiders

While New England's coach refused to endorse current quarterback Mac Jones, his former star is still analyzing the Patriots' bizarre loss in Las Vegas.

Given the chance to endorse his current starting quarterback with three games remaining in the season, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick on Wednesday instead invoked an iconic trope.

After a 27-point loss in 2014: "We're on to Cincinnati."

In the wake of a dumbfounding defeat to the Las Vegas Raiders last Sunday: "Try and beat Cincinnati."

Though both the Patriots' level of desperation and their upcoming opponent (the Bengals) are the same, the quarterbacks at the center of the scenarios are vastly different.

While Mac Jones now squirms in more uncertainty, Tom Brady is still mesmerized by his old team's "Lunatic Lateral."

Asked if the Patriots would stick with Jones in must-win games against the Bengals (Saturday at Gillette Stadium), Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, Belichick offered a cryptic, side-steppy answer that falls well short of a ringing endorsement.

"Yeah," he grumbled, "the plan is to try and beat Cincinnati."

Earlier this season Jones watched rookie backup Bailey Zappe become the darling of New England as he led the Pats to a 2-0 record as a starter. Jones seemed to be recently regaining his Pro-Bowl form from a year ago, but took an ugly step backward against the Raiders. He completed just 13 of 31 for a measly 112 yards.

While Belichick is moving on to Cincinnati, Brady isn't.

The former Pats' quarterback was watching last week when his former team produced one of the dumbest plays in NFL history to lose on game's final play. And even for a guy who was on the wrong end of the Dolphins' "Miami Miracle" - the multi-lateral, game-winning touchdown in 2018 - what happened in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas.

"That was crazy," Brady said on his "Let's Go!" podcast this week. "They’re probably going to show it forever. It was just so improbable for that to happen. It’s just sports, man. You never know. Anything can happen. … It’s just a crazy game."

Brady played on Pats teams with both the man who threw the lateral (Jakobi Meyers) and the one who caught it and returned it for the game-winning touchdown (Chandler Jones).

"They pitched it to Jakobi, and Jakobi’s trying to make it happen," Brady reasoned. "In that moment, you might lose your train of thought because you lose what’s really going on in that situation. You think, ‘Oh, someone tossed me the ball, I have to make a play.’ Sometimes that’s the worst thing when you say, ‘I’ve got to make a play.’ The play was obviously ‘go to overtime.’ That’s sports. It goes from ‘Oh my god, tackle that guy’ to ‘Oh my god, we got the ball,’ and then the Patriots are saying, ‘Tackle that guy,’ and they couldn’t get him on the ground.”

Led by Brady, the 2014 "on to Cincinnati" Patriots and the 2018 "Miami Miracle" Patriots both recovered to win the Super Bowl. This year's team, however, is unlikely to even make the playoffs.

"They’re all learning lessons, but at the same time, that’s probably never going to happen again,” Brady said. “Just like that Miami Miracle - we changed some strategy after that play. I think there’s another word for ‘just kneel on the ball and go into overtime,’ but it wasn’t good."

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