Battle of the Patriots: West (Las Vegas) Better than East (New England)?

Jakobi Meyers is outplaying JuJu Smith-Schuster and the Las Vegas Raiders are having a better season than the team they are modeling their franchise after ... the New England Patriots.

Troubling trends making Foxboro flinch a month into the NFL season:

*Jakobi Meyers is a better receiver than JuJu Smith-Schuster.

*Patriots West (the Las Vegas Raiders) is a better team than Patriots East (the New England Patriots).

After doing some soul-searching this week, the reeling Pats on Sunday will be forced to look in the mirror. After all - as noted by Bill Belichick - the Raiders are built in New England's image, with nine players, eight members of the coaching staff and five scouts having ties to the Patriots.

Problem is, Belichick won't like what he sees because the Raiders are only marginally better than their models. The teams are a combined 3-7 and own two of the NFL's three most inept offenses. Among teams that have played five games, New England has scored 55 points, the New York Giants 62 and the Raiders 79.

While Belichick's iconic seat gets hotter with each humiliating defeat - 1-4 the Pats have lost their last two games, 72-3, and haven't scored a touchdown in 34 possessions - Raiders coach Josh McDaniels is also searching for answers in the desert. Las Vegas is 2-3 and is yet to score more than 18 points in a game.

The Raiders beat the Patriots in 2022 thanks to the infamous "Lunatic Lateral." / USA Today

Besides McDaniels and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, the most visible former Patriot on the field Sunday will be Meyers. Despite being New England's leading receiver in 2021-22, the Pats let him walk in free agency last season. Or did they?

"He was a priority. We talked to him," Belichick claimed this week. "(We were) relatively (close), yeah. But free agency is free agency."

On his social media, however, Meyers has repeatedly said staying put in New England was his preference but he didn't get a contract offer. He signed a deal with the Raiders, which days later was essentially matched dollar-for-dollar in a contract given to Smith-Schuster.

In describing New England's offensive woes this week, former Super Bowl hero Julian Edelman said he was still "shook" by the Pats allowing Meyers to leave.

In three games, Meyers (who missed one game with an injury) has 18 catches for 199 yards and two touchdowns. In five starts, JuJu has managed only 14 catches for 86 yards and no scores.

As a member of the Patriots, Meyers played a huge part in the "Lunatic Lateral" loss to the Raiders in Las Vegas last December. It was the receiver who threw the ill-fated, 20-yard backward pass toward quarterback Mac Jones that was instead intercepted by Chandler Jones and returned 48 yards for a game-winning touchdown on the final play.

Chandler Jones, another former Patriots star, was released by the Raiders last week.

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