The New England Patriots lost their first game of the season on Sunday night and the team will be able to learn a lot from their performance.
Well the New England Patriots are no longer perfect. They lost their first game of the season in Week 9 against the best team they have faced.
In the end I think this will be good for the Patriots. The pressure of an undefeated season can derail a team’s Super Bowl aspirations.
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Now this game wasn’t a total loss. There were some moments that gave you hope as a fan.
We saw Mohamed Sanu score his first touchdown as a member of the New England Patriots. It seems that he and Tom Brady have already made quite the connection.
Also the Patriots didn’t give up when they went down early in the game. They clawed their way back into the game. So much so that it is almost disappointing that they still lost.
So now it will be interesting to see how New England does. Will they bounce back like they normally do or will the team struggle even more?
It seems like New England’s bye week couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. They will be able to look at the film and get to work on fixing their issues.
So let’s look back at Sunday night’s game and see what we learned about the New England Patriots.
1. Lamar Jackson is for real
If you thought that Lamar Jackson couldn’t be an NFL quarterback you were sadly mistaken. He has been the story of the season so far.
Even with his impressive 2019 season you would think that Jackson would have earned some respect. After his performance against the Patriots it is hard to say that he doesn’t belong.
Jackson was a menace all over the field. If he wasn’t throwing great passes he was making some impressive runs. Jackson is a dual threat that ate up New England’s defense.
The Ravens have given New England some problems before, especially in the playoffs. It looks like that could be the case again this season.
So hopefully the New England Patriots will have a plan to stop Jackson the next time they see him. If not the Patriots could have an early exit from the 2019 playoffs and that will anger a lot of fans.
2. Sony Michel stinks
You would have thought that Sony Michel was about to become one of the best running backs in the entire NFL. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.
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Michel has been terrible this season. So much so that he earned a patented Tom Brady stare down after dropping a ball.
The main problem for Michel is that he can’t get anything going in the run game. It seems like it would take 100 carries for Michel to reach 100 yards. Long gone are the days of Michel breaking off for long TD runs.
Also we have seen Michel struggle in the red zone. It seems like a force field is put up when he tries to run the ball.
If the Pats want to be successful they need a strong running game. If not, opponents will just drop back in coverage and make life extremely hard for Tom Brady.
So Sony Michel needs to pick up the pace and get the running game going. If not I think we will be seeing a lot more of James White and Rex Burkhead in the backfield.
3. Run defense is non-existent
The New England Patriots have been pretty impressive this season. It’s hard to say that they haven’t been the best in the entire NFL.
But lately there has been a glaring hole in the Pats’ defense. They have been unable to stop the run.
In Week 8 Nick Chubb racked up 131 yards on just 20 carries and Mark Ingram tallied 115 yards on just 15 carries.
Clearly the Patriots defense needs to clean this up. If teams can run rampant like this you are going to be on the field for a long time and give up a lot of points. It doesn’t matter how many interceptions you get if you are allowing 10 yards every run.
So hopefully the bye will give the defending champs some much-needed rest and allow for them to come back better than ever.
The Patriots aren’t infallible and hopefully they will use this loss as motivation to get back to the Super Bowl and bring another banner back to their fans.