New England Patriots: 3 issues that caused the Pats season opening loss
New England Patriots Issue No. 1: Failure to punch the ball into the endzone
Despite all the mistakes New England made, they still had a chance to come out on top in this one. Penalties and fumbles aside however, their offense consistently faltered in the Miami half of the field, and it’s the biggest reason that they are 0-1 to start the season rather than 1-0.
New England’s offense was moving the ball all game long in this one, yet they only managed to find the endzone once in this one. They always seemed to make some sort of mistake that was self-inflicted in opponent’s territory that ended up killing them.
Jones fumble on the first drive took a chance at putting three points on the board off the radar. Wynn’s holding call turned seven points into three. Harris’ fumble deep in the redzone effectively ended the game. These are things we have already looked at, but it goes even deeper than that.
On the Patriots final field goal drive of the game, Meyers had a huge drop on third and four with tons of room around him. It wasn’t a great throw by Jones, but the ball hit Meyers hands, and he has to have that. Instead of setting up a first and goal situation, New England was forced to settle for three points again, and that ended up being their final score of the game.
Jones had a couple of poor passes on routes cutting towards the outside of the field. He nearly killed this drive earlier on off of a similar throw, but Hunter Henry made a great catch off his shoelaces to keep the chains moving. Nelson Agholor also dropped an almost identical throw on the same route earlier in the game too.
This small issue for Jones is indicative of a larger issue, and that’s New England’s failure to put the ball in the endzone. Small issues like these piled up all game long, and ended up turning into the biggest issue New England faces as they move onto Week 2. Miami wasn’t as successful moving the ball as New England was, but they managed to score two touchdowns compared to New England’s one, and that’s why they came out on top.
Next. 5 observations from Patriots season opening loss. dark
The Patriots had five drives that lasted more than four minutes, but they failed to turn any of those into touchdowns. Methodically moving the ball down the field is nice, but if you don’t end up with a touchdown, it’s ultimately considered a win for the defense. New England’s defense found themselves giving up too many wins to Miami’s defense, and their failure to find the endzone is the biggest reason they walked out of Week 1 with an 0-1 record.