3 Patriots Most to Blame For Sunday Night’s Loss to Dolphins

Things are feeling a lot worse this morning than they did last Monday. The Patriots’ Week 1 loss to the Eagles actually felt like a pretty positive game, having almost come back from the big early deficit. But it’s hard to find any room for optimism in starting the season 0-2.

There haven’t been a ton of standout players in New England so far in 2023, and football is such a team sport that you can’t fully place the blame for a loss on just a couple of players.

But some players certainly contribute more to these losses than others.

Here are the three Patriots most to blame for last night’s 24-27 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday Night Football.

Patriots to Blame for Week 2 Loss to Dolphins

1. Calvin Anderson

Calvin Anderson really struggled in pass protection in Week 1, but we were willing to cut him some slack. He had missed the preseason and was making his Patriots debut against an incredibly good pass-rush unit on the Philadelphia Eagles defense.

He gets no such excuses in Week 2, where his pass protection once again made things incredibly difficult on Mac Jones and the rest of the offense.

Just check out a few of the lowlights:

https://twitter.com/BenBrownPL/status/1703598935703474196

This is bad.

Anderson was fine as a run blocker, but that doesn’t offer nearly enough value to make up for his overall struggles.

This line is incredibly beat up, but even a healthy Anderson is not offering any value at this point.

Hopefully Riley Reiff will be healthy enough to return from IR when he’s first eligible in Week 5.