Another week, another ugly loss for the now 2-9 New England Patriots. The Patriots are making a push for the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft at this point, and their defeat at the hands of the New York Giants on Sunday afternoon is a prime exhibit of why this team is truly one of the worst in the league.
The lasting image from this game for New England will be Tommy DeVito, an undrafted rookie quarterback, doing the "chef's kiss" with his hand after a touchdown pass to Isaiah Hodgins, who muscled his way into the end zone on a really nice play in the red zone.
The Patriots were just a mess in this contest, unable to take care of the ball offensively and unable to take advantage of six sacks, seven QB hits, and holding the Giants to just 4-of-13 on third downs. So who is to blame for this ugly loss? Let's take a look.
3 New England Patriots to blame for loss to Giants in Week 12
1. Chad Ryland, Kicker
If the ESPN segment C'mon, Man still existed, Chad Ryland would undoubtedly be featured. You have one primary job as a kicker, and it's to make kicks. Chad Ryland had an opportunity late in this game to come through and at least send this matchup to overtime, but he missed a chip shot.
Maybe it's for the best. Maybe he spared us all. Maybe Chad Ryland is in on the tank.
Who knows?
All kidding aside, you can't be missing chip shots late in the game. The Patriots had an opportunity to at least get in position to win this game, but Ryland squandered that chance -- literally. It was an ugly miss wide to the left of the goal post, and although you can't pin any defeat on a single kick, you certainly can't perform like that in clutch situations.
2. Mac Jones, Quarterback
Mac Jones has had one of the worst seasons for a quarterback in modern franchise history in 2023.
Okay, that's not totally fair since Tom Brady dominated two decades for the Pats. But still, this is the type of season that will cause your franchise to go back to the drawing board in the offseason.
After a week of rumors regarding who would or wouldn't play against the Giants, we ended up seeing both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe for the Patriots as New England finally became fed up with Jones's poor play. Jones threw a pair of interceptions among his 21 first-half pass attempts, completing just 12 passes for a brutal 89 yards.
With a QB rating of just 27.8, the Patriots put Zappe into the game and didn't see much better results. Zappe ended up throwing an interception of his own, but to his credit, the Patriots' offense did get the ball in scoring range late in the game with a chance to tie it.
I think the writing is clearly on the wall for Jones right now. He's fallen out of favor with the Patriots and with the way he's played this year, you have to wonder if his value to the other 31 teams as he potentially looks ahead to a change of scenery is shot as well. What team is going to want to add Jones to their roster?
It's fair to wonder if he's going to need to become someone's backup in 2024 in order to rehab his value.
3. JuJu Smith-Schuster, Wide Receiver
We talk about this frequently, but it's worth repeating: JuJu Smith-Schuster was one of the worst and most ill-advised free agent signings of the 2023 offseason.
If the Kansas City Chiefs, a team clearly starved at the wide receiver position, didn't want Smith-Schuster back, then what in the world made the New England Patriots think he was worth the investment?
At any rate, the Patriots made this bed, and they're lying in it.
To his credit, Smith-Schuster had a big catch and conversion on a fourth down in the fourth quarter which helped keep the game alive for New England. But he caught just two passes for 10 yards and continues to be wildly ineffective on a majority of the snaps he's been playing for the Patriots.
It's simply inexcusable for a player who is getting $16 million in guaranteed money, even if the quarterback situation is a problem.
In other Patriots news: