5 Patriots Who Deserve Most Blame for Week 5 Collapse

1. Alex Van Pelt

With New England's offense struggling immensely to move the ball and put points up on the board, there has been a lot of discussion about who is to blame for the offense's shortcomings. Is it Jacoby Brissett? Does the poor offensive line play make it impossible for a functioning offense? Are the receivers not getting open enough? Did Eliot Wolf do enough to inject talent into this offensive unit? Perhaps Alex Van Pelt's name should be in that discussion more.

The most obvious second-guess of Van Pelt on Sunday is his handling of the Patriots second-to-last drive, with New England trailing 15-10. The Patriots gained the Miami 12-yard line by converting a third-and-8 on the first play following the two-minute warning.

Needing a touchdown, Van Pelt called four passing plays. New England only had 148 yards passing on Sunday. On passing plays, the Patriots average 4.1 yards per game, while they were able to gain 7.9 yards per carry on the ground – a franchise record. With the Patriots in four-down territory and all three timeouts remaining, New England could have ran the ball once or twice within that set of downs and played to the strength of their team.

On second-and-10, the Patriots thought that they had dramatically taken a late lead, but rookie receiver Ja'Lynn Polk's would-be receiving touchdown was overturned upon review.

After the game, the league provided an explanation for why Polk's catch was overturned.

Regardless of whether New England was robbed by the ever-ambiguous NFL catch rules on second down, Van Pelt probably wishes that he could have a mulligan on that series and find a way to get the Patriots offense into the endzone for a win. Surely, a lot of Pats fans feel the same way.

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