Curran: Pats’ ‘discouraging’ loss to Dolphins their worst since London

Curran: Pats’ ‘discouraging’ loss to Dolphins their worst since London originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The New England Patriots had shown signs of improvement in the weeks leading up to Sunday’s showdown with the Miami Dolphins. They came crashing back down to earth in the Week 12 matchup vs. their AFC East rival.

Not much went right for the Patriots on either side of the ball in their 34-15 loss. Seven of their 10 penalties were committed by the offensive line, which also allowed four sacks and 16 total pressures. Defensively, New England allowed Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to complete 29 of his 40 passes for 317 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions.

As our Tom E. Curran noted on Postgame Live, it was the Patriots’ most disappointing all-around performance since last month’s 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.

“Soup to nuts incompetence,” Curran said. “And it really does undo some of the good that had been done in the last four games. As I said in the pregame, they were sniffing around the hindquarters of mediocrity. Well, they got a face full today.

“They dropped back a little bit, because this is what the team is to an extent. They’re somewhere between 24 and 32. They did signal that they had moments, but the unforced errors that we witnessed on offense and then the inability of (defensive coordinator) DeMarcus Covington and the defense to put up any kind of resistance at all — I knew Jonnu Smith was gonna be a factor. I knew the wide receivers were gonna be a factor. They were a factor. Why were the Patriots caught with their pants down? Very discouraging loss, the worst one since Jacksonville a month ago.

Although Drake Maye has injected some life into the Patriots offense, Sunday’s loss showed the offensive line woes and defensive deficiencies outweigh the improvement at the QB position. Former Pats linebacker Ted Johnson lamented New England reverting to the dysfunctional team it was earlier in the campaign.

“It just felt…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/curran-pats-discouraging-loss-dolphins-010831037.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2024-11-25 01:08:00

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