The 2023 New England Patriots Are An Embarrassment
Jerry chimed in briefly on this earlier in the day, promising us a blog tomorrow that I have been waiting for weeks for with bated breath. But this team, and this quarterback are a fucking embassment.
Forget scoring only 6 points against the mighty Colts’ defense today, this is much larger than today’s game.
I've never liked this kid. I don't say that to sound like "I was out on Mac Jones before it was the popular thing to do", but because I just never saw what kept him so esteemed in Nick Saban's eyes, and then to be the replacement for the guy who was the greatest player of all time. (I refuse to acknowledge the Cam Newton disaster).
His attitude has always sucked.
His body language sucks.
You may say why's that matter, it's sports? Not a job interview. But there is no position in sports, besides a starting pitcher in baseball perhaps, where one player's attitude and body language set the tone more, and affect the rest of his team (either consciously or subconsciously) like quarterback in the NFL.
Oh, AND his arm sucks.
We were sold this bill of goods that his "football intelligence" is off the charts, yet I've yet to see a play from him demonstrating it in 3 years.
This press conference this afternoon was just the cherry on top.
So Mac you can't figure out why your offensive coordinator didn't draw up a Hail Mary for your before the half from 60 out? Do you think it has to do with the fact that you can barley throw the ball 20 yards? Nevermind 60?
In 20 seasons I can't remember Tom Brady ever once throwing his coaches, (or teammates), under the bus. Not once. Ever.
And we're talking about a guy who threw for over 500 yards and 3 touchdowns in a Super Bowl he was robbed from by a backup quarterback because his coach held a fucking grudge against his best cornerback and didn't play him and the defense couldn't stop a nose bleed.
To this day Brady hasn't spoken on that.
(Sidebar- and don't tell me, well Brady never needed to throw his teammates under the bus because he was always successful. He never experienced real frustration. Bullshit. Peyton Manning was pretty damn successful and was always trashing his teammates and coaches. Because he learned from the best, Uncle Bill Polian.)
But this team's issues aren't just with their shitty quarterback and his even shittier attitude.
It's somehow metastasized and spread like cancer.
We've got a headcase who doesn't think twice about trying to walk into Logan airport with two loaded guns in his bag liking tweets online telling him his team sucks so bad he should have taken the guilty charge.
Yah, I almost blogged this this week, but didn't wanna make a big deal out of something semi-important in comparison to the lost season. But it's a symptom of the overall issue.
NESN - New England cornerbacks J.C. Jackson and Jack Jones both were benched to open Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Washington Commanders at Gillette Stadium.
Jackson, who started the previous three games, did not enter until New England’s third defensive series. Jones, who played 36 and 45 snaps in his first two games back from injured reserve, didn’t see the field until the fourth series.
The Athletic’s Jeff Howe reported the two began the game on the sideline “due to recent performance issues.”
Both players declined to speak with reporters after the game, with Jackson saying he was “not talking” and Jones never appearing in the locker room during the open media period. Around this same time, Jones also “liked” a post on the X platform that referenced his recent legal entanglement.
“Yo @presidentjacc you really shoulda just pleaded guilty at this point,” user @BuffaloSabres07 wrote after the loss, which dropped the Patriots to 2-7 on the season.
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This team is lost, and as much as I want to agree with the Felger's and Tony Masarotti's in Boston that say the game has passed Belichick by, that doesn't make logical sense.
I think, as Bill Belichick showed us all himself this past week, the emperor has no clothes.
I think it's pretty evident at this point that Bill Belichick's power source was Thomas Patrick Edward Brady Jr.
Like Darth Vader lifting funny named generals from across the room, choking the life out of them, Tom Brady was the jedi force which allowed Belichick to exact terror across the league for decades.
I realized Mac Jones wasn't the guy during his first season, hearing Belichick praise him in consecutive post-game press conferences.
As any devout Patriot fan will tell you, that was something we never heard or saw him do with Brady. He was notorious for ripping Brady to shreds in film session on a weekly basis, mostly as motivation for the rest of the team (damn, if he gives it to Brady, than nobody is off limits) but also because of the whole "Patriot Way" thing.
I'm now starting to wonder if Tom Brady was also "The Patriot Way"?
Can you carry yourself like the best in class, above and beyond all others, the trendsetters and blueprint for other organizations if you don't have a guy to shoulder the load, take the flack, and continue to smile, say he needs to be better every week, take massive pay cuts and play on under market contracts each year, all while raising the bar of success to levels we never knew were achievable?
No, I honestly don't think so.
I knew this year was going to be bad. (Hence hammering the under 7.5 wins total Vegas had set). But not this bad.
Belichick has a team full of nobodies. Not one "star" you'd pay money to see, thinking "well, we suck but at least we get to see player x play".
And to no fault of his own, he has a rag-tag coaching staff of guys who can't succeed without him (and Brady), who have returned like the prodigal son, and a couple of actual sons who he doesn't need to worry about being stolen like everybody else.
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But for the first time this century, he's also got a team that looks totally outmanned, and totally uninspired. Nobody looks like they want to step and play for each other.
He has his anointed quarterback throwing his boy Bill O'Brien under the bus in press conferences.
He's got players saying they'd rather be doing jail time than playing this season.
And he's got shirtless walk-of-shame videos leaked onto the internet from nights he went out slumming.
I feel like a fucking Raiders fan.
How did we get here?
"Coghlan's law: everything ends badly, otherwise, it wouldn't end" - Cocktail