Patriots Report Card: Mac Jones, offense remain a mess vs. Saints

Patriots Report Card: Mac Jones, offense remain a mess vs. Saints originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

As we pick at the carcass of what was the worst home loss of the Bill Belichick era, let's do so with a TI-85 in hand. Here's a quick by-the-numbers look at the beatdown...

• 22. That's the number of points scored by Patriots opponents directly off turnovers over the course of the last two weeks. One scoop-and-score fumble return for a touchdown (with a two-point conversion) in Dallas. Two pick-sixes. The Patriots, meanwhile, have scored just three points of their own in that span.

• 0. That's the number of "Tush Push" toss fakes the Patriots have successfully executed since the original version of particular short-yardage play has taken the league by storm. The Saints recovered Mac Jones' lackluster pitch to Rhamondre Stevenson and eventually turned it into a field goal.

🔊 Patriots Talk: Time to sit Mac Jones? | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

• 3.1. That's how many yards per play the Patriots offense picked up on Sunday. If a team averaged 3.1 yards per play over the first five weeks of this season, it would be the worst figure in the league by nearly a full yard. (At 4.0 yards per play, the Giants and Bengals came into Week 5 with the worst offenses in the NFL.)

• 6.25. That's the combined third- and fourth-down conversion rate the Patriots posted against New Orleans. They went 1-for-16 in those scenarios Sunday. The worst third-down conversion rate in the NFL coming into the day (Jets, 26.5 percent) was more than three times better than what the Patriots did on third down against the Saints (7.1 percent).

• 26:23. That's how long the Patriots went without recording a first down at the end of Sunday's loss. Nearly two full quarters.

• 20:26. That's how long the Patriots possessed the football on Sunday. They were nearly doubled up in that category by a Saints team that ranked 18th in average time of possession coming into Week 5.

• -8.8. That was Jones' completion percentage over expected, per NextGen Stats. It was a slight improvement over last week's -10.6 debacle, but it was one of the least accurate games of his career by this particular metric. Last year's -21.4 against the Raiders remains his low-water mark during the last two seasons.

You get the idea. It was ugly.

And even though he wouldn't detail what he meant, when Belichick said the Patriots would have to "start over" following the loss, it was a sentiment that theoretically made plenty of sense. It's as good a time as any for that kind of thing, one would suppose.

But where do the Patriots go to kick off that renewal process? And will it yield anything in the way of results? Is there even any confidence that it will? Or is "starting over" nothing more than one last lever to pull in the hope that something will change with three months still left in the season?

Let's further sift through Sunday's wreckage with this week's edition of the grades...

Quarterback: F

Nothing worth committing to memory here for Mac Jones. The pick-six was a disaster of a play, when the obvious answer was staring him in the face on third-and-6: Take the sack. He didn't. The team found itself in a hole, and it couldn't climb out.

If there is such a thing as a back-breaking turnover on the second drive of the game, that was it. What made that particular play even more alarming was that the Dallas game appeared to leak into this one on the play prior. Jones really did not need to throw off his back foot when he checked down on second down, but he did and he threw incomplete. No real pressure. And yet... Jones acted like he was being bothered.

His sense in the pocket has become frayed. The pitch on the fake "Tush Push" was drastically off the mark. What's ironic about his day is that the play that led to his benching -- the interception late in the third quarter off Ty Montgomery's hands -- was the one turnover that wasn't his fault.

Running back: D

This group has nothing at the moment. That's due in part to the fact that their offensive line (more on them in a minute) has given them nowhere to go. But at some point, the duo of Ezekiel Elliott and Rhamondre Stevenson need to come up with some yards that they've created on their own. The Patriots are desperate for that kind of playmaking ability.

Instead, New England for 3.0 yards per carry from Stevenson and 2.6 per carry from Elliott. They each had eight carries on the day as they continue to split reps with lackluster results. Out of 24 teams that had played prior to Sunday Night Football, the Patriots had the lowest expected points added per rush (-0.75) and the second-lowest success rate running the football. Something's gotta give there.

Wide receiver: F

Montgomery's gift-wrapped turnover for the Saints plays into this grade. But that wasn't the only gaffe from this group. Montgomery also had an illegal shift penalty. Kendrick Bourne was called for false starts on two separate occasions. DeVante Parker could have been called for an offensive pass-interference penalty and was not. (He also couldn't make good on a pair of 50-50 passes thrown his way). JuJu Smith-Schuster somehow recorded six yards receiving on three catches.

Demario "Pop" Douglas was the lone player here to come up with any sort of meaningful contribution when he reeled in a sprawled-out 24-yard grab, but he left the game soon thereafter with a head injury and did not return.

Tight end: D

Hunter Henry was someone the Patriots hoped to get more involved this week. He's among their most reliable offensive players. He's among Jones' most trusted weapons. He was targeted twice and did not come up with a catch.

Pharaoh Brown saw the first snap of the game for Patriots tight ends, but he was largely invisible both as a receiver and a blocker. Mike Gesicki led the way with two catches for 17 yards.

Almost no juice from one of the position groups around which this offense was built. Henry did beat his man off the line of scrimmage late in the game for a potential big play, but Bailey Zappe overshot him.

Offensive line: F

The Patriots allowed just two sacks in this one -- both toward the end of the first half with Jones and Co. in hurry-up mode -- but Jones and Zappe were constantly under pressure. After allowing a 50 percent pressure rate a week ago in Dallas, things didn't improve much in Week 5 in that respect. Additionally, the running game continues to be disastrous. The team averaged 2.5 yards per carry (45 yards on 18 attempts).

It seemed as though they made a concerted effort to get to the edge in this one, to no avail. That pursuit may have been sparked by the Patriots being forced to play a pair of backups -- Atonio Mafi at left guard and Riley Reiff at right guard -- in the place of injured starters Cole Strange (inactive, knee) and Mike Onwenu (left the game with an ankle injury), making them unsure of their ability to chew up yardage between the tackles. But those edge runs were a nightmare. Three of them were cut down at or before the line of scrimmage, picking up -4 yards total.

Special teams: D

Another miss for rookie kicker Chad Ryland, this one from a makeable distance of 48 yards and with what seemed like very little wind. He's now 4-for-8 in his young career. Fellow rookie Bryce Baringer fared better, dropping five of his eight punts inside the 20-yard line, but he wasn't perfect. He hit a bad shank on his first punt of the game, which picked up just 26 yards. He hit another ugly wobbler that ended up going 44 yards with the help of a bounce after a bad snap from Joe Cardona.

Matthew Slater picked up a pair of penalties in this one, uncharacteristically so. And there were a variety of questionable decisions by Patriots returners in this one. Montgomery had multiple returns on kickoffs that did not make it out to the 25-yard line. (Remember, returners can fair-catch kicks inside their own 25 and get it at the 25 automatically.) Jabrill Peppers called for a fair catch at the 6-yard line early in the game that he likely should've let bounce in the hopes it would end up in the end zone. Peppers also muffed a punt.

Bad day all around for this group when the Patriots could've used an explosive moment or two to help swing this one.

Defensive line: C-

This group tried to stand up to what the Saints were throwing at them. With the game in hand for an extended period of time, it became clear that the Saints were going to run it, run it, and run it some more. When they did, the Patriots were mostly ready. New Orleans averaged just 3.6 yards per carry and they had a success rate of just 28.9 percent. Not bad.

But the reason this grade isn't higher is because this unit did little in the way of bothering quarterback Derek Carr. He had all the time he needed to find Chris Olave for a touchdown on an extended dropback in the second quarter. And when the Saints absolutely needed to find some success on the ground -- like while on the goal line two plays into the second quarter -- the Patriots couldn't get a stop. Alvin Kamara waltzed into the end zone on that one to make the score 14-0.

Linebacker: D

The grade here seems low initially given that one of the few (perhaps the only?) player who showed up positively early in this one is the leader of the linebacker corps: Ja'Whaun Bentley. He made the first two tackles of the game and then came up with a third-down sack to help force a punt.

But this unit was incredibly quiet on the edges. One tackle, no sacks for Keion White. One tackle, no sacks for Josh Uche. Anfernee Jennings made five stops but had no sacks. Not what you're looking for in your first game without top-flight pass-rusher Matthew Judon.

This Saints team had the 22nd-best pass-protection unit in football coming into the game. And after having played some substandard competition, no less. There should've been soft spots for the Patriots to exploit, open gates for them to attack to get to Carr. But they ended up sacking Carr only twice -- both off of blitzes from the second level -- and barely bothering him with straight outside 'backer pressure off the edge.

Secondary: C-

Myles Bryant ended up making a nice play to slice into the backfield and come up with the second sack of the day for the Patriots. But this unit couldn't make a stop when it needed one.

Carr finished with just 183 yards passing on 18-of-26 passing. He averaged just 6.0 yards per pass, and one of his two touchdown passes was a glorified handoff to tight end Foster Moreau. Still, this was the worst red-zone offense in football coming into the game (33 percent touchdowns), and they went 3-for-4 inside the 20. Their dropback success rate was nearly 50 percent (46.7), and their EPA per dropback (0.151) ranked 11th in the NFL for Week 5 prior to Sunday Night Football.

Some of the box score numbers aren't terrible -- and the Patriots offense didn't help their defense by handing New Orleans 10 points on a platter -- but Belichick could've used more from this group in its first game of the season without rookie sensation Christian Gonzalez.