Patriots-Saints takeaways: Pats hit rock bottom with embarrassing loss

Patriots-Saints takeaways: Pats hit rock bottom with embarrassing loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

If the New England Patriots didn't hit rock bottom in last week's 38-3 defeat to the Dallas Cowboys, they definitely reached it Sunday with a 34-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints at Gillette Stadium.

The worst loss of Bill Belichick's coaching career was followed up by the second-worst.

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The Patriots are 1-4 for the first time since 2000. They not only played awful in all three phases Sunday, their effort level was also non-existent. If the Patriots don't beat Josh McDaniels' Las Vegas Raiders next week, they could be facing a potential 1-7 record because their Week 7 and 8 opponents are the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, respectively.

Before we look ahead to next week's matchup against the Raiders, here are five takeaways from the Patriots-Saints debacle.

Zero firepower offensively

For most of this century, the Patriots ranked among the league's highest-scoring teams on an annual basis. Tom Brady put up historic numbers at quarterback, and a whole bunch of running backs gave the offense much-needed balance.

Those days are long, long gone.

The Patriots offense hit rock bottom Sunday against the Saints. New England was shut out for the first time since Week 4 in 2016, and that was when Jacoby Brissett started at QB for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo and a suspended Brady in a 16-0 loss.

Mac Jones gave the worst performance of his career last week in a 35-point loss to the Cowboys. He was just about as bad Sunday versus the Saints. Jones completed 12 of 22 pass attempts for 110 yards with zero touchdowns and two interceptions. He also lost a fumble.

His first interception happened because he tried to do too much and make a play when one wasn't there to be made. He was being pressured in the pocket and threw a wobbly ball right to Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu, who returned it for a touchdown.

Jones was replaced by backup quarterback Bailey Zappe in the second half for the second straight game.

It wasn't just the QBs who struggled; the rushing attack was also completely ineffective. The Patriots were never going to run the ball a ton given the score, but in 18 attempts they racked up just 45 yards (2.5 per attempt). Rhamondre Stevenson (eight carries, 24 yards) and Ezekiel Elliott (eight carries, 21 yards) couldn't get anything going.

How inept are the Patriots right now? They've gone 33 straight drives without a touchdown, the longest such streak of Belichick's career in New England. Tight end Pharaoh Brown is the only Patriots player with a touchdown in the last three games. Not only have the Patriots failed to find the end zone more than once in the last three matchups, they've made only one trip to the red zone during that span.

The Patriots have scored 55 points in five games and, as a result, rank dead last in the league at 11 points per game.

Offensive line is a disaster

Mac Jones has played horribly the last two weeks. There's no denying that. But the offensive line isn't doing him any favors at all. Jones was sacked twice, hit two more times and pressured on several other occasions.

Left tackle Trent Brown gave up a sack near the end of the first half that killed any chance of the Patriots getting some much-needed points.

Brown also got beaten badly by Saints defensive end Carl Granderson in the third quarter that resulted in a Stevenson run that lost five yards. Atonio Mafi struggled, as did center David Andrews. Michael Onwenu picked up an ankle injury Sunday and was ruled out in the third quarter.

There's not much the Patriots can do to fix the offensive line this far into the season. The chances of a major trade seem low, and since offensive tackles are so coveted around the league, plucking a good one off waivers or opposing practice squads would be pretty tough.

The most frustrating aspect of the offensive line situation is these issues were pretty apparent all offseason and nothing substantial was done to address the problem. It's the type of poor roster management that has negatively impacted this team for several seasons.

Making matters worse is left guard Cole Strange can't get on the field, and he was the Patriots' first-round draft pick in 2022. He has missed Weeks 1, 4, and 5 with a knee injury. It was a reach to take him at No. 29 overall, and not only has he missed several games, he has failed to impress when healthy enough to play.

There's no question that the offensive line needs a major shakeup in the offseason.

Ball security is job security

Turnovers are destroying the Patriots.

Mac Jones' pick-6 in the first half resulted in a touchdown. He finished with two interceptions and a fumble.

The Patriots have been outscored 55-0 off turnovers this season, which is the worst in the league. Last season they led the league with a plus-77 points-off-turnovers differential. New England's minus-6 turnover differential in 2023 ranks 28th in the league.

Jones has been the primary culprit when it comes to turnovers. He has eight turnovers -- six interceptions, two fumbles -- in five games, and four of them have been returned for touchdowns by the opposing defense.

The Patriots have enough problems, but the fact that they are also coughing up the football with some regularity makes it almost impossible for them to win.

Injuries have zapped defense of its talent

The Saints offense couldn't generate much against an average Buccaneers defense last week. Saints quarterback Carr completed 23 passes for just 127 yards, and his 3.4 yards per pass attempt was his lowest single-game total since 2016. New Orleans scored nine points and lost by 17.

The Saints came into Gillette Stadium as one of the few teams this season that hadn't scored 20-plus points in any game through four weeks. Their 15.5 points per game ranked sixth-worst in the league. In fact, they had a streak of 10 games without scoring 20 or more points. It took them just 20 minutes of game time to reach that mark versus a Patriots defense ravaged by injuries.

The loss of injured rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez was felt throughout the game. Carr completed 18 of 26 pass attempts for 183 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He found wide receiver Chris Olave for a touchdown in the second quarter. New England's pass rush did have two sacks, but didn't generate consistent pressure to throw off Carr's timing. The loss of linebacker Matthew Judon was felt, too.

The Patriots defense was supposed to be a strength entering the season. But injuries to Gonzalez, Judon, Jack Jones, Marcus Jones and Jonathan Jones have proven to be super tough to overcome.

Bad starts too much to overcome

The Patriots, perhaps more than any other team in the NFL, cannot fall behind by more than one score and expect to win games. They just don't have the offensive firepower to make up huge deficits.

New England fell behind by double digits in the first half Sunday for the fourth time in five games this season. The Saints jumped out to a 21-0 lead with 10:47 remaining in the second quarter. Before Sunday, the Patriots hadn't trailed by 20-plus points in back-to-back games since 1996.

Large early deficits have become commonplace for the Patriots. Here are the deficits they've faced over the last 11 games dating back to last season:

• Bills 17-7

• Cardinals 13-7 (Kyler Murray tore ACL in first quarter)

• Raiders 17-3

• Bengals 22-0

• Dolphins 14-7 (Tua Tagovailoa didn't play)

• Bills 7-0 (Buffalo returned opening kickoff for TD)

• Eagles 16-0

• Dolphins 17-3

• Cowboys 18-3

• Saints 34-0

The only game in that stretch not included was the Patriots' ugly 15-13 win over Zach Wilson and the New York Jets two weeks ago.

There are a bunch of problems the Patriots need to fix, and getting off to better starts should be near the top of the list.