Oh, what a glorious time to be a New England Patriots hater.
Following their 41-14 smashing at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs, the mood on social media was generally – ‘this is the end’, while Tom Brady was spoken of as if one of the Monstars from ‘Space Jam’ took away his talents.
The NFL season consists of only 16 regular season games, so it’s natural to react to such a loss as if the sky is falling, especially considering the Patriots’ three lacklustre performances that preceded it.
But if the New England fans can take a step away from the ledge and critics can put down their stones for a moment, we can digest what’s truly happening to New England.
Firstly, if you didn’t know the NFL standings, you would think from the way the Patriots are being spoken about that they’re winless. They’re actually 2-2, with only one of those games played at home.
Of course when you come into the year with Super Bowl expectations, you’ll rightly be torn apart after the way New England have played. But how are they catching more flack than the New Orleans Saints, a team that was a trendy Super Bowl pick before the season started and is now sitting at 1-3 coming off a loss in which their prolific offence scored 17 points against a weak Dallas Cowboys defence?
Brady has looked awful, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s not because he’s any worse than he was last year. He’s been slowing down and past his prime for a few years now, but his skills haven’t all of a sudden fallen off a cliff.
The offensive line – one of the most overlooked aspects of a football team by casual fans – has been abysmal. Three rookies have had to play significant roles and every combination seems to be failing.
It’s hard not to rely on dink-and-dunk passes when you can’t get enough time to let routes develop downfield.
Even on the few occasions Brady can stand in, he’s been both untrusting of the line to hold up and his receivers, apart from
Julian Edelman, to get open.
You can point to the lack of weapons Brady has at his disposal in the receiving core, but that unit is actually (slightly) improved from the one he was throwing to with success at the end of last season.
And there were times in 2013 when the offence looked just as bad as it does right now. But the Patriots did what they always do. They adjusted and game-planned and finished the year as a top offence.
It’s yet to be seen if the same can be said this season, but New England have a track record and Brady and Bill Belichick are not individuals to be counted out so soon.
We’ve seen teams flounder early in the season only to peak at the right time. The season is not lost, and neither are these Patriots.
Raiders fighting a losing battle
The Oakland Raiders firing Dennis Allen following this past week’s loss shouldn’t come as a surprise and it’s just the first in a line of coaching exits sure to happen this season.
But whether or not now was the right time for Oakland to try and start fresh with a different coach is another question.
It makes sense on paper. The Raiders are on their bye week so if the change was to happen during the season, doing it now would allow some time for the next coach to get a hold of the team’s reins before they get back on the field.
The coach in question, former assistant head coach Tony Sparano, is also an in-house replacement on an interim basis.
There’s not much downside, but there’s also no real upside.
The fundamental reason for making a coaching change is to improve, or at worst, provide some sort of spark.
Looking at the Raiders’ upcoming schedule though – five of their next six games are against the San Diego Chargers twice, the Arizona Cardinals, the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos – it’s hard to imagine a single win coming from those contests.
There’s a good chance Oakland will only collect three wins in another dreadful year, so letting Allen ride it out and starting fully from scratch in the offseason seemed more ideal. Then again, there’s sadly not much that can make the Raiders any worse right now.
