Poll: What do you make of the Patriots through two games?
So much for moral victories. The New England Patriots appeared to take exactly nothing learned from a hard fought 25-20 opening day loss vs. the NFC Champs and put it to use in last night's 24-17 primetime loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Any feelings of positivity after last week's effort were quickly quashed last night as the Pats were outplayed by Miami for much of the 60 minutes, before another late rally came up short by a matter of inches on Cole Strange's last gasp lateral dash.
It's the first time since 2001 the Patriots are 0-2 to begin a season and its the first time in the Belichick era the team has trailed by at least 10 points in each of the first two games of a season.
If that wasn't bad enough, New England has yet to hold a lead through the first two hours of football in '23. They've been tied with either Philly or Miami for a total of 19:18, while they've trailed the other 100+ minutes of game action.
Want more sad stats? Okay, well how about this one - Mac Jones is now 1-13 in games he's trailed after the first quarter, 4-12 in games he's trailed at the half and 7-17 in his career in games he's trailed at any point. I've seen a whole lot of "Mac isn't the problem" takes across social media this last week, but at some point if you're a franchise QB you have to be the solution on your own, something we've yet to see Mac be capable of doing.
The team is already behind my personal 8-ball, as I expected the opening day loss vs. Philly, but expected a solid rebound effort last night. Now, this week's trip to Metlife Stadium is already a must-win for the Pats.
Two games into the 2023 season, how would you describe the New England Patriots?