Here is who caught our eye, for better or worse, in the Patriots’ loss on Saturday.
The New England Patriots dropped their Week 17 contest 40-7 to the Los Angeles Chargers to fall to 3-13 on the year.
Here is who caught our eye for better or worse upon live viewing.
Winners
N/A: Not everybody was equally bad, but nobody was good enough on Saturday.
Losers
Everyone: It was a no-show effort from the Patriots in an embarrassing performance on Saturday. New England’s offense managed just seven points as the defense took a major step back after last week allowing seven straight scoring drives as the Chargers scored a season-high 40 points.
As Jerod Mayo said: “We just didn’t play well enough in any phase of the game. No complementary football, and that’s what you get.”
Jerod Mayo and his coaching staff: Speaking of Mayo, the one thing his Patriots’ team couldn’t do is lay an egg after one of their more competitive efforts last week in Buffalo. So, they followed it up by laying an egg. It still may not be enough for owner Robert Kraft to consider a change, but that’s the type of performance that gets people fired — especially in a standalone window.
With it all being said, Mayo says he has “full confidence in the staff. I have full confidence in the players in there. I think again, it just comes down to being consistent across the board.”
Eliot Wolf: The winners and losers here are typically reserved for game-day results, which has kept the Patriots head of personnel off any list this season. But, this one had to sting extra for Wolf as he saw Chargers’ wide receiver Ladd McConkey, who went 34th overall after the Patriots deal the draft pick to L.A., haul in eight passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns. The 94 yards are more than Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker have combined for this season (87), while the touchdowns tie Polk’s output.
To make matters worse, New England’s rookies played just one combined snap before complete garbage time — where a pass then fell incomplete to each with the one to Polk hitting off his hands and leaving him with a banged up shoulder.
Honorable mentions:
- After returning from his first-quarter concussion check, it was not the best performance from Drake Maye, who finished in the sixth percentile with -0.43 EPA per dropback. He made some plus plays, but it felt like Maye left the pocket early on some occasions passing up some completions in the process.
- Credit to DeMario Douglas for the adjustment on his 36-yard touchdown, while Maye deserves his share as well for the heave under pressure. The duo did combine for a turnover on the fumble, where a slot blitz impacted the pitch to Douglas.
- Part of Maye’s issues were due to the offensive line that allowed a pressure rate over 50 percent — which included some noncompetitive reps.
- Following perhaps his best outing of the season last week Jonathan Jones had his issues versus Ladd McConkey this week. McConkey’s 4.3 speed was a challenge for the veteran in man coverage, who looked uncharacteristically slow at times.
- Kyle Dugger also continued his struggles in coverage as the nearest defender on two touchdowns. Alex Austin has some fault on the first of those, however, as he went to pass off the receiver to Dugger.