Patriots offense hits rock bottom in 10-7 loss to Giants

The New England Patriots lost again on Sunday, this time to one of the worst teams in the league. The New York Giants entered Week 12 with a 3-8 record, without their best player, and with a third-string undrafted rookie starting at quarterback, all while New England also enjoyed the benefit of coming off a bye week.

And yet, the Patriots — who saw their offense seemingly hit rock bottom — still lost with a final score of 10-7. This is about as bad as it has been in New England in maybe the last 30 years.

Let’s get into our takeaways.

We have seen some good play for Mac Jones in his career, but those days seem like another lifetime. The former first-round draft pick is playing like the worst quarterback in the NFL right now, and there are serious questions how the Patriots can keep trotting him out there.

After not declaring a starter all week, Jones was the first man. up for the game on Sunday. He had a few positive moments — his slant to DeVante Parker to convert a 3rd-and-15 was one of the best throws of his season — but he ended up passing for only 89 yards and threw two more interceptions to bring his season total to 12. When they came out for the second half, Jones was on the bench.

“I had a few bad throws, and just wasn’t on the same page with the offense today,” Jones said after the game. “I’ve got to do a better job creating that standard and making sure we communicate.”

Not only has he played terrible, but he perpetually looks overwhelmed when on the field; not sensing pressure and making curious decisions with the ball in his hands. The rest of the offense follows his lead, and looks equally bad.

Unless the season is declared lost anyway and the Patriots are now playing for draft position above all else — and they certainly might be — Jones probably should not start another game for this team, in 2023 and beyond.

Mac Jones proved himself worthy of starting the game in practice this week, but backup Bailey Zappe still got his opportunity in the second half. As soon as he went in, he led the team down to a touchdown to tie the game (albeit with the help of the Giants sending the opening kickoff out of bounds). From that point on, however, it was some rough sledding for the second-year QB.

Zappe had a bad interception into triple coverage, and another few passes that easily could have been picked off as well. He probably played better than Mac based simply on the fact that he a) turned the ball over only once, and b) actually helped put points on the board, but he was not significantly better by any means.

“That’s on me in the second half,” Zappe said post-game. “We started out hot, started out the first drive, marched right down and scored. I have to be able to keep the team going, keep the energy up, keep it going throughout the second half, but I wasn’t able to do that. That’s on me.”

It is clear to see why the Patriots haven’t been in a rush to start Zappe, even with Jones playing so poorly. Zappe being the answer at quarterback also seems like a long-shot, but he did at least get the team in a position to tie the game at the end. Alas...

The Patriots made waves when they traded up to draft Chad Ryland in the fourth round. He’s had an up and down season thus far — as should be expected from a rookie kicker — and went on to shank a 35-yard field goal try that would have sent the game to overtime.

Ryland has now missed six of his 18 field goal attempts, including two from inside of 40 yards. That is not the kind of production you are looking for from your kicker, rookie or not.

Obviously, there can be some growing pains — even Adam Vinatieri struggled his rookie year. That said, you have to hope that Ryland can turn it around and regain his confidence. Otherwise the Patriots are going to be searching for a new kicker to go along with a new quarterback.

The Patriots have been playing terrible on offense, but their defense continues to keep the team in games. The unit has now allowed 10 points in each of the last two games, and still New England still has not been able to come out with a win.

On Sunday, both of the Giants’ scores on Sunday came off of turnovers by the offense. In total, they gained just 220 yards and 10 first downs; Jabrill Peppers also recovered a fumble on the game’s opening drive. The defense again tried to win the game all by itself.

And while it has not been producing turnovers at the same rate as last year — let alone scoring on them — the group as a whole has done as much as could possibly be asked of it to win games. The loss in New York was no different.

Christian Barmore has been a real bright spot for the Patriots. The third-year man has been a force in both the run game and pass game, not only putting pressure on the passer, but also knocking down passes at the line when he is not able to get home: he had one sack, and one pass breakup versus the Giants.

Barmore is heading into the last year of his deal, and should be right near the front of the line to get paid. He is exactly the type of player that the Patriots should plan to build around.

We have seen flashes from Keion White all year, but he hadn’t been able to put it all together and have a consistently good game — until Sunday.

The second-round rookie had a sack, put some constant pressure on the quarterback, and showed great range and ability to make plays with his athleticism. This was the performance that he showed he was capable of in flashes, and hopefully he can build off of it to carry some momentum into a crucial sophomore offseason.

The Giants’ quarterback was a big storyline coming into the game; he’s been getting national attention because he has been putting up some numbers as an undrafted free agent quarterback for the Giants. He’s not a great player by any means, but he did make some good throws, and took advantage of the Patriots’ miscues.

DeVito also didn’t throw any interceptions, which gave the Giants a chance to win the game and they did. He might not be a long-term answer for any NFL team, but he’s at least a fun story, which is more than can be said about the Patriots’ current quarterback situation.

For the second time this season, a Patriots wide receiver took a shot to the head that should have been flagged but wasn’t. Demario Douglas attempted to return a punt in the fourth quarterback, but was clotheslined by the Giants’ Cam Brown and left the game with a head injury.

The Patriots were visibly upset by the call, and didn’t mind saying so after the game either.

“It’s just crazy,” said safety Jabrill Peppers. “They preach all this player safety stuff, but that doesn’t get flagged. But I’ve been fined maybe two or three times for clean hits. So, that too. They even looked up at the Jumbotron and there was still no flag. But you can’t say anything about the refs in this league. It is what it is.

“To me, that’s a joke. You can’t say you care about player safety and not flag that play.”

The NFL claims that it cares about player safety, but it continue to miss plays that directly impact players’ health.

The Patriots offense has been absolutely terrible, but the question is who can they turn to in order to improve the output. It doesn’t seem like the answer is either Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe, but if they aren’t, then who does that leave them with? Will Grier was cut by the team to make space for Connor McDermott, and doesn’t seem to be the answer, and Malik Cunningham is on the practice squad and hasn’t been taking any reps at quarterback recently.

It does look like now is the time to move on from Mac Jones, because it is clear that he isn’t the guy to lead this offense. There might not be any viable alternatives, but the Patriots have to at least explore letting someone else running the show.

The season is lost anyway, so why not see what Bailey Zappe can do to maybe help end the season gracefully or at the least boost his trade value.

The Patriots have a terrible record and seem to be one of the worst teams in the league, but are they going to be able to maintain a record bad enough to get a top-3 pick in April’s draft? Should they consider trying to lose instead of trying to win?

Most of the fanbase appear to be coping with the losing record and terrible play by the Patriots by looking ahead at the draft. For a team that is considering tanking, or at least letting the things run its course, not attempting to fix the offense too much makes some sense.

The problem, of course, is that you don’t want to tank. Sure, it would be great to have a high draft pick, but the act of losing — on purpose or not — already puts considerable pressure on a locker room. The Patriots need to be careful not to create additional issues while in the process of trying to make their team better via better draft positioning.