Patriots’ Q-rating takes a hit in ugly loss to Jets on TNF originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Well, THAT kind of chaos isn’t going to cause a mass influx of free agents to come to the Patriots next March.

Before we get into a handful of pithy observations about Thursday night’s not-so-surprising crushing blow (I’ll explain why it wasn’t a stunning surprise), we should first note the circumstances surrounding the blow to the face.

The Patriots have been a bad team since December 2021. They’ve already exposed themselves on national television multiple times. (Previous lows: the 2022 loss to the Bears when Mac Jones was benched for Bailey Zappe, the 2021 playoff loss, the 2022 loss to the Raiders, and the 2023 game against Germany.)

But with Bill Belichick on the sidelines, the conversation that was presented to the nation was, “This doesn’t look like a Bill Belichick team right now, but Bill will figure this out…” Everyone would nod, the national audience would nod too, everyone would pay attention after three hours and leave New England.

Even as things got worse and more dysfunctional, the national media laughed out loud at the idea that Belichick wouldn’t run the Patriots until HE decided he’d had enough. Despite the rampant instability, his presence still exuded stability. Even in the chaos, he provided the illusion of calm.

With Belichick gone, the Patriots are — at best — a national curiosity. The success of the first two weeks and the presence of Drake Maye have fueled that. Is this a FRISKY bad team? But Thursday night likely extinguished that curiosity and reduced them to an afterthought. They’ll stay there until they have the resources to pull off an upset like they did in Week 1. And — with injuries to an already shaky roster — that’s going to take a while.

Meanwhile, it’s been pretty much nothing but “Sunday at 1” for the rest of the year, so the chance to showcase improvement to a national audience and potential players went up in smoke Thursday night. The only emotion likely felt by any potential free agents who happened to tune in was concern for Jacoby Brissett, who — it seems — signed on to be a human piñata.

It wasn’t a good night for the Patriots’ national Q-rating.

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How did the Patriots fare from an away game against a very good team with a very good quarterback to what we saw last night?

A few reasons.

First, the offensive line was a little different and inexperience was a problem. Chukwuma Okarafor, who has since left the team and will not return, started at left tackle. He got the hook and an injured Vederian Lowe came in and played pretty well the rest of the time. On Thursday night, it was rookie Caedan Wallace — a right tackle in college — who was the starter because Lowe was unable to play.

Michael Jordan, a practice squad call-up, played excellently (relative to expectations) in Week 1 at right guard. He did not play at left guard Thursday night. He plays because Cole Strange and Sidy Sow are both injured and have been for some time. Layden Robinson, another rookie, started at right guard.

Second, teams had tape. The pressure on Brissett has increased each week as defensive coordinators see on film how to confuse blocking schemes and take advantage of inexperience.

As Jerod Mayo said Friday morning, “I believe we can solve the problems internally. It comes down to details, and we weren’t focused on our details as a unit. That’s what the offensive line is. It’s not just one person. It’s a unit. Being able to see the picture through the same lens, we just didn’t do that last night. I think it can be solved internally.”

Mayo also said: “We had a couple of young guys who looked different, which maybe caused a bit of confusion, but the communication as a whole has to be better. I’m still confident those guys can get the job done. We have to be very conscious about the way we approach the game and the way we adapt in the game.”

The same goes for the Patriots defense. Seattle had Geno Smith spread the Patriots out and play uptempo, preventing the Patriots from pre-snap chicanery and then short-yardage pitch-and-catch. After watching Smith pick them apart, I had a feeling it would get worse when Aaron Rodgers got them, and it did.

Through three games, Joe Burrow, Smith and Rodgers have combined to complete 75 percent of their passes against the New England defense (81 of 108). And the 49ers are next.

Third, losing Ja’Whaun Bentley on a short week was probably a tipping point for what had been a smart, quick, sure-tackling defense for two weeks. The tackling was eye-wateringly bad (14 missed tackles), and the room receivers had to operate after the catch was troubling. No Bentley, no Christian Barmore, the lack of a pass rush to make Rodgers or Smith edgy, losing at the line of scrimmage in a way they hadn’t the first two weeks — it all contributed to their being wiped out.

Finally — and perhaps most importantly — the efficiency on both sides of the ball was nearly 100 percent against the Bengals. One sack, 6-for-15 on third down and five penalties for 40 yards while the Bengals allowed three sacks, went 4-for-11 and turned the ball over twice. The Patriots created and prevented at least 13 points with turnovers and gave up none. They won.

Against the Jets, they allowed seven sacks, went 2-for-11 on third down, Brissett missed one of his only downfield chances by throwing wide to Austin Hooper, they had five penalties for 70 yards, the Jets were 10-for-15 on third down. In short, the Patriots were rubbish. From start to finish.

They still performed reasonably efficiently against Seattle, but you could see the cracks. Most of the production in the passing game came from Brissett improv and throws to Hunter Henry. The hits on Brissett were starting to pile up. Seattle was 7-for-15 on third down and the pressure New England was getting was modest. But if it hadn’t been for 10 points given up on a defensive blunder and a blocked field goal, they would have won.

“It really didn’t come down to the plays,” Brissett said after Thursday’s game. “It was just, they just beat us up, to be honest with you.”

There are few quarterbacks currently who could excel on the Patriots’ offensive line.

But I would even go so far as to say that no one, NO ONE, would be able to push back against it as stiffly as Brissett has done so far.

He is 42-for-69 for 368 yards with one touchdown, nine sacks, 10 hits and 35 hurries and pressures. He is given 1.7 seconds to throw.

His “time to rise” (a new stat I just made up) is estimated at 3.3 seconds after each sack. He gets PUNNNNNNIIIISSSSSHHHEEEDDDD.

And he says after the game, “I mean, I’m a big man, I can handle it. I’ll always get back up. You know, that’s one thing about me. I’ll always get back up, you know, and find ways to make plays, man, that’s what it comes down to.

“You know, it’s football. I’m supposed to get hit, you know, I didn’t sign up for this sport to not get hit, so I don’t really pay attention to it.”

Now that’s a model employee.