FOXBORO – By Monday afternoon, Mike Vrabel’s assistants will have parsed through every play.
They will have mined the film of Sunday’s loss, hunting for every insight and competitive edge; sacrificing sleep and sanity along the way, all in the pursuit of victory.
Let’s save them some time.
The truth of that tape is this: the Patriots beat themselves.
Again.
Five turnovers, including two on the doorstep of the end zone. Six first-half penalties, including two that resuscitated Steelers touchdown drives. And another home loss drenched in regret.
Granted, this is a young team. A new team. But everybody inside and outside of the Patriots’ facility knows turnovers are a price they cannot pay if they want to bank enough early-season wins for a run at the playoffs.
Sunday should have been one of those wins. Instead, they fumbled it away.
“We don’t need to learn a lesson. We don’t need to lose a football game to know that turnovers are very hard to overcome,” Vrabel said post-game. “They erase all the good things that you do.”
Among those good things: holding Aaron Rodgers to 139 passing yards, one of the lowest-single game totals of his career; two touchdown passes from Drake Maye, who also scrambled for four first downs; four conversions on five fourth-down attempts, a reflection of aggressive in-game management and sharp play-calling.
But think about those last numbers for a minute.
In order to simply survive Sunday, Maye had to go beyond regular quarterback duties, past completing passes and orchestrating the offense. He had to create outside the pocket and outside of structure just so the Patriots could keep marching in spite of Rhamondre Stevenson’s butterfingers. And as they marched, they still walked into another do-or-die situation with the game on the line.
Then and there, on fourth-and-1 at the Steelers’ 28-yard line with barely a minute left, DeMario Douglas caught a short pass, ducked behind the line to gain and got tackled.
Until further notice, the Patriots will live in that exact time and space: asking a young player to make a good decision and a better play with the entire team on his back.
On Sunday, Douglas failed, and so did the Patriots.
“(It’s) decision-making when you have the football in your hand, whether that’s a quarterback, whether that’s a player that’s reaching it and it gets knocked out. We’ll watch the tape and we’ll clearly address the ball security,” Vrabel said. “We’ve got to move on. Fix it, and move on.”
No one shoulders a heavier load in this regard than Maye. For all the good he did Sunday, the Patriots might have won were it not for his fumble in the fourth quarter, which led directly to Pittsburgh’s game-winning drive.
The start of his strip-sack mirrored several of Maye’s earlier scrambles, including a fourth-and-1 conversion he managed the play before. Maye’s eyes darted around, scanning the field for open receivers. None were to his liking. So he danced inside the pocket, dodging rushers. Then, as the Steelers swarmed, Maye gave in to his playmaking impulse again — the same that had just kept the Patriots afloat — and lost the ball trying a hopeless pitch to TreVeyon Henderson.
“Yeah, (I) just saw TreVeyon late and tried to do something stupid,” Maye said. “Really, I think (the fix is) just continue playing. My capability, (my) feet outside the pocket, makes it tough on them. They’re a good front. I thought (the offensive linemen) blocked their butts off, but (I have to) just be decisive. And if I have to take a sack, just take care of the football.
“That’s the No. 1 thing.”
The No. 1 thing, and the only thing as far as Maye’s offense should be concerned. Because sometime in the middle quarters Sunday, the game developed into a defensive slugfest, and the Patriots had the higher ground.
Neither team could run the ball. Pittsburgh averaged a meek 2.5 yards per carry, while the Pats chugged along at 3.4 yards on runs excluding Maye scrambles. But the Steelers, for whatever reason, insisted on rushing, and their stubbornness fed into four scoreless drives in the second half.
The Patriots, meanwhile, pivoted, and embraced a quick passing attack that rejuvenated their offense.
Maye hit completions of seven yards, then eight, 11, 15 and five more yards before tossing a touchdown pass to Hunter Henry to open the fourth quarter. Henry ran free down the middle of the field thanks to an apparent coverage bust courtesy of Steelers linebacker Payton Wilson. The Pats had picked on Wilson all game, attacking him with play-action, motion and bad matchups.
Henry’s touchdown felt like pressure finally breaking the dam, while the Patriots defense had solidified thanks to a few levers Vrabel had pulled mid-game.
He replaced starting linebacker Christian Elliss with a combination of Jack Gibbens and Marte Mapu; more instinctive and athletic players, respectively, who also finished their tackles. He benched young corner Alex Austin after Austin’s penalties helped the Steelers score two early touchdowns. Combined with a few schematic tweaks, those personnel changes fixed the Patriots defense, which flexed for the first time this season as a winning unit.
“If our defense plays like that all year,” Pats center Garrett Bradbury said, “we’re gonna win a lot of games.”
Yet so far, they’re 0-1. You know why.
Because even in a game orchestrated by men who labor endlessly to convince themselves they can concoct the perfect game plan, who obsess over the finest details with the smallest chances of mattering, football is a simple game.
One team possesses the ball, and the other tries to take it.
Stevenson dropped the ball Sunday. So did Gibson, and so did Maye. By the end, the Patriots lost more than a few possessions.
They lost their way.
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