New England Patriots: 3 Takeaways from Week 3 loss vs. Lions

The New England Patriots struggled offensively and defensively against the Detroit Lions, leading to another surprising loss in Week 3.

Is it time to panic about the New England Patriots? Many fans and pundits are raising the question after the Patriots suffered a 26-10 loss at the hands of the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football in Week 3.

Not only have the Patriots underperformed since their victory over the Houston Texans to open their 2018 season, but the team also has been playing lackadaisical and uninspired football since that point.

The loss on Sunday Night Football highlighted three weaknesses that the team is currently dealing with, including missing key players to injury on the defensive end. With that in mind, let’s look at the three major takeaways for New England from this second-straight loss.

1. Lack of playmakers on offense

Despite the greatness of Tom Brady under center, he still needs his teammates to complete plays and fulfill their tasks. Despite the recent addition of Josh Gordon at wide receiver, he was not cleared to play against the Lions. Gordon just joined the team and it would be unrealistic to expect any newly acquired player to grasp the playbook, schemes with less than a week of preparation.

That left Brady with a limited supporting cast of receivers outside of Rob Gronkowski and Chris Hogan.

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Gronkowski, for all his talent and playmaking ability, is being double teamed and triple teamed at times throughout each game, leaving him unable to make plays on a consistent basis. Julian Edelman‘s return to the lineup should remedy that situation due to the fact that opposing teams respect his ability and view him as a threat.

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Brady was able to muster a total of 133 yards on 14-of-26 passing with one touchdown against the Lions, but he also threw an interception on a deep pass that was picked off by Darius Slay.

The Patriots running game was also under par with a total of 89 yards between James White and Sony Michel, who had 14 carries for 50 yards. The lack of playmaking from the running backs made it more difficult for Brady to spread the wealth on offense as the Lions were clogging the running lanes and smothering the receivers to boot.

2. Belichick’s defense overwhelmed

The two main weaknesses of the Patriots defense is their lack of pass rushing and their inability to stop the run, two factors that ultimately led to the Lions scoring 26 points. Detroit managed to rush for 159 yards while Matthew Stafford threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns on the struggling Patriots defense.

Despite the abysmal performance by the defense, the absence of Trey Flowers, Patrick Chung and Eric Rowe also contributed to the overall deficiency. The pass rush will likely improve as Flowers returns to the lineup, who was sidelined due to a concussion he suffered against the Jacksonville Jaguars a week earlier.

Belichick’s defense gave up a total of 414 yards against the Lions, a statistic that is not indicative of Coach Belichick’s genius on defense. As a coach that is known for doing the most with the least amount of talent, the teams pass rush is simply not threatening opposing quarterbacks with any consistency at the moment, leading to the more talented teams in the league to capitalize off of that.

3. Lack of team effort

The Patriots are still getting a feel for each other on both ends of the field, the offense has lost many key players during the offseason, the same applies to the defense. Changes have been less dramatic, but the new additions will need time to develop.

However, anyone who watched the Patriots on Sunday night could see that players were not on the same page. Brady was frustrated all night with the offense continuously dropping balls, not running their routes correctly and the lack of time given by his offensive line. Furthermore, defensive players were missing tackles as well as assignments which resulted in the Lions being able to pile up 414 yards of total offense.

After the loss, the two leaders of the team, Belichick and Brady, took turns at the podium to speak about the lack of execution and the need to improve in a hurry.

Considering that we are only three games into the season, there is no reason to hit the panic button just yet. The Patriots have a history of underperforming in September and ultimately taking command of the AFC standings towards the end of the regular season.

New England will still have time to go through early adversity and be able to right the ship, the return of Edelman in two weeks will add another weapon for Brady who can stretch the field and make plays. Gordon is a great addition to the wide receiving corps, assuming he can understand the playbook and also adopt the patriot way.

The team will return home to Gillette Stadium for next Sunday’s matchup against their division rival, the Miami Dolphins, who are riding a three-game winning streak and will offer the Patriots a tough challenge. This game will give the team an opportunity to get back on the win column as they will be motivated to further develop as a squad while playing in front of the Foxboro faithful.