The New England Patriots had shown signs of improvement in the weeks leading up to Sunday's showdown with the Miami Dolphins. They came crashing back down to earth in the Week 12 matchup vs. their AFC East rival.
Not much went right for the Patriots on either side of the ball in their 34-15 loss. Seven of their 10 penalties were committed by the offensive line, which also allowed four sacks and 16 total pressures. Defensively, New England allowed Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to complete 29 of his 40 passes for 317 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions.
As our Tom E. Curran noted on Postgame Live, it was the Patriots' most disappointing all-around performance since last month's 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
"Soup to nuts incompetence," Curran said. "And it really does undo some of the good that had been done in the last four games. As I said in the pregame, they were sniffing around the hindquarters of mediocrity. Well, they got a faceful today.
"They dropped back a little bit, because this is what the team is to an extent. They're somewhere between 24 and 32. They did signal that they had moments, but the unforced errors that we witnessed on offense and then the inability of (defensive coordinator) DeMarcus Covington and the defense to put up any kind of resistance at all -- I knew Jonnu Smith was gonna be a factor. I knew the wide receivers were gonna be a factor. They were a factor. Why were the Patriots caught with their pants down?
"Very discouraging loss, the worst one since Jacksonville a month ago."
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Although Drake Maye has injected some life into the Patriots offense, Sunday's loss showed the offensive line woes and defensive deficiencies outweigh the improvement at the QB position. Former Pats linebacker Ted Johnson lamented New England reverting to the dysfunctional team it was earlier in the campaign.
"It just felt familiar, like we've seen this movie time and time again," Johnson said. "Especially with the penalties. I mean, it was incredible. They had seven penalties in the first half that did them in. The game was over after halftime. (The Dolphins) are up 24 zip. If you just look at the production that the Dolphins had, 17 1st downs in the first half, you had a total of four. They had 289 yards of total offense in the first half, you had a total of 84. That kind of puts it in perspective as far as the domination goes.
"Again, the defense, just giving up big plays. Miami pretty much could do whatever they want. A little bit of a carbon copy of last week's game in a sense, which they just didn't have any answers for the motions and the dynamic kind of play designs that Miami was throwing at them. They didn't have answers for it. They could play zone, they were getting crushed. They could play man-to-man, they were getting crushed. They didn't blitz as much, but it didn't matter. They were leaving coverage on the back and helping those guys out, and it didn't matter. Guys were still running around free.
"So that was hugely disappointing. And then the penalties, the offensive line has been the Achilles heel for this team all season long and it was again today."
The Patriots (3-9) will look to bounce back when they host the Indianapolis Colts (5-7) next Sunday. Indy enters with four losses in its last five games.
Kickoff for Pats-Colts is set for 1 p.m. ET. at Gillette Stadium.
Watch the Postgame Live crew's full reaction to Sunday's loss to the Dolphins below or on YouTube:
