Welp, that was as deflating a loss as any the Patriots have had all year, and there's a lot to choose from now since the count is up to 10. Despite a lot of good out of the Patriots' offense yesterday, an alarming lack of red zone execution, offensive line penalties (because, of course), and simply horrendous run and third down defense were your key reasons for defeat this week, and we've reached "trend" territory with a lot of those reasons now if we didn't already; wasting yet another phenomenal outing by rookie signal caller Drake Maye.
Another key missed field goal by Joey Slye didn't help out either, but to be blunt, the way New England has played defense for the last three weeks is inexcusable at this level of football. Communication issues shouldn't be happening this late in the proverbial game, and they continue to show up. Additionally, this front is either not getting pressure or not capitalizing on it when they do, and boy, did that show up big time on Sunday. I think DeMarcus Covington did some (keyword) good things vs. the Colts' offense, but the bad heavily outweighed the good once again, and I've reached the point where I think a new DC should be on the table for next year; if not, a new play caller for the rest of this year. Here's why in visual form.
Situations
Before the Colts' final possession of this game, they were 3-of-6 on third-down tries and converted 2-of-5, which doesn't seem bad until you remember that they went a perfect 3-for-3 on fourth-down attempts. The most egregious of which being the touchdown that allowed the Colts to go for the win moments later.
I think the dime personnel the Patriots sent out here was the right call given what the Colts ran, even with Alex Austin away from the bunch set, but my issue is this. Why are "we" asking Kyle Dugger, who we all know is on a bad ankle, to work Alec Pierce 1v1 at a disadvantage with the latter's speed? To me, this is on Covington long before it's on Dugger, who, in fairness, did his best here, in my view. Especially with the multiple timeouts before this play, I have no idea why they felt comfortable putting their injured safety on an island with a speedster like Pierce. Of course, this wasn't the only bad effort on that drive, given that they couldn't stop Richardson or Taylor as runners, really all game for that matter. You deserve to lose if you can't get off the field defensively in crunch time.
I don't know what the short-term fix is to the Patriots' (alarming) issues defending short yardage on third downs, but again, this has to fall, at least somewhat, on Covington. This is his unit. These problems have gotten worse, not better, and the three remaining teams they have left will TORCH them in short yardage if they don't have a fix coming out of the bye. Guys like Kyler Murray and Josh Allen are probably salivating knowing what's on deck, and it doesn't seem like this team will be capable of making key stops.
That's not even getting to the other side of the ball, either, where this offensive line quite literally took several points off the board themselves with penalties in the red zone. That undermined what I honestly thought was a great game for Alex Van Pelt as a playcaller and also took a good chunk of the blame pie in this loss. I don't really see a short-term fix here, either.
Corners Hold Up Their End of the Bargain
The lone area where this defense/Covington deserves credit was the play of the cornerbacks, and simply the call to give Alex Austin and Isaiah Bolden more looks against a bigger group of wideouts. Austin was a dynamite on that final drive, and Richardson went after him three times. Two went for incompletions, and the other led to Michael Pittman Jr getting stamped over the middle on a 2nd&10 moment after making a quick grab. We saw Austin be a bright spot down the stretch last season, and that was certainly the case yesterday. He spends these final four games in a perfect world as the Patriots' No. 2 boundary cornerback.
Now, your weekly Gonzo update is that despite seemingly suffering some kind of shoulder injury on his pick, it was worth the All-Pro hype he received yesterday. Even before his own INT, look at what he did on the Christian Elliss pick.
As a reminder, pass interference goes out the window on tip drill passes, so knowing that Gonzo makes a savvy, quick-time decision to shove Pittman Jr. to the ground and then get out of the way not to disrupt a turnover. If you remember, in the Miami game, there was a red zone stint where the Patriots cost themselves at least one pick because of multiple guys trying to make a play on the ball, so this was a good course correction in the game. Now, for his own pick, where Gonzo showed off some top 1% closing speed.
I don't know how accustomed Patriots fans are to watching Alec Pierce, but he can flat-fly. Richardson not leading him here helped out (although if he did, Dugger is either picking this off or sending him to the shadow realm), but that's a ton of ground he made up while also baiting him into this throw on a 2nd&7. Add this in with that goalline tackle on Jonathan Taylor, and this was one of Gonzo's best games of the season. Great game for the corners in general really.
Was the 68-Yard Attempt a Good Call By Mayo?
There's certainly a majority of folks out there who didn't like the lack of a hail mary try at the end of regulation; I, however, was not one of them. Mainly because of the Patriots' offensive line having to block enough (even against three rushers) to give Maye enough time for a throw, but Joey Slye has been marked as making kicks from the high 60-yard range in warmups this season, and it's not like either option was a sure thing. It's not that it's unfair to second-guess Mayo here, but they didn't lose this game there; that happened a fair amount of time beforehand. The Colts weren't perfect, but they executed in key spots and got the opportunity to make a calculated gamble with their playoff hopes in the balance. It's another objectively bad loss for Jerod Mayo and this staff going into what'll be a long bye week.
Final Score: Indianapolis Colts 25, New England Patriots 24
Gaffney's Three Stars from Patriots-Colts
3rd Star - Antonio Gibson (7 Carries for 62 Yards, TD)
2nd Star - Christian Gonzalez (INT, 6 Tackles, 1 Target and 0 Receptions Allowed)
1st Star - Drake Maye (24/30, 238 Yards, TD, INT, 5 Carries for 59 Yards)
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