There was no magic for the New England Patriots coming off a bye week in Glendale. The team looked as bad as it has looked all season, if not worse, in Sunday’s 30-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
They couldn’t finish drives with touchdowns early in the game, mostly due to the struggles along the offensive line. Left tackle Vederian Lowe especially had a rough day in pass protection and run blocking.
On one series, he gave up a tackle for a loss and then followed that play up by allowing a huge blindside sack on rookie quarterback Drake Maye.
Lowe was a disaster in this game, but he wasn’t alone. Interior lineman Ben Brown had multiple mishandled snaps under center. If anyone needed a reason to root for the Patriots addressing the offensive line first in the 2025 NFL draft, this was the game for those individuals.
Maye doesn’t have much help at receiver, but it doesn’t even matter considering how bad the offensive line play has been.
Things weren’t much better on the defensive side of the ball. That unit was looked at as a position of strength for the Patriots last year, but this season, they couldn’t stop running water. The Cardinals bullied them on the ground for 163 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
It was absolute domination.
Christian Gonzalez’s ability to negate multiple touchdown pass attempts to Marvin Harrison Jr. was one of the few bright spots for the unit.
But everything else was bad. Poor tackling, blown assignments and struggles to generate real pressure led to them getting pounded into the dirt for a fourth straight loss.
Sadly, this might have only been a taste of what’s in store for the struggling Patriots in their final four-game stretch of the season. The schedule gets even harder next week with them slated to travel to Highmark Stadium to take on Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.
