The New England Patriots made history for all of the wrong reasons in their shocking 38-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
In coach Bill Belichick’s 29 years as a head coach, he has never lost a game by 35 points—until Sunday. The Patriots got beat like a drum on the road by the Cowboys on both sides of the ball.
On offense, it was another sluggish effort with Mac Jones turning the ball over and struggling to move the ball downfield. On defense, it was all about injuries with Christian Gonzalez, Matthew Judon and Jabrill Peppers all going down.
The wheels finally fell off a Patriots defense that had been resilient up to this point, and the offense looked like it stepped into a time machine to the dreadful 2022 season.
Here are the studs and duds from the Patriots’ third regular season loss:
Mac Jones: DUD
This was arguably the worst game of Patriots quarterback Mac Jones’ NFL career.
He went 12-of-21 throwing for 150 yards, a lost fumble and two interceptions, including a pick-six. The Patriots offense is already a mess, but Jones made things even worse by playing hot potato with the football.
It’s hard to win games at any level, much less in the NFL, when turning the ball over three times. Things got so bad that coach Bill Belichick was forced to bench Jones for backup Bailey Zappe, who was initially cut by the team before the start of the season.
No one can argue the fact that the Patriots have done a poor job of surrounding Jones with the help he needs at receiver. But Jones isn’t making a great case that he’s the right guy for the starting job, if hell freezes over and the long-awaited receiver help finally comes.
Mike Onwenu: DUD
Mac Jones wasn’t the only player that had one of the worst games of his NFL career.
Offensive guard Mike Onwenu, who was the Patriots’ best offensive lineman last season, was an accident waiting to happen in Sunday’s game against the Cowboys. He was the recipient of three costly penalties (two false starts and a hold) for an offense that can’t afford moving backwards.
It has been a slow start for Onwenu since his return from his ankle injury. Performances like the one he had on Sunday won’t do him any favors in a contract year, when he’s supposed to be showing his best stuff for added bargaining power.
Kyle Dugger: STUD
It wasn’t a pretty performance for the Patriots by any stretch, but the defense fought valiantly, despite a complete offensive meltdown.
The top defensive performer was safety Kyle Dugger, who led the team with 15 tackles, including one quarterback hit and a tackle for a loss. Dugger was flying all over the field making plays on a day when players were going down with injuries and nothing was going right.
Like Onwenu, Dugger is also playing in a contract year, but his play is reflecting his sense of urgency to land the biggest pay raise of his professional career.
Patriots offensive line: DUD
The entire offensive line deserves mentioning, along with Mike Onwenu, for another ugly game up front.
It would be easy to simply point the finger at running backs Rhamondre Stevenson and Ezekiel Elliott, but the offensive line hasn’t done either player any favors in the run-blocking department.
There was nowhere to go with the football on most hand-offs, and it left the Patriots’ backfield with a paltry 53 rushing yards and no touchdowns.
The inability to run the ball effectively has turned the Patriots into a one-dimensional football team, and given their lack of explosiveness at wide receiver, it’s a worst-case scenario situation for the offense.
Hunter Henry: STUD
With the receiving corps looking dead in the water, tight end Hunter Henry continued to serve as Mac Jones’ most reliable target against the Cowboys. Granted, it wasn’t one of his best games, but he still led the team with four receptions for 51 yards.
Henry has clearly benefitted from offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien’s play-calling. He’s no longer being under-utilized, and he currently has the second-most receiver yards on the roster behind Kendrick Bourne.
It would be great if Henry’s consistency was contagious because the Patriots haven’t done much at all with their receivers. Henry nearly had as many receptions as Bourne, DeVante Parker and JuJu Smith-Schuster combined.
Mike Gesicki: DUD
The Patriots had an opportunity to put a touchdown on the board, but tight end Mike Gesicki failed to snag this wide open throw. Granted, Jones led Gesicki a bit too far with the throw, but it was still a catchable ball that might have shifted momentum early in the game.
Should Mike Gesicki make this catch? Probably, yes.
Could it have been more catchable? Proable, yes, also. pic.twitter.com/q4OgEetyad
— Taylor Kyles (@tkyles39) October 2, 2023
This was a quiet night altogether for Gesicki, who only hauled in one reception for 12 yards. The Patriots are heavily-dependent on their tight ends to step up and make plays, but on Sunday, it was Hunter Henry-or-bust for the team.
Gesicki is a talented player that hasn’t reached his ceiling in the offense. Even with a down performance, his arrow is still pointed upwards for the Patriots.
Demario Douglas: STUD
It feels like we’re saying every week that the Patriots need to do a better job of getting rookie wide receiver Demario Douglas more involved in the offense.
That broken record won’t be stopping anytime soon if he continues to make plays like the one he made against the Cowboys on Sunday.
Demario Douglas *WHOOP* pic.twitter.com/f2VgT2F2sZ
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) October 1, 2023
Only Hunter Henry had more receiving yards than Douglas, who finished the game with two receptions for 45 yards. It could prove beneficial to make Douglas and maybe even Kayshon Boutte more prominent figures in an offense that desperately needs a spark.
JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kendrick Bourne, DeVante Parker: DUDs
What happened to the veteran receivers on Sunday?
JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kendrick Bourne and DeVante Parker only mustered five receptions combined in the game. That isn’t going to cut it if the Patriots have any hopes of snapping out of their sluggish nightmare.
Bourne has been hit and miss since his breakout Week 1 game, and Parker has yet to establish himself as a legitimate No. 1 option. Meanwhile, Smith-Schuster has looked like an absolute bust of an addition in New England.
The time has come for the Patriots to take a serious look in the mirror and decide if always taking the cheaper route at the receiver position is truly worth it.
Special teams: DUD
The Cowboys apparently wanted to embarrass the Patriots at all phases of the game. They even caught New England’s special teams sleeping for this easy two-point conversion to run the score up even higher.
Fake extra-point, DL Chauncey Golston TD catch from punter Bryan Anger
Cowboys 18, Patriots 3 pic.twitter.com/n3IBQt75Df
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) October 1, 2023
This was one of those games where the Patriots failed at every turn in playing good situational football.
They have to get better if they have any hopes of turning things around. Given the injuries on defense and offensive inefficiencies, the Patriots can’t afford to make these sorts of mistakes on special teams.
Bryce Baringer: STUD
This would have been an easy game for rookie punter Bryce Baringer to fall off a cliff. The Patriots couldn’t get anything going offensively, and they were constantly forced to punt away the ball.
Baringer had a good kicking day overall and never put the defense in bad field position. His performance won’t receive much attention, but he has lived up to the billing of a sixth-round draft pick.
The Patriots are hopeful that effort continues, especially if the offense continues to struggle and they have to keep punting drives away.
