Whew, that’s going to be a tough one to bounce back from.
The New England Patriots had the Minnesota Vikings served up like a Thanksgiving feast on a silver platter, but everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong in their road trip to the Twin Cities on Thursday night.
It’s even tougher considering they have one of the hardest schedules down the stretch this season. So a road win over the Vikings would have greatly increased their chances of sneaking in through the backdoor in the playoffs.
The sickness from a loss like that one is enough to make an even bigger mess on a Christmas sweater than “mom’s spaghetti.” Of course, there’s always a glimmer of hope when I can sneak an Eminem reference in an article, and the Patriots could surely take a lot of positives away from the loss.
Let’s recap the biggest talking points this morning.
1
Yikes! We really need to talk about the officiating.
Thursday night’s loss really drives home Bill Belichick’s belief that all calls should be made reviewable, assuming you have the challenges to review them. It was obviously a bad night for officiating in a loss that could potentially have huge ramification on the Patriots’ playoff chances.
The zebras are sticking to their guns on the Hunter Henry reception that looked like a touchdown but was ultimately called back as an incomplete pass. Fair enough. We’d be here all day talking about what should and shouldn’t count as a catch in the NFL.
Been there. Done that.
But the no call on the hold on Kyle Dugger during the special teams play that ended with Vikings running back Kene Nwangwu scoring a touchdown on a kick return was bad. Then the no-call facemask grab on Patriots quarterback Mac Jones was even worse.
yeaaa that's a facemask.. pic.twitter.com/cUaiQrpnLD
— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) November 25, 2022
I could go on and on with obvious blocks in the back that weren’t called and holding penalties that were shockingly let go. You get the picture.
Yes, it’s always a showing of sour grapes when bad officiating gets made into a talking point, but after the kerfuffle it caused in this game, it is certainly warranted.
2
It wasn't all just bad officiating. There were self-inflicted blunders, too.
It would be easy to just sit here and point at the bad officiating as the reason for the Patriots losing on Thursday night, but that would be disingenuous to a good Vikings team—and the fact that the Patriots had a hand in their own demise.
Pierre Strong Jr. might get the Jonas Gray doghouse treatment following his backbreaking running into the kicker penalty that kept the game-winning touchdown drive alive for the Vikings. Oh, and Myles Bryant’s ill-timed personal foul for hitting a defenseless receiver was an absolute gut punch.
There were also bad clock management plays down the stretch with Hunter Henry failing to get out of bounds to stop the clock after a big reception late in the fourth quarter, along with Mac Jones going down with the ball instead of throwing it away on one particular play.
The latter seemed to be a persisting problem throughout the game for the Patriots’ second-year quarterback. I get the situation was less than ideal with two starting offensive linemen missing and the receivers struggling to create separation, but the next evolutionary step in Jones’ game is getting rid of the football in critical situations where the team can’t afford to take a sack.
3
Offense comes to life, and proves Mac Jones is clearly the guy in New England.
It’s time to move on from all of the quarterback controversy talk in New England. Granted, that has obviously died down in recent weeks, but it needs to die out completely after Mac Jones’ stellar performance on Thursday night.
Despite the dark cloud settling overhead for the Patriots throughout the game, Jones carved up the Vikings defense by throwing 28-of-39 for 382 yards and two touchdowns. It was easily his best performance of the season, and it followed a strong showing against the New York Jets.
If we’re being completely honest, the criticisms surrounding Jones haven’t been fair this season given the conditions he’s had to work under. Rewind back and remember how bad legendary quarterback Tom Brady looked in his final season in New England when he had the reins of the offense.
Injuries are plaguing an offensive line that hasn’t been that good this season, and the receiving corps is full of a bunch of guys that can’t consistently get open. Jones has also dealt with the rocky transition from one of the league’s best offensive play-callers in Josh McDaniels to former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia taking over that job.
If this were a video game, Jones would be playing on All-Madden with all of the sliders turned to the maximum. That’s how difficult the Patriots have made this season for him.
And yet, throughout all of the problems and outside noise, he made a commitment towards improving, and he’s done exactly that on the football field. Bailey Zappe might be Mr. Cool, but Jones is ice cold in that regard.
The Patriots now have a foundation to build on for the rest of the season and years to come. They simply need to do a better job of trusting Jones and giving him the things he needs to at least have a chance of being successful under center.
