Patriots Film Review: Tom Brady Mentally Checked Out Of Blowout Loss
BOSTON (CBS) -- More than a full day has passed since the Patriots suffered one of the most thorough, embarrassing defeats of the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era, and it's still not exactly clear what happened.
Well, we know what happened, in that we know the Patriots struggled on both sides of the ball and never really competed in a raucous Arrowhead Stadium, but it's still not entirely clear how exactly it took place.
Unfortunately for the Patriots, the problems appear to be widespread, with no simple solution or quick fix available to turn things around before Sunday night. There are coaching problems, strategy problems, personnel problems, execution problems and attitude problems, and they have all seemingly piled up at the same time.
The end result was what you saw on Monday night.
But before moving on to Week 5, let's take one last trip through the film review to try to identify more problems (and maybe even a bright spot or two) from the Chiefs' 41-14 win over the Patriots.
--Let's start on a positive note, shall we?
I've heard a lot of people upset with Chandler Jones' overall play in this game, and considering his lack of ability to hold his ground on a number of big runs, I understand it. But he sure got his game started on the right foot, when he worked through this blatant hand to the face from Eric Fisher ...
... en route to sacking Alex Smith and setting up a second-and-18 on a drive that would eventually end in a punt.
Maybe the officials didn't have a clear view of the hands to the face? Oh wait.
--Jones also showed tremendous fight later in the first quarter, when his rush off the edge left him a good three yards behind Smith.
The quarterback decided to try to run it up the gut, but Jones closed the gap quickly.
--OK, it was a pretty ugly game, but have you ever seen a sight more glorious than this????
--Of all the problems that the Patriots should be able to fix, I think the simple act of tackling should be at the top of the list. Well, tackling and staying on their feet. Those are two essential skills to playing defense.
Patrick Chung whiffed on a tackle here, allowing Kniles Davis to run for for a first down:
Rob Ninkovich had Davis dead to rights on a third-and-10 but instead of making the tackle, he elected to go for a ride on the Slip 'N Slide:
That was the exact moment that millions of TVs turned off in New England.
Logan Ryan also let Donnie Avery slip through this tackle:
And Avery gained 19 yards.
Bad job, everybody. Be better.
--Darrelle Revis is catching some heat too, even though he's really only been beat deep once this season (and that was an incompletion in Miami). I suppose the story on Revis was that he was going to completely neutralize one receiver or one side of the field, but he hasn't done that. While he allowed a few more receptions in the KC game, he came oh-so-close to breaking up a pass to Dwayne Bowe, a third-down reception that moved the chains and led to the game's first touchdown. Revis was about 0.2 seconds off in his swat at the ball on that one.
And if the game had actually been competitive, and if a bogus penalty hadn't been called on Logan Ryan, Revis' tackle of Bowe just short of the goal line before halftime would have probably been the play of the game.
--An awful game offensively obviously has people saying all sorts of things about the quarterback, ranging from "Brady has no protection and no help" to "Brady is terrible and should retire." The reality, of course, is somewhere in the middle, but it's much closer to the former than the latter.
If you want to crush Brady for anything on this night, it'd be his attitude. That pick-six was just terrible, and it really looked as though Brady had mentally checked out of the game at that point. I wouldn't spend too much time analyzing his ability to scan the field and read a defense, because I don't think 15 years of experience magically disappeared overnight. I think he was just frustrated and he was sick of getting hit, so he went full-Romo, threw a pass and hoped for the best.
That being said, Brady made some other mistakes on this night that certainly didn't help the team.
I can think of this play in the second quarter, when James Develin was left uncovered in the right flat, but Brady opted to throw to Rob Gronkowski in double coverage:
Brady rolled his eyes after throwing that incompletion, for some reason.
I also don't care what anyone says: Brady should have run this ball.
Yes, Josh Mauga is right there, but you take a step left, you plant your foot in the turf and you cut right at a diagonal angle away from him and you pick up the first down. It's a basic athletic act that most professional athletes can accomplish. Brady screwed up by not picking up the first down with his feet and instead choosing to try to squeeze a pass in to Julian Edelman.
--Speaking of Edelman, poor guy. He had to deal with this height disadvantage against Sean Smith.
It did not work out well for the little fella.
--Brady's interception to Smith was deemed a "miscommunication" by the broadcast crew, as Edelman was blamed for stopping his route short and Brady was sort-of blamed for throwing the ball anyway. But really, even if Edelman had continued running up the sideline, that ball was thrown right at Smith's nose.
It just reached the point where Brady was not mentally into this football game. It was truly a rare night for the Hall of Fame QB.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here, or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
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