Curran, Johnson: ‘Stupid mistakes’ cost Pats ‘brutal’ loss to Dolphins originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New England Patriots’ fourth straight loss was perhaps their most frustrating yet.
Jerod Mayo’s group was flagged a whopping 12 times in Sunday’s loss to the Miami Dolphins, having committed just 16 total penalties in the first four games of the season. Miami took advantage of New England’s miscues and turned a seven-point deficit into a 15-10 win.
The game came down to the final two minutes, with the Patriots appearing to regain the lead on a Jacoby Brissett touchdown pass to Ja’Lynn Polk. However, the TD was overturned because upon closer inspection, Polk’s heel was out of bounds. You can watch the controversial piece here.
The Patriots fell just short on their final drive, falling to 1-4 on the season. Our Patriots insider Tom E. Curran shared his immediate reaction to the “maddening” performance on Patriots postgame live.
“To some extent you applaud the effort of a team that left so many players behind. You applaud the effort of Jacoby Brissett, but you also tear them up because of the number of penalties, the number of stupid mistakes, the number of physical mistakes.” mistakes by some of their better players,” Curran said. “Whether it’s Keion White on penalties, DeMario Douglas had a drop, Hunter Henry (had a penalty), Ja’Lynn Polk had some drops. And all of this is somewhat mitigated by the actions at the end that almost clinched the victory .
“To me, this game is a little bit more maddening than Seattle, where they played very clean except for two mistakes. This was littered with mistakes and was very winnable, so this is one of those games where I look at it like don’t do it.” Don’t get used to losing. Don’t be a loser team that beats itself with stupid 15-yard penalties that end in field goals or stupid plays on the sideline or that falls out after a play goes against you and then isn’t ready for it. the next play.”
The Dolphins had 24 first downs to the Patriots’ 15. They dominated time of possession and kept the ball almost nine minutes longer (34:20) than New England (25:40).
For former Pats linebacker Ted Johnson, the way New England lost to Miami speaks volumes about the state of the team.
“I just think this is a brutal loss,” Johnson said. “If you’re going to lose, you can’t lose like this. You can’t lose looking like this. The Patriots defense was a papier-mâché defense. Last week they couldn’t stop the pass, this week they couldn’t they don’t stop the pass.” couldn’t stop the series. They were dominated in possession. Miami had almost ten more first downs than the Patriots.
“The point is that the Patriots won the turnover battle and still lost this game. That shows how bad the operation was for the New England Patriots. So I’m just a little discouraged by the effort and execution of this team today , when you think about how bad Miami is. That puts into perspective what the Patriots are.”
Once again, the Patriots couldn’t get anything going on offense. Brissett finished 18 of 34 for 160 passing yards and no touchdowns. He didn’t turn the ball over, but his inability to push the ball upfield remained a glaring problem.
New England will have to play a much cleaner game if it wants to have any chance against the 4-1 Houston Texans next Sunday. Kickoff for the Week 6 game is scheduled for 1:00 PM ET at Gillette Stadium.
