The New England Patriots are off to their worst start since 1993.
With a 2-9 record, it’s safe to say that New England’s season is going down the drain, even if they aren’t mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet.
When a team is this bad, fingers usually point to two people: the quarterback and the head coach.
Quarterback Mac Jones hasn’t lived up to the first round pick hype. After leading the team to a playoff berth as a promising rookie, the team has declined every year with Jones under center.
Quite frankly, the offense has become unwatchable. They’ve cracked the 20-point threshold just once this season.
Critics can dig into Jones as much as they want, but why has there been less blame on head coach Bill Belichick?
Unfortunately for the Pats, things started going downhill when offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels took the head coaching job with the Raiders last season. Belichick, who has been calling the defensive plays since 2018, decided that he was also going to be an offensive play-caller last year. The Pats finished 17th in points scored, but nothing about their offense, outside maybe their run game, was eye-catching.
This year, he decided to rehire former assistant coach Bill O’Brien, who was with the team in their 2012 Super Bowl loss to the Giants.
Their total offense ranks dead last.
Despite his struggles with the Pats the last few years, Belichick is still one of the best coaches of all time. He will probably go down in history as the greatest defensive mind in NFL coaching ever. His accolades are headlined by six Super Bowls, second most all-time wins as a coach and a 31-13 playoff record.
But what has Belichick done without the undisputable GOAT at the helm of his offense, Tom Brady?
Belichick’s win percentage dropped from .769 with Brady to .456 without him. Having a losing record without your best quarterback is telling.
Meanwhile, what has Brady done without Belichick?
He took a 5th-seeded Buccaneers team to their second-ever Super Bowl victory in his first year with a team. Maybe more impressively, he knocked down future Hall-of-Famer quarterbacks Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers with arguably inferior squads in the process.
To bring things back full circle, Patriots teams in the Belichick era have not been as dominant without Brady as they were with him. The recent Pats teams have missed the playoffs three out of four — soon to be four out of five — years.
As great as he has been, Belichick’s true skill set might have been carried by the success he had with his all-time quarterback.
However, the blame should absolutely not fall entirely on the shoulders of the coach. The team needs to find a rather immediate future without Jones, and even though he’s had moments, Bailey Zappe isn’t the answer either.
There’s a real possibility that they don’t win another game, which might sound like a tough pill to swallow for Patriots fans, but you might as well get the best draft pick possible if you aren’t going to the big dance.
They could select a top QB prospect like USC’s Caleb Williams or UNC’s Drake Maye with a top pick. But which one they would choose is a completely different debate.
Instead, let’s stop putting all the accusations on the quarterback and turn up the heat on a coaching seat that has been relatively cool for many, many years.
What if BU had a football program in a BCS Conference? How much $$$ would it generate for BU? What three new sports could be added for women using new football revenue?
And while BU continues to lead in CTE research to perhaps helping the sport become safer for players overall, former Terrier assistant Buddy Teevens developed ways at Dartmouth as head coach to practice without contact with tremendous results.
But BU directors must want football at BU first. Everything else is simple as it can be financially rewarding for the school and student body.