Curran, Breer: There is no “easy” sequence for these Patriots originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New England Patriots enter Week 5 having lost three straight games, including two blowout losses to the New York Jets. and the San Francisco 49ers. Luckily for them, their schedule gets lighter over the next six weeks.
Their next six matchups are against the Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jets, Tennessee Titans and Chicago Bears. These are winnable games on paper, but as our Tom E. Curran and Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said Tuesday First editionthere is nothing “easy” about the 2024 Patriots.
“There are no cupcakes. You are a cupcake,” Curran said. “There are razor blades in every cupcake there – or, in other words, they have a tiny mouth. They can’t even open their mouth big enough to eat that cupcake. So for me, yes , there are great opportunities. It took time, and this is what this reconstruction will look like…
“The Patriots’ number one goal this offseason was to uproot Bill Belichick. And then, after this huge crater disappears, say, ‘Now what are we going to do? Let’s leave these guys here and see how they do .’ So it’s unpredictable I mean you don’t know how they’re going to perform and with all the injuries it’s even worse.
Breer notes that other losing teams view the Patriots as the “winnable” game on their schedule. New England is in no position to underestimate an opponent.
“You’re everyone’s game,” Breer said. “The teams in this schedule — if you’re the Titans, don’t look at this and say, ‘This is where we can do it.’ If you’re the Bears, you’re like, “Okay, this is the one we can count on.” The Bears beat the Rams and the Titans, and beat the Rams in a slugfest type game where they didn’t. ‘didn’t need their quarterback to play well And you’d think Caleb Williams will be better in a few weeks than he is now. “The Jaguars, there’s going to be a lot on the line for this coaching staff. , so they are doing everything they can, perhaps to save jobs there.
“People here still sometimes think it’s 2018. They look at the calendar and say, ‘OK, well, it’s winnable.’ When you have a team like that, you can’t think that way. This team is going to have to scratch and claw to catch someone.”
The Patriots and Dolphins own 1-3 records heading into Sunday’s game at Gillette Stadium. With their top two quarterbacks out due to injuries, Miami was eliminated 31-12 by Tennessee on Monday Night Football. Third player Tyler Huntley is should start again against New England.
If the Patriots offense can’t keep up with the Huntley-led Dolphins, it may be time for head coach Jerod Mayo to seriously consider starting rookie quarterback Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett. Mayo has categorically declared that Brissett was his starter in the futurebut the veteran signal-caller has been unable to move the ball down the field over the past two weeks.
Kickoff for Pats-Dolphins is set for 1 p.m. ET.
