Where Patriots Went Wrong In Week 5 Loss To Limping Dolphins

The New England Patriots fell flat on their faces — again — stooping to an even newer low against the injury-hampered Miami Dolphins in Sunday’s Week 5 matchup at Gillette Stadium, adding a fourth straight loss for Jerod Mayo’s squad.

Whether it’s New England’s offensive line, keeping Jacoby Brissett in the stater’s chair or questionable late-game officiating, there’s plenty of room to divvy up the locker room blame after yet another hard-to-watch defeat. This also includes those standing alongside Mayo on the sidelines as well.

“I think Alex Van Pelt was too cute in trying to be the smartest guy in the room when you don’t have the personnel to do that,” Travis Thomas said on NESN’s “Boston Has Entered The Chat” podcast. “I understand why you want to pass the ball. It’s because the Dolphins are loading the box saying, ‘We dare you to beat us throwing the football.’ Every team’s gonna do that. Every team has been doing that. The difference here is a lot of these teams that the Patriots have faced have done a good job of neutralizing the run, and then oh by the way, Rhamondre (Stevenson) has a fumbling issue, right? Then you look up, you’re down two scores, you have to throw the ball. So that almost dictates what you can do offensively. That was not the case in the Dolphins game.”

New England, under Van Pelt’s offensive guidance, elected to run the ball just 19 times while throwing 34 times. That’s not ideal for a team with a mega-weak offensive line capable of subjecting its quarterback to the ultimate form of torment any given week. Brissett can’t be expected to be the guy to make magic from thin air, therefore, leaning toward New England’s greatest offensive weakness made the loss all that more questionable.

For more, check out the full episode of NESN’s “Boston Has Entered The Chat” here: