Pats Pulpit
Notes and thoughts on New England’s 28-22 loss in NFL Week 11.
The New England Patriots lost another home game on Sunday, this one to the Los Angeles Rams. While they were able to keep things close and had a chance to drive for the victory late, they also seemed to be overmatched at times in the talent department both on and off the field.
As a consequence, the Patriots were defeated with a final score of 28-22. They are now 3-8 on the year, and only theoretically alive in the hunt for a playoff spot.
With that said, let’s clean out the notebook from the game.
The Patriots went up 7-0 in the first quarter, and they had their third drive of the game stall at the Rams 37-yard line following an illegal formation penalty against left tackle Vederian Lowe. They had a choice to kick the 55-yard field goal, or try to punt and pin the Rams deep. They decided to punt, resulting in a touchback to limit the net gain to only 17 yards.
The Rams responded to that decision by driving 80 yards in nine plays, strip-sacking quarterback Drake Maye on third down on the next Patriots possession, and scoring on the first play of their subsequent drive to quickly turn a seven-point deficit into a 14-7 lead.
Hindsight is 20/20, but the decision to punt rather than attempt a long field goal turned out to be a costly one. Now, the wind was swirling a bit down that end, and Joey Slye had missed a few kicks in pregame, but the Patriots — especially given their current record and developmental stage — should probably try to be aggressive and attempt to score when they can. They are not winning because of field position, especially against the Rams.
“I just felt like when I made those choices, it was the best thing to do for our football team today,” head coach Jerod Mayo said about his decision making after the game.
Additionally, they also settled for field goals from the Rams 13-, 7-, and 23-yard lines. Frankly, the Patriots can’t afford to be conservative. They have a clear talent deficit against a team like the Rams, and going for broke is — in this humble opinion — the way they should play.
We will get into the defensive play calling as a whole in a second, but for now let’s focus on New England’s best player. For some reason, the Patriots decided against Christian Gonzalez shadowing Rams wide receivers Puka Nacua or Cooper Kupp, and it went horribly for them.
The player that the sophomore cornerback instead was primarily shadowing was Demarcus Robinson, who finished with two catches for 19 yards. That’s great and all, but Nacua and Kupp are why the Rams won the game: the former caught seven passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, the latter six passes for 106 and...
