Patriots Need To “Stay United” Over The Next 3 Games

(CTN News) – The Patriots’ slim playoff hopes are dangling by a thread after a devastating loss to the Raiders in 2022. Even worse, New England looked like they were on the verge of pulling off a comeback win.

This could’ve been a signature victory, maybe even one that could’ve sparked a playoff run. Now the Patriots face three games against three of the most talented teams in the conference.

These teams are all jockeying for playoff spots and looking to hurt them some more.

“Unfortunately, we made too many mistakes and gave up some big plays that obviously made the difference,” Bill Belichick said after the game.

This isn’t possible in this league, and it cost us. We’ll work on eliminating those and playing the best football we do, but we just had too many mistakes and too a lot of untimely plays to win.

The Patriots have made too many mistakes this season.

The offense continued to struggle on third down (2-of-13) and in the red zone (0-of-1) due to miscues and miscommunication.

A stalled Raiders drive in the second quarter was a glaring example. Two yards from the end zone, the offense rushed for one yard, then took two timeouts, then got a false start penalty. It was a field goal.

In response to a question about the sequence on Monday morning, Bill Belichick succinctly said, “It’s a combination of things we need to improve upon,” but that was just one example.

It stings, and it’s going to sting, but we’ve got more games to play, and we’ve got to keep fighting; don’t quit,” said quarterback Mac Jones. “We don’t quit. We attack every day, come together, and try to do better each day.”

It’s also frustrating that the defense played well for most of the second half, forcing five straight punts at one point and even giving the offense the ball back with over three minutes left.

Davante Adams had four catches for 28 yards. Josh Jacobs got under 100 yards. Normally, that would’ve been a winning performance, but even that silver lining fell apart on the Raiders’ 81-yard scoring drive.

Aside from the touchdown controversy, the Patriots defense had chances to seal the win again but couldn’t make a final stop, a fatal flaw with their offense.

A whopping 13 penalties hurt the Raiders in Josh McDaniels’ first year, showing why they’ve struggled. They’re not a stellar team and one the Patriots should have beaten with superior situational football.

As the Bengals, Dolphins and Bills decide where New England stands against the actual top teams in the conference and how far off they are. This missed opportunity could haunt the Patriots.

Six straight wins for the Bengals, and eight in a row. As one of the most talented teams in the AFC, they’re arguably the hottest team in the conference.

Buffalo and Miami have beaten the Patriots in seven straight games. While a late-game collapse is one thing, these games against three of the conference’s playoff teams will tell us where the Patriots really stand.

It’ll take a dramatic reversal of established themes.

Mark Daniels of Mass Live relayed Belichick’s post-game message via Matthew Slater.

“Stay united,” Slater said. When you lose a game like this, a lot of teams turn on each other, start pointing fingers. There will be people out to tear us down. We have to rise above it.”

There’s gonna be a lot of stones thrown around. We have to keep believing in one another. We can’t turn on each other. Just keep moving forward.

Losing a game like that is hard. Nobody’s fault. We win as a team, we lose as a team. We just have to keep going.”

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