What It Means – The Patriots led for most of the game and had numerous chances to put the Seahawks away, but just couldn’t finish the game off. The ability to finish off an opponent has been the main weakness for this team through the first six weeks of the season. In their three losses this year, the Patriots had multiple chances to close out their opponents, but failed each time. They are now 3-3 overall, with all of their losses coming by a combined total of 4 points. This shows how closely nit the majority of the league is right now, and how little mistakes can cost your team big ground in the standings.
Secondary Clueless - The Patriots secondary proved again Sunday that they can not be
relied on to make a single stop. Yes, one single stop. When there was no pressure on
the secondary, they still were left looking lost. A recurring nightmare for New England is their corners and safety’s not turning around when the ball is in the air. This has resulted in numerous pass interference calls and leaves the team looking foolish for not correcting these simple mistakes. All the Patriots needed to do in the final drive of the game was prevent any of Seattle’s receivers from getting past the defense, and the secondary let Sidney Rice do just that, and as a result he scored the game winning touchdown. Saying there is a lot of work to be done is an understatement, as the secondary needs a complete makeover at this point.
Game Management Lacking – The Patriots coaching staff would like to forget this one. Including the poor execution to close the first half, where a field goal was all but a guarantee yet they ended up getting no points, there were numerous other mistakes throughout the game that left New England scratching their heads in disbelief as the game clock hit zeros. A questionable timeout call with five minutes remaining in the fourth-quarter, and the team up by 6 points, along with a timeout due to 12 men on the field left the Patriots with no timeouts left for the game. This came back to haunt them when they gave up the leading score and were left with 1:18 on the clock on their own 18 yard line. Just another piece to the puzzle of how everything fell apart on Sunday.
Not Brady’s Best - Brady entered the game with just one interception on the season, but he had two on the day. Tom also had an intentional grounding call at the end of the
second quarter that prevented New England from scoring any points heading into halftime. The weather was sloppy, but this cannot be used as an excuse for a player that has dealt with poor weather his whole career. The unfortunate aspect of Brady having a sub-par performance is that it appears the defense will not be able to bail the quarterback out if he underperforms in any games this year. This was the main issue last season, and it appears to still remain an issue with this team as well.
12th Man is Legit – While the crowd in Seattle gets built up to a seemingly unattainable level, they certainly deserve having the title of best crowd in the NFL. Even when the Seahawks trailed, Seattle’s “12th Man” was as loud as they could possibly be, making things stressful for Brady and company in the pocket. You could tell that Tom was uncomfortable and felt rushed to get rid of the ball throughout the game, and the crowd deserves some credit for this lack in concentration. Give the Seahawks fans credit, because for whatever reason, unexplainable results tend to happen more often in Seattle than seemingly any other stadium in the league.
Welker Stays Strong – Amidst all the mistakes for the Patriots in Sundays loss in
Seattle was yet another impressive performance by Wes Welker. In the second quarter Wes took a hit that would have some receivers out for a few weeks, yet he somehow returned to the field two plays later and had a big first down reception. This kind of effort, along with impressive numbers throughout the game, is a sign to the front office that they might want to reconsider potentially letting the free agent wide receiver go after the season is over.
Top Note – The Patriots are the first team with three losses by two points or fewer in their first six games since the 1960 Dallas Texans of the AFL.
Up Next – The Patriots return to Gillette Stadium on Sunday to take on the New York Jets, who scored a big win over the Colts on Sunday. Kickoff is at 4:25 PM.
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