Sunday was yet another opportunity for the New England Patriots to prove they can beat a playoff-caliber opponent without the aid of injuries, freak weather or other external factors.
Instead, they suffered the most lopsided defeat of Bill Belichick’s 24 seasons as their head coach, face-planting in a 38-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
Here are five takeaways from that ghastly performance, which dropped the Patriots to 1-3 on the season:
1. Mac Jones is on notice
Belichick insisted Jones wasn’t benched for poor performance. But man, was that performance poor.