Patriot Coaching Blunders lead to Shocking Loss

Patriot's "Great Coaches" anything but in heartbreaker for players

The New England/Green Bay game this past weekend was incredibly difficult to watch. Early in the first quarter, a huge drive-killing sack of Rogers was negated by an illegal contact penalty against Browner. Problem was, the replay showed no contact whatsoever – So they showed another angle, still no contact, and the drive played on. Late in the fourth quarter, Rob Gronkowski was mugged by HaHa Clinton Dix while trying to secure the go-ahead touchdown and got up forlornly looking for a flag he knew he would not find. But that’s the way it is in the NFL – They want to build suspense for the upcoming Super Bowl and it is not beyond the league to ensure these two squads make it. The home team gets the breaks and the visitor gets a chance late – That is the script usually but sometimes it is the other way around as in Tampa on Sunday.

No the worst part by far were the big mistakes the New England coaching staff made. How in the world, against Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers, can you call a defensive play that results in 10 men on the line and the single safety only 15 yards deep with 30 seconds left in the half. That is exactly what happened at the end of the first half and the result was the Green Bay TD that effectively won the game. Yet New England got a second chance and was driving the ball down the field late on the back of Legarret Blount. All they needed to do was keep at it, run out the clock and score the game winning TD with mere seconds left. Blount was averaging 5.8 yards per carry and the Packers couldn’t stop him yet the Patriots abandoned that for the ill-fated pass to Gronk, subsequent sack and insane field goal attempt. It would have been much easier to get a first down than kick a field goal and recover an onside kick.

You can lay this loss at the feet of Josh McDaniels on the left, Matt Patricia on the right, and Bill Belichick smack dab in the center.