The Kendrick Bourne situation is bizarre and other leftover Patriots thoughts
BOSTON -- The Patriots possessed the football nine times on Sunday. They scored points once. The offense actually gave up as many points as it scored.
That's obviously quite bad, and there's not one single player who likely could have saved the day by his lonesome. So don't get this twisted.
But the ongoing Kendrick Bourne situation is bizarre. And it's not at all good for the Patriots.
The receiver has seemingly been in Bill Belichick's doghouse since midsummer, when he was one of several Patriots who participated in a fight during joint practices with the Panthers and then didn't dress for the second preseason game. His participation in first team drills stopped, and the Patriots' coaching staff essentially relegated him to backup status. That continued Sunday, when he was just a spectator for the first three quarters of the game.
When he finally was allowed to play football, he immediately burned Nik Needham and hauled in a 41-yard catch. It was the Patriots' biggest play of the day.
And ... that was it. Nelson Agholor fumbled two plays later, when Bourne was back on the sideline, and the Patriots' defense couldn't get the ball back.
If this is some disciplinary measure, then it certainly wouldn't be the first time we've seen it in New England. Wes Welker was benched for an offensive series after rattling off a bunch of foot jokes to try to embarrass Rex Ryan; the Patriots lost that playoff game. Malcolm Butler was benched for the entirety of a Super Bowl for ... reasons. The Patriots obviously lost that one, too.
Yet if Bourne is being punished for something, Bill Belichick isn't saying. Here's how an uncomfortable exchange played out in the postgame press conference.
Reporter: It didn't look like Kendrick Bourne got into the game until the very end there. Was there a reason that he didn't play?
Belichick: No. It just worked out that way.
Reporter: He immediately caught a 40-yard pass. In retrospect, do you wish you would have played him more?
Belichick: Um, we did what we thought was best.
Reporter: Is it disciplinary?
Belichick: No.
Belichick has taken some unique stances this summer, so the idea that Bourne is at the bottom of the depth chart because of his performance and ability certainly qualifies as one of them.
Bourne ranked second on the team last year in receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, and total yards from scrimmage. It was the best year of his career, as he established instant chemistry with Mac Jones. He picked up 125 rushing yards after getting zero rushing attempts in the first four years of his career. He was a perpetual positive influence on those in his orbit, and was a rare receiver to thrive in his first year in the Patriots' system. He spent the offseason talking about how excited he was for year two in New England.
And now the Patriots are saying he's just not good enough to play for them. That he went ahead and made the biggest play of the game doesn't help their case.
Obviously, something's up, and nobody wants to properly explain it. So for now, just add it to the list of decisions that don't appear to be in line with doing what's best for the football team. Time was, the Patriots were so good that benchings could be made, punishments could be delivered, good players could be kept out of games in order to teach 'em a lesson, all without slowing down the machine. That time, however, is long gone. The Patriots need all the talent they can get, and it's frankly difficult to envision anything Bourne might have said or done that warrants him spending a full month as a glorified practice squadder.
Let's hit some leftover thoughts from the Patriots' 20-7 loss in Miami.
--Nine possessions. One touchdown. One interception. Two fumbles. Three punts. One turnover on downs. One kneeldown before the half.
That's your offense.
I don't think anybody expected pure magic from The Matt Patricia Show on day one. But plenty of people were hoping (praying?) that all of the doom and gloom reporting from training camp was merely hyperbole, that the preseason performances were just some vanilla looks, that the team had something special in store for the regular season. Those people were, sadly, let down.
Would it have been different if Xavien Howard had been flagged for pass interference on the opening-drive INT? Maybe a little. But that jersey grab doesn't change the fact that it wasn't a great throw, and it wasn't a great decision to target an All-Pro corner on first down on the edge of the red zone.
Bill Belichick seemed to allude to some positives for the offense, noting there were a couple of plus-50 punts and that the Patriots crossed midfield a half-dozen or so times. Whether he was just talking or whether he was digging deep for some moral victories is unclear. But the standards have certainly shifted in New England.
--It's a bit cruel that one positive story of the offseason -- Mac Jones getting thin and trim and ready to win -- only led to ... Mac Jones suffering an injury. We don't know the extent of that back injury, obviously, but considering he was dealing with some completely untouched rushers throughout the game, it wasn't a particularly surprising result.
--As a rookie first-round pick playing ... guard, the best thing that could have happened for Cole Strange was for nobody to notice him. Unfortunately, people noticed him when he ... opened the door for the 278-pound Emmanuel Ogbah to walk right in and destroy the quarterback.
On the plus side, there weren't noticeable instances of the rookie out of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga being physically overmatched. But plays like that one, on a day when the quarterback hurts his back, are bad.
--Not to put too fine of a point on it, but I think the missed PI is letting Mac Jones off the hook for the interception. DeVante Parker is not a receiver who gains separation. He's going to be covered when he's running downfield, so it's on the quarterback to allow him to plant his feet and go up and get it. Yet instead of dropping the ball in the bucket like he's very capable of doing, Jones threw off his back foot and underthrew it. The play never really had a chance to succeed, but if a quarterback is going to miss in that situation, he ought to miss to the safe side of the receiver, so, you know, the pick can't happen. Especially on a first down in the first quarter.
It's a bit like last postseason, when Jones threw an interception in the end zone, but everyone dismissed it because Micah Hyde made a great play on the ball, which Jones kept to the inside of the receiver rather than the outside.
It's a results business, really. And when the results aren't good, no matter the circumstances, generally the player receives at least some criticism.
--How does this happen?
I mean. How?
Teams always used to do that stuff against the Patriots. And on Monday mornings, we'd all laugh and laugh and laugh. Zolak & Bertrand had a whole segment named something like "Why [the opponents] were dumb." That thing lasted for years.
Alas, these past few years, the tables have turned a bit.
--This was just a standard football play, sure. Until you remember that Tyreek Hill is the quickest man alive. The pursuit and tackle by Kyle Dugger was just exquisite.
It's notable that some of the best players for the Patriots on Sunday were a receiver who went undrafted in Jakobi Meyers and a safety out of a Division II school that none of us had ever even heard of when Belichick made the bold decision to take him in the second round -- and at the top of the second round, no less.
--This was the first play after the strip-sack for a Miami touchdown:
The Patriots are lucky that one didn't go for a pick-six and really blow the game up. It could have (and probably should have?) been taken to the house.
--If Jack Jones had picked this ball off, it would have been some story.
But, well, ifs, buts, candy, nuts. Good coverage, anyway. Right up until the end, you know.
--I am but a simple man with simple pleasures. And a quarterback throwing his body into a defender on the backside of a run up the middle? Folks, that is one of them.
Perhaps it was inadvisable. Perhaps it was totally useless. Nevertheless! I like what I like.
--Technically the defense had a decent day. Miami's offense only scored 13 points and gained 307 yards. Even if Tua Tagovailoa might actually be a righty (has he tried it?), that's a good day overall.
Yet ... after the Patriots scored their touchdown to get back into the game, plays like this happened:
In the fourth quarter, desperate to get the ball back after Agholor's fumble, plays like this happened:
You can get on coaching or whatever you want, but isn't that just ... basic, fundamental football? That the Dolphins outperformed the Patriots in that area has to be a bit alarming.
--If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of the offensive play-calling, then you have to raise a question or two about the decision on fourth-and-3 at midfield in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins rushed just three and dropped eight, obviously making it difficult for the five route runner to find free space in the defense.
The best option Jones felt he had was to lob a prayer to Hunter Henry in the midst of a Miami team meeting.
And despite Miami sending just three, Trent Brown managed to commit a holding penalty anyway, so even if the play had been successful, it wouldn't have counted.
Did moments like these happen when Josh McDaniels ran the offense? Sure. Probably. Occasionally? But the reality is with a whole new operation and some serious questions about the coaches running the show, moments like these will be rightfully scrutinized to an extra degree.
--Myles Bryant essentially got a nice PBU ... on what would have been the easiest interception of Devin McCourty's life. (OK, fine, that's hyperbole. The second easiest interception of Devin McCourty's life. Shoutout to Zach Wilson.)
They were both so sad about it.
--Maybe I'm overthinking this ... but was Mike McDaniel trying to spike the football in his first career win, with Bill Belichick on the opposite sideline?
Second-and-2. Dolphins up 20-7, with the ball at the Patriots' 16-yard line. Seventy-one seconds remaining in the game. And the Dolphins dial up ... a play-action fake, with a rollout to Tua's left, with a throw back across the middle of the field toward the end zone?
The Patriots had just one timeout remaining. There was really no need to do anything except run the ball up the middle and kill the clock. Even if the Patriots used that timeout and made stops on second and third down, Miami could run the clock down to 20-something seconds. They could either run another play, or kick a field goal, or punt it to the moon. It wouldn't really matter.
Just a curious decision from McDaniel. In the old days, Bill Belichick would store that one in his memory bank and use it to win by 100 points during the rematch. That may no longer be in the cards, though.
--These two men need to start a podcast.
I don't know what they'd talk about. I don't care what they'd talk about. I'd listen, though.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
