Ups and Downs: Terrible start, rough finish dooms Patriots' offense in Week 1 loss

FOXBORO -- The Patriots nearly went Tom Brady on the Eagles on Tom Brady Day, almost pulling off a dramatic comeback. But it came up short, and the Pats are now 0-1 on the season.

The final score says otherwise and that is all that really matters, but the Patriots outplayed the Eagles for most of Sunday's contest. They really could have beaten Philadelphia, but instead beat themselves, coming up short in the 25-20 loss.

The middle of the game was pretty solid for the Patriots. The beginning and the end? Not so much. So we have plenty of "Ups and Downs" to share from a very entertaining Week 1 showdown between the Patriots and the Eagles.

Ups

The bounce-back

The offense put the Pats in a massive hole early in the game, but the team didn't fold. They kept fighting and competing, especially on defense, and had a chance to steal the game in the end.

They didn't, and you can really only have so many "moral victories" before it starts to lose its meaning. But the Patriots showed some fight that was not at all present for most of last season.

Judon is still awesome

As if there were any doubt, Judon remains an absolute beast. He had just one sack and three tackles, but he generated a ton of pressure against Jalen Hurts and blew up a number of screen plays.

Sharing the love on the first TD Drive

Mac Jones completed seven passes to seven different players on the team's first touchdown drive of the season. Tom Brady must have been proud watching from the Kraft luxury box.

The O-Line

The Patriots were down two starters on the offensive line and had two rookies -- Atonio Mafi and Sidy Sow -- as well as newcomer Calvin Anderson (who missed the entire summer program) out there protecting Mac Jones against a defense that led the NFL in sacks last season. 

But Jones stayed fairly clean throughout the contest and wasn't hit until midway through the third quarter as veterans David Andrews and Trent Brown anchored things against the Philadelphia defensive front.

Kendrick Bourne

Bourne had six receptions for 64 yards and two touchdown, including a 19-yard scoring strike in the second quarter.

It looks like we'll be getting the 2021 version of Bourne this season, which is great news for the offense. 

Henry's fourth-down catch

Goodness this was a great catch in a must-have-it situation.

Henry caught five of the six passes that went his way for 56 yards and a touchdown. He was really, really good on Sunday.

Christian Gonzalez

The rookie corner had a difficult matchup in his pro debut against Philly's A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith but he held his own. He had a nice open-field tackle on Brown, bringing the receiver down short of the sticks to hold the Eagles to a field goal late in the game. He then broke up a fourth-down throw to Smith in the final two minutes to get the ball back to the New England offense. 

Gonzalez had seven total tackles, his first career sack on a cornerback blitz, and defended a pass in his debut. 

Downs

Mac's Pick-Six

Bad decision. Bad throw. Bad attempt to make a tackle. NOTHING from Mac Jones was good on this play, and it put his team into an early 10-0 hole.

It was a very ugly start for Jones and the Patriots' offense, with two turnovers and three three-and-outs on their first five possessions. 

Overall, Jones was pretty good as he threw a career-high 54 passes, completing 35 of them for 316 yards and three touchdowns. But a horrid start really put the team in a hole, and Jones put the blame squarely on his shoulders a number of times after the game. 

Penalties were killer

The Pats were hit with seven penalties throughout the game and they each carried a different degree of pain. 

The defense had a pair of costly penalties in the first quarter, with Deatrich Wise getting flagged for an offsides that negated a bad snap by the Eagles. Kyle Dugger also wiped out a red-zone sack by the New England D with a defensive holding flag.

Mafi was hit with a blatant hold on a third-and-17 that knocked the Patriots out of field goal range when they trailed 19-14. It was the second holding call on the Patriots in a three-play span, though the Hunter Henry hold that preceded the Mafi call was pretty questionable.

Then, trailing 25-20 late in the fourth quarter, the offense was hit with a brutal Delay of Game on a fourth-and-12 at the Philly 43. 

When we say the Patriots beat themselves, this is what we were talking about. 

Bill's Decision

Belichick opted to go for it on a fourth-and-3 at the Philly 17 with 9:32 left in the fourth quarter rather than let rookie kicker Chad Ryland attempt what was essentially an extra point. The Patriots trailed 22-14 at the time. 

Jones felt heavy pressure from Fletcher Cox on the play and basically threw the ball away, giving possession to the Eagles without the Patriots putting any points on the board.

"I felt like it was the best decision for the team," Belichick said after the game.

We have the benefit of hindsight, but it was a very curious move not to take the points in that situation. Had the Patriots done so,  and the rest of the game played out as it did, they could have won the game with a field goal on their final possession.

It's a second-guess we'll be hearing a lot about this week.

The Late-game execution

After the Patriots scored a touchdown to make it 25-20 with 3:35 to play, the defense got the ball back to the offense twice. They didn't convert either time.

Jones and company lost seven yards on the first possession, thanks in large part to the aforementioned Delay of Game. The Pats gave the ball back after just four plays, when Jones' pass to Henry on fourth-and-17 went through the tight end's hands. The pass was short of the sticks anyways, so it may not have mattered if Henry caught it.

Then when the defense got the ball back to the offense again, the Pats got it down to the Philadelphia 20 but couldn't complete the comeback. Jones was sacked on seocnd-and-10 from the Philly 19, and then rookie Kayshon Boutte couldn't drag his second foot inbounds on a fourth-down connection with Jones at the sideline, ending the game. 

The Pats offense nearly pulled off a comeback upset in their first game of the season, but came up short in the execution department at the end of the game.