Dan Orlovsky’s assessment of Patriots after loss to Bills is worrisome

The New England Patriots have a grand total of one comeback victory during the 2021 season, and it came against the Houston Texans. Other failed attempts came against the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills (at no point did they come close to beating the New Orleans Saints, so we’ll leave that one out).

See a trend here? It’s fairly obvious (and understandable) that the Patriots aren’t a force in multiple facets of the game. They largely need their blueprint to sustain and conquer in order to secure the victory.

There’s nothing wrong with that at all. This team has a rookie quarterback and clearly has a winning formula with the various limitations that exist under center and in the receiving game.

But that’ll only get you so far down the stretch and in the postseason when game plans get upended when you’re facing better (and more unpredictable) competition. So when the Patriots spent Sunday playing from behind the entire afternoon against the Bills, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky noticed that this may be an issue.

The Patriots will find it hard to win in the postseason if they deviate from their game plan.

Orlovsky appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday and talked about the team’s recent slide. But don’t get on Orlovsky’s case! He’s not wrong, and he also predicted the Patriots would be a playoff team months ago when everyone was writing them off. Here’s what he had to say:

"“There are some issues with the Patriots. They gotta play on their terms. They’ve gotta play with their ability to dictate to the other team how they’re going to play. If they fall behind, I don’t know if you feel confident. You can’t feel confident that ‘OK, we’re down 10, boys. We can get right back in this because we’re so explosive.’ When they don’t play to their characteristics … I don’t think they’re built or explosive enough … or their identity is good enough … to make that comeback.”"

Orlovsky reiterated that he still thinks New England is very good and he’s not overreacting to one loss … and we’d probably agree that this isn’t a hot take. The Patriots’ offense is not explosive. It’s dependent on a prominent rushing attack. When playoff-caliber defenses make the game one-dimensional or playoff-caliber offenses get ahead early, it’s clear where the Patriots fall short.

Mac Jones missed some throws. N’Keal Harry dropped a crucial, wide-open pass. The defense went offside on a 4th and 7 to give the Bills another shot at keep the driving alive, and they did. If the Patriots are playing on their heels, they can’t be making these kinds of mistakes if they want to beat the better teams in this league (they have two wins against playoff teams — a decimated Titans side and a Bills team that couldn’t throw the ball because of inclement weather).

The Patriots’ turnaround has been remarkable, but some issues remain. Sorting them out in the final two weeks of the season and hopefully in the playoffs will go a long way to getting them back to NFL prominence.

Bill Belichick answers silliest question possible after Patriots-Bills

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has never found losing to be a laughing matter, and got tested by a reporter after losing to the Bills.