There were several areas of the Patriots team that needed to be addressed before the 2025 season began, and for the most part, Mike Vrabel and the new regime addressed them accordingly and improved much of the team.
That immediately increased optimism about what the newly revamped roster could accomplish this year, despite coming off back-to-back seasons that ended with a 4-13 record. Some even suggested they could be a sneaky playoff team, but we have yet to see that kind of performance just yet.
Within those struggles they've shown over the last two weeks has been a troubling issue of the past that has only worsened from Week 1 to Week 2. The piling up of penalties has been a problem in New England over the last few years, which was specifically shocking during Bill Belichick's tenure, as the Patriots were typically a well-disciplined team.
It was expected that we would see improvement under the watchful eye of Vrabel to start the year, but the untimely mistakes and the egregious number of penalties have certainly hurt their production so far, and it cannot continue for the rest of the season.
Flag happy officials or not, the Patriots need to be better about making so many mistakes on game day
In their losing effort against the Raiders last week, the Patriots totaled nine penalties for a loss of 77 yards. As if that wasn't bad enough, things got worse this past Sunday against the Dolphins, when they were flagged 12 times for 75 yards.
To be fair, while it was an outrageous amount of penalties for a team to have in a single game, their opponents weren't exactly much better. The Raiders were hit with eight flags for 70 yards, and the Dolphins totaled 10 penalties for 65 yards.
Regardless, it's just the latest example of the Patriots getting in their own way and slowing down momentum when it's finally in their favor. It consistently backs them up when the offense is on the field, or even gives opponents massive gains when the defense is in.
Most of the time, they are avoidable mistakes that shouldn't be happening, and Vrabel has already shared his frustration over it all, even if he does believe some of the flags were unnecessary.
The players need to have better awareness and be more disciplined moving forward, or else they're risking potential wins slipping from their grasp. They battled two beatable teams to start the season, and although there are plenty more on the schedule, others they face are expected to be Super Bowl contenders, so these kinds of mistakes will matter in the long run.