On the surface, the New England Patriots' 42-13 pasting of the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon is quite the rosy picture. Patriots' fans have been waiting a long time - four seasons in fact - for New England's offense to put up 40 points. It gave us flashbacks to the good old days of Tom Brady marching up and down the Foxborough gridiron.
However, the Patriots got some breaks, with the biggest one being the team that was lined up across from them. The Panthers are absolutely dreadful and will be "fighting" the Saints for the NFC South basement throughout this season.
New England's defense allowed Carolina to march straight down the field on the game's first possession for a touchdown - a drive aided by two penalties - and flashbacks to last week's sloppy loss to the Steelers flashed before our eyes.
The Patriots' first offensive drive featured a 3-and-out, but fortunately, Marcus Jones was able to turn things around with his 87-yard punt return for a touchdown. You take that out of the equation, and who knows how this game turns out.
Slow starts have plagued this team throughout the early part of the season, and let's face it, the Buffalo Bills are not the Carolina Panthers; a repeat performance next week will not yield a positive result.
The Patriots need to start games faster or risking falling into a hole they can't get out of
An NFL game is a marathon, not a sprint, but even in long races, slow starts can put you too far behind the eight ball. And quarterbacks like Josh Allen - whom the Patriots face next week - will take advantage of such situations rather than waste them away like Carolina's Bryce Young did. Young completed his first six passes for 71 yards and a TD.
In all three of the Patriots' home games, the opponent has scored on its first drive of the game. That won't be a recipe for silencing Bills Mafia on "Sunday Night Football" in Week 5. After the Buffalo game, the Patriots' schedule becomes easier with matchups against the Saints, Titans, and Browns. However, as the season progresses into its grind phase, the slow starts need to dissipate.
When Mike Vrabel looks at the film, he won't be happy with the early penalties, a trait that he has emphasized cleaning up. You can't afford to keep falling behind in the NFL, or it's going to start proving costly.
The Patriots won't have the luxury of playing bad teams every week, so the team needs to start flying out of the blocks, not stumbling.