Traditionally, West Coast teams struggle when they have to travel across the country and play early games. And there have been more than a few questions about the Chargers when they play outside of their covered stadium in California.
The New England weather was “full New England in December” in Week 13.
The Chargers offense couldn’t manage to score a touchdown and could only manage 4 yards per play (the Steelers are currently managing 5.5 yards per play with Mitch Trubisky in at quarterback). But the 6 points the Chargers managed to score at Gillette Stadium were enough to beat the miserable Patriots by 6 points!
The Chargers beat the Patriots, 6-0.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) December 3, 2023
The Patriots are the first team since 1938 to lose three consecutive games in the same season when they didn't allow more than 10 points in any of those games.
Over-reaction #1: The Patriots won't score another touchdown this season
They might not score a point in the remainder of the season. During the first five games of the season, when the offense was much healthier, they averaged 11 points per game. Not great, Bob. But now Rhamondre Stevenson is injured, and Demario Douglas is suffering his second concussion of the season.
They account for 43% of the Patriots' touches on offense this season. Even before Stevenson was injured against the Chargers, the Patriots offense only managed to score 13 points in their last two games.
The Dolphins scored 17 points in the first 14 minutes of their game against the Commanders.
Over-reaction #2: If the Patriots fire Bill O'Brien, they will make the playoffs next year
Well, it worked for Alabama, didn’t it? Roll Tide, I guess.
CBS reported that Malik Cunningham would have a package of plays in this week’s offense. But he didn’t take a single drop back. And that’s an indication of just how ill-conceived and vanilla the offense has been in 2023.
In a game where they only managed to pick up just 13 first downs (the Saints picked up 23 in their loss to the Lions), Bill O’Brien didn’t see fit to mix it up a bit. Even if Cunningham had made a horrible error, he wouldn’t have been the reason the Patriots lost their 10th game of the season.
Tre Nixon HAS to come down with this. Gorgeous throw from Malik pic.twitter.com/6461tA4kmF
— Ben Brown 🌻 (@BenBrownPL) August 11, 2023
Over-reaction #3: Bailey Zappe got the start over Mac Jones because the Patriots believed he was the main reason the offense had performed so poorly.
The final overreaction to yet another dismal Patriots display is that the Patriots only started Bailey Zappe because they didn’t believe Mac Jones when he said the rest of the offense was trash.
Jones was sacked 22 times when he was under center and has had 12 catchable passes dropped this season. Maybe after Zappe was sacked by the Chargers 5 times and saw 12 passes fall incomplete, they might believe that QB isn’t the offense’s biggest problem.
Tyquan Thornton and DeVante Parker both dropped passes from Zappe against a Chargers defense ranked 32nd against the pass!