Ex-Patriots quarterback has dramatic overreaction after team's latest loss

Despite the 2024 season's 1-3 start, there was some optimism that the Patriots would go into Gillette Stadium on Sunday and take advantage of a depleted Dolphins team to add another win to the year. This optimism wasn't felt just by the fans but also reflected by analysts, who unanimously chose New England to win the game in Week 5.

Perhaps it was overzealous or wishful thinking, given how uncharacteristically bad the team had played in the weeks leading to Sunday's matchup, but it felt like the next opportunity to show some improvement against an AFC East foe.

As we know, that's not what happened, and it was just the latest showing of a disappointing effort from top to bottom. It was a game they very easily could have won, and at one point, the Dolphins were basically giving them every chance to do so, but they continued to get their own way with avoidable penalties, questionable playcalling, and poor decision-making,

It was a disaster with every chance possible to avoid the inevitable outcome, which made it an even tougher loss to digest. It was so bad for some, including former Patriots quarterback turned broadcaster Scott Zolak, that he made quite a dramatic claim about just how bad he believes the loss was.

Recency bias seems to have clouded Scott Zolak's judgment about the Patriots' Week 5 loss

As someone who sits in the booth for every Patriots home game to call the action, Zolak has witnessed a lot of truly remarkable football. That has dramatically changed since Tom Brady left after the 2019 season, and the team has struggled in the years since, which has unfortunately continued into the new era.

Their latest loss seems to have impacted fans in a different way than the previous three, including Zolak, who deemed Sunday's loss as the "worst" since Brady left four years ago.

While it might have felt that way at the moment, it seems like a stretch to label this game of all games as the worst when the Patriots were not far from actually winning, and we're just one season removed from some pretty disastrous games.

Who could forget the absolute blowout that was the game against the Cowboys in 2023 that saw Christian Gonzalez and Matthew Judon both go down with season-ending injuries and an end score of 38-3? You could even argue the game the following week against the Saints when New England suffered another blowout with a 34-0 score.

Going further back in the archives, it's not hard to remember the playoff loss to the Bills in the "perfect game," which saw Buffalo not punt a single time. It's a game that has now earned a nickname amongst Bills fans, and even t-shirts were made to commemorate the win.

Furthermore, do we dare to mention the failed lateral pass by Jakobi Meyers in the final seconds of the game against the Raiders? Let's not.

It's unfortunate that there have been enough memorable games over the past four seasons that we could argue which is the worst, but labeling this loss to Miami, even as bad as they had been and did play, doesn't feel worse than what we've seen in seasons before.

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