INSTANT REACTION: Patriots ‘aren’t good enough’ to overcome five-turnover day in loss to Steelers

INSTANT REACTION: Patriots ‘aren’t good enough’ to overcome five-turnover day in loss to Steelers

We know your fists are clenched right now. You see the Patriots lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers 21 to4 at Gillette Stadium. Lots of opportunities for the Patriots today. Five turnovers is the big story from this one. We’re here with Phil Perry, Tommy Curran, special guest multi-executive of the year, multi-s Super Bowl champion Scott Poli, and three-time Super Bowl champ Ted Johnson. Just want to go around the horn. There’s a lot to take away from this 21 to4 game. Phil, let’s start with you. What’ you see? Five turnovers. That’s the story to me. They aren’t good enough to be able to overcome those kinds of mistakes with where this roster is right now. One of the pillars, one of the pillars of Mike Vrabel’s organization, what he wants this team to be about, ball security and ball disruption. Tom, when it came to the former, completely lacking today. It’s why they lost the game. And what’s incredible is this is a team that’s going to look and and see that they had five turnovers, see that they got off the field repeatedly and actually created turnovers of their own from the Pittsburgh Steelers and should have won this game probably by 14 to 21 points. And the turnovers the Patriots committed were virtually unforced turnovers, fumbles with minimal contact, bad decision by the quarterback, a horrible end zone interception. So I think Mike Vrabel Scott can look at his team and say not only did you blow the game, but you’re actually a decent enough team if you don’t play stupid to beat a mediocre team or don’t just don’t pay play bad football, right? And it was because in the first half too, the other thing I noticed was the penalties. This is anti Mike Vrabel football. This is anti-atriot football right now. But again, I’m going to tap the break and say we’re three games in, right? M so the turnovers will get corrected because as every Patriot person knows and in that building that ball security is job security. So if you’re going to turn the ball over, you ain’t going to be around very long. So the other thing is the penalties and it wasn’t just the number of penalties in the first half. The Steelers had four first downs because of Patriot penalties. That’s not going to happen. You can’t. That is not winning football. It’s not clean football. Penalties, turnovers, that’s the stuff that plays a game. That has to get cleaned up. It will. It’s game three. Tap the brakes. New England. You know what, Scott? Stole my my thunder right there because it’s the penalties. You go, seven penalties, but they were really just just very punitive penalties. I mean, they they led to first downs that led to uh you know, most of the points for for the Steelers in this game. Um, you know, the five turnovers is is just uh inexcusable, but it’s where they happen to and the time in which they happen. I mean, two of those turnovers uh were in in were in the red zone. So, uh just just a killer. I mean, and people like to compare Drake May to Josh Allen. And the kid was playing brilliantly except for that interception before the half, which you could really, you know, maybe that was a tip ball, so you don’t maybe put it on him as much, but that fumble there. He had it the end of the game. It was, it was a killer killer fumble right there. Secure the ball. Don’t try and It looked like he was trying to get rid of the ball and he fumbled it. Um, and so that was kind of what you saw from Josh Allen early in his career. We could play a brilliant game right up until the end where he’d make a boneheaded decision and Drake May as good as he played today. That play killed him right there. Teddy, you know what I was going to say? The the interesting thing, Scott, on that play, you have the transition for the team, the Patriots team in microcosm. Smart play, smart play, smart play, smart, secures the ball, moves up in the pocket, and then it’s last year again. And he try smart play, securing the ball, exactly what you’re supposed to do. And then he does something not smart, you know. And Ted, to your point, this is something we always used to talk about. The reason we’re on the same page about the penalties, not all penalties are the same and not all turnovers are the same. So when you look at the aggregate in terms of the numbers of penalties that sometimes it’s the timing and the value or the devalue of those they they won a game last week with 12 penalties. They lost this game which with just seven to prove your point, you know. Well, I I want to I want to go back to this because Scott, you said, “Look, this is going to get cleaned up. You’re trying to tell New England to, hey, pump the brakes.” I’m not sure people want to pump the brakes right now. Um, hey, I know how that goes, man. I know you I had a for sale sign on my house after year one, but I wonder I wonder if if we’re convinced uh, Phil, that the penalties are going to be cleaned up because uh, not the penalties, the turnovers. One of the uh, turnovers was a Drake May interception in the red zone. We’ve seen that before from him. That’s that’s Drake at his worst. It was a Drake May fumble. We’ve seen that before. Raandre Stevenson, two fumbles. He’s had a fumbling problem lately. That’s four of the five turnovers. Uh tell me what if do you agree with Scott that this will be cleaned up? I’m not sure. I don’t know how you could be especially when it comes to Raandre Stevenson. And to me the fumbles for Stevenson in a vacuum. We have to discuss his role has to be discussed. I wonder personally about the coaching decision of giving the football on the goal line where he coughs it up and gives it away. Again, you can’t afford to have those kinds of mistakes. It’s pulling points off the board. You don’t get seven. You don’t get three, you get nothing because you gave the ball on the goal line, Tom, to a guy who’s had fumbling issues, who had a fumble earlier in the game. Why do you have to keep giving it to him? Is he that much of a differencemaker that you have to keep him involved, that you have to keep him happy, you have to keep his confidence up because to me, and I know Gibson fumbled earlier, too. The difference between Gibson and Stevenson isn’t that great. And so, it doesn’t make my point a great one when Gibson gives the football away as well. But for Stevenson to get the ball on the goal line in that situation and give it up, I look at the coaching staff and say, why is he getting the ball there? Right. Well, and to just amplify the point, there were two picks that Drake May should have had that did went for not two. So, it’s a five turnover game with a pick that should have been on the first drive and one later after they had the fourth and one conversion. But for Stevenson to get the ball there, it’s I wonder if Mike is trying to employ, hey, I still have faith in you. This is only your third game with me. You made a mistake earlier. I’m going to give you the ball on this fourth and one. I pick it up and you know what? I’m not even scared to give it to you on the goal line here. That’s the key. And both of you are right. It’s game three and you are only going to get so many chances at some point in time. I We’ve been here before. We’ve been here before. And to me, Raandre Stevenson, terrific back, but if he’s not going to hold on the ball, someone else, we’re going to give someone else a chance. Curtis Martin got benched, guys. Oh, wow. Right. Curtis Martin got benched because he couldn’t hold on to the football. So, you’re either going to learn to hold on to the football or someone else is going to have it or you’re going to be somewhere else. And I’m not this has the chance to get fixed. And again, I’m going to be the voice of reason here amongst you all. It It’s going and if it doesn’t get fixed, we’ll That was the rule. Ted, you were there. We’ll get it fixed. If we don’t, we’ll find someone else to do your job. I ain’t mad at you. We’ll just find someone else to do your job. That was the culture back then. And that’s that’s the Vrabel’s trying to establish a culture of accountability. And so that’s going to be worth monitoring as how he handles Raandre Stevenson moving forward. It was an issue last year with Gerrod Mayo not benching him after some fumbles and people were scratching their head and wondering why that there was very disappointing when you look at just the overall running back performance today. I mean three fumbles uh you know and even Trayvon Henderson gave up a sack earlier in the game. That was your best position group last week, right? So, you’re you’re you know, as uh as you know, Scott, uh Bill Parcels very well, obviously, you know, coach Parcels used to always say to us, I want to know I don’t care if you’re an average player, but be consistently average every single week. So, I know what I’m getting from week to week. If you’re a great player, I expect you to play great every single week. You know, to have a position group have such a great performance last week and then this one this week has to be very disheartening. Well, it’s funny. Uh, Tom, I’ll start with you on this one. You want to talk about consistency week to week. Last week, we talked about Drake May, 19 of 23, only missed on four passes. So, in the first half, we already talked about his interception. In the second half, in that final final two minutes, he hadn’t missed on a pass. And the the last completion was to Pop Douglas where Pop Douglas goes back and just misses on fourth down to convert it. Who’s Drake May today? Last week we were raving about Drake May. Drake May today, Professor Curran, what do you give him? Drake May takes a step back. Drake May takes a step back from a 99 test score to about an 86 84 test score because you can’t come out at the beginning of the game like that. And I understand that he might have been dinged right before halftime, but an end zone pick and an absolutely mind-numbing when you had the play over at a critical juncture in the game and it’s 14 to 14 to be making the right play and then to start to raise your arm to make a stupid play that was going to yield what was it a first down play Phil when he did that the fumble might have been a first down play. I think it was there was no yield. There was no great game that was going to emerge from that. And it to me what would irritate Mike Frabel, I would think, is the Steelers went touchdown, touchdown, then they went three plays punt, three plays pick, three plays punt, three plays punt, five plays punt. You got from your defense what you had been asking for. You got that improvement and they pissed it away. I I I look at this game for Drake May and it’s an example to me of not all progress being linear. So, we all think that he’s going to get better and he’s going to continue to get better, but it’s not going to go from Miami to this week to Panthers next week and eventually by the end of the season, he’s going to be a first team all pro. It’s just not how it’s going to work. And I thought that last two-minute drive was actually a good encapsulation of where he’s at as a player right now cuz it started fairly well, right? He makes a couple of completions, has a nice scramble for first down, gets out of bounds, then he takes a sack on first down, then he misses Pop Douglas over the middle, throws behind him, incomplete. Now you’re in third and long and you’re playing from behind the chain, Scott. And that’s just not their strength right now. It’s not his strength right now. And Phil, you said something important. He took the sack, right? And this is where I love analytics, but you look at numbers. He had 102 point whatever quarterback rating today. Okay. So, people are going to think he played a good game, but he made a couple of critical errors because he had five sacks. He was sacked five times. He took two of them himself. And meaning where he held the ball too long, he did it early in the game. And then it’s those turnovers right now. The the the interception in the red zone at the goal line. I still want to know how was he feeling because we even saw Braves right before the play say to him, “Hey, are you okay?” He grabbed his head there. And again, I’m not saying he was concussed, but you get fuzzy after plays like that. And then to me I you had one or two. And in that moment, Ted, you know that there’s some confusion. You’re not seeing everything clearly. maybe you keep the ball in the running back’s hands, but then that play was boneheaded, you know, because again, he secured the ball, he moved up in the pocket and then he’s trying to shovel. He’s a young guy trying to do too much. And I’ve already seen I don’t know how many times in in in the three games and even the preseason, Mike Vrabel’s telling him to calm down, slow down. You know, we we we were texting and joking when we saw him being John Bonum on the, you know, but that there there’s something about him having to learn how to calm down and be still and breathe and that that moment showed itself in the game. It it did, Scott, and you saw that a lot in the in week one game against against the Raiders. just his feet pitter padding back there. And so I I thought that maybe got flushed out last week against Miami, but the the game plan last week against Miami was the ball came out fast. I mean, he had the fastest the third fastest delivery time of any quarterback in week two and and it was, you know, just so he didn’t have time to sit back there and think about the rush cuz the ball was coming out so fast. I wish there were more quick hitting plays in this game plan uh that there there were in uh in last week’s game plan. I think that maybe Vrabel and McDaniels can both talk to Drake May this week and say, “Look, look what happened in Miami. Look what happened here. You don’t have to try to do too much. This is not North Carolina and this is not the 2024 Patriots. We can actually take care of business a little bit defensively. We can actually run the ball a little bit. You have some protection. you don’t have to put a cape on. And I I really wonder if that’s the outgrowth because I I do believe, Phil, 21 to4 with five turnovers and two would be turnovers, they should have won the game by a fair amount. And I think that the Patriots actually come out of this game saying, “We lost. We’re one and two, but we’re actually better than we thought if we could not be more runs.

Phil Perry, Tom Curran, Scott Pioli and Ted Johnson offer instant reaction and analysis following the Patriots 21-14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. New England finished with FIVE turnovers on offense, including two turnovers in the red zone by Drake Maye and Rhamondre Stevenson that ultimately were too much to overcome as the Patriots drop to 1-2 under Mike Vrabel to start the 2025 NFL season.

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