3 Patriots who should be fired or benched for Week 5 embarrassment
By Kristen Wong
We never thought we'd see the day when the New England Patriots fell back into poverty. Today is that day.
In Foxboro, the Patriots gave up 34 unanswered points to the New Orleans Saints to lose their fourth game of the season. Once upon a time, the Patriots had redeeming strengths, like its quarterback play or top-tier defense. In 2023, it's difficult to figure out what, if anything, the Pats are good at anymore.
Not the offense, which generated less than 200 scrimmage yards and got shut out for the first time since 2016. Not the defense, which recently lost Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez and let a middling NFC South team tear them apart all over the field. Not even special teams.
At this point, one has to be looking at the root of the problem. Who constructed this roster in the first place?
Here are three Pats members who deserve all the blame after Week 5's humiliation.
Bill Belichick needs to take some blame, finally
Head coach Bill Belichick is the elephant in the room after the Patriots' disappointing performances of late. After taking a 38-3 beating to the Cowboys in Week 4, Belichick was determined to sink even lower and got shut out at home against the Saints.
Even though the Pats were missing a few key defensive players, there's no excuse for this lopsided of a loss. New England has been outscored 72-3 in the last two games and sit 1-4 at the bottom of the AFC East.
When will it finally get through to the Patriots' front office's stubborn heads that Belichick isn't the coach he used to be?
The "Belichick without Brady" debate is it's own separate thing. We're just saying that after two totally embarrassing losses in these past weeks, coaching is usually the root of the problem.
The worst loss of Bill Belichick's coaching career has been followed by the second-worst loss of his coaching career.
— Tom E. Curran (@tomecurran) October 8, 2023
Which may actually be worse than the worst loss because it immediately followed the worst loss.
Belichick made a handful of questionable calls in Sunday's loss, too, including his choice to punt the ball rather than go for it on a 4th-and-3 from the Saints' 40-yard line when the Patriots were down 24-0.
His conservative offensive mindset will not take the Patriots far this year. It's time for a change.