FOXBOROUGH — There have been more disastrous home openers for the Patriots in the Bill Belichick epoch — 2008 and Tom Brady’s wounded knee comes to mind — but this was a Bloody Sunday with bad omens, bad football, and a bad injury for Belichick’s boys, who fell, 20-18, to the Arizona Cardinals at Gillette Stadium.
The bigger loss than the game, a thoroughly uninspiring contest the Patriots had no business winning, was watching tight end Aaron Hernandez leave with a severe right ankle injury in the first quarter.
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Yeah, we didn’t play very good,” said left guard Logan Mankins. “Not scoring a touchdown until the fourth quarter, kicking field goals, penalties, pressures, negative runs, the offense, we didn’t bring our best game, and it really showed.” So how does this happen? Why does it happen? How does a team come out so flat and play that way virtually the entire game in only the team's second game of the season? And, in their home opener no less? Even to my untrained eye, the Patriot's looked totally uninspired and listless. Certainly there was enough time to prepare. All the pre-season hype about possibly going undefeated, all the hype that Brady has so many offensive weapons at his disposal, all the hype about the improvements (and I really hate to use this phrase) "in every aspect of the game", made me think back to the 2011 Red Sox and the expectations of a 100 plus win season. We all know how that went down.
Yeah, we didn’t play very good,” said left guard Logan Mankins. “Not scoring a touchdown until the fourth quarter, kicking field goals, penalties, pressures, negative runs, the offense, we didn’t bring our best game, and it really showed.” So how does this happen? Why does it happen? How does a team come out so flat and play that way virtually the entire game in only the team's second game of the season? And, in their home opener no less? Even to my untrained eye, the Patriot's looked totally uninspired and listless. Certainly there was enough time to prepare. All the pre-season hype about possibly going undefeated, all the hype that Brady has so many offensive weapons at his disposal, all the hype about the improvements (and I really hate to use this phrase) "in every aspect of the game", made me think back to the 2011 Red Sox and the expectations of a 100 plus win season. We all know how that went down.