SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In all reality, the Patriots’ Week 4 matchup with the 49ers was an unwinnable affair.
The offense cannot consistently generate explosive plays and averaged just 3.5 yards per dropback. They also lost the turnover battle 3-to-2 despite best efforts from the defense and special teams to get the ball on the ground when the 49ers were on offense and three key players, center David Andrews, rookie tackle Caedan Wallace and safety Kyle Dugger, left the game with injuries.
So, the Patriots’ defense – facing a 49ers team without running back Christian McCaffrey but with wide receiver Deebo Samuel, tight end George Kittle and offensive tackle Trent Williams healthy enough to start – was facing a losing battle when the whistle blew at 1:05 p.m. PT at Levi’s Stadium.
But the game ending as a 30-13 blowout? That was on the defense.
The Patriots have been saying since Week 2 that they need to contain the quarterback better. Pass-rushers were still flying by quarterback Brock Purdy, giving him so much time he barely knew what to do with it. At one point, he was running around so freely that he ran into Patriots defensive end Deatrich Wise for a sack.
“That (expletive), we can’t do that to save our life,” defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said shaking his head. “God damn.”
So, why are the Patriots losing contain?
Godchaux believe’s it’s miscommunication.
“(Expletive), if I knew, we wouldn’t be losing the contain,” defensive end Keion White said. “Obviously we gotta see something. Part of it is on me. A lot of it was on me today. But as a defense we have to rush better.”
Godchaux believes the Patriots can fix their defense by setting the edge against the run. 49ers running back Jordan Mason rushed for 123 yards on 24 carries with a touchdown. Overall, the 49ers had 148 rushing yards on 32 carries.
It hurt that the Patriots were without outside linebacker Anfernee Jennings (shoulder), middle linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley and Dugger.
“It’s not like us having 100-plus rushing yards,” Godchaux said. “We check guys down to 20, 30 rushing yards a game. Having rushing yards on the edge and also having to do with quarterback scrambles too. We could be better at that and getting off the field on third downs. We’re just on the field too much. I’m never going to point the finger at the offense ever.”
The Patriots’ defensive deficiencies can’t just be blamed on the front seven, though. Purdy threw for 288 yards with a touchdown and interception. He had explosive passing plays to his top three wide receivers with a 53-yard pass to Deebo Samuel, a 45-yarder to Jauan Jennings, another 38-yard completion to Jennings and a 38-yard gain to Brandon Aiyuk.
Tight end George Kittle also caught a 12-yard touchdown over cornerbacks Jonathan Jones and Marcus Jones and rookie safety Dell Pettus.
Head coach Jerod Mayo said it was poor execution by his defense.
“Just gotta play better technique. One of those was my fault,” Peppers said of the 38-yard catch by Jennings. “I couldn’t use my left side at the time, so I just gotta make that tackle or make that play on the ball. They saw something. We planned on being a little bit more aggressive. We just gotta stay on top. Tip our hat to those guys. They get paid too.”
Some of the Patriots’ veteran leaders are still optimistic despite starting 1-3. Godchaux sees three winnable games up next on the schedule, believes the Patriots are a good team who “play bad in certain areas” and said, “I like our chances against Miami” in Week 5.
Linebacker Jahlani Tavai believes the Patriots improved in certain areas and still sees a talented team even through key injuries.
“The results are the results. We’re going to do our best to continue to move forward and get to the next week. And I know the guys are (expletive) pissed off right now. But we’re going to watch this film, dial it back and figure out where we gotta be, because you saw today, the aggression was there. I didn’t see much missed tackles compared to the last week. Everybody was on the tackling, so there’s no dropoff, the talent’s there.”
The Patriots were expected to have a top 10 defense this season. They’re currently 25th in EPA (expected points added) per play. And after trading Matthew Judon to the Falcons, losing defensive tackle Christian Barmore to blood clots and Bentley to a torn pectoral and missing Dugger, the Patriots will have to prove the talent is still there to maintain a top unit.
Four weeks in the results say otherwise.
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