Patriots just aren't good enough to overcome so many mistakes and other leftover thoughts

BOSTON -- The New England Patriots lead a perilous lifestyle.

In order to beat a good team, they need to be as close to perfect as a team can be. The room for error is minuscule.

While certain things outside of the team's control surely will go against them at certain points -- horrific officiating, a bad bounce on a ball, etc. -- the Patriots can still win games if they lock down and ensure that every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed from sideline to sideline. 

That, though, was not the case on Thanksgiving night in Minnesota. Not at all.

In this game, Jonathan Jones committed two facemask penalties, twice giving 15 free yards to the Vikings, who scored touchdowns at the ends of both drives.

In this game, Hunter Henry ran 15 yards up the sideline without remembering how absolutely critical it was for him to step out of bounds and stop the clock to preserve the Patriots' second timeout late in the first half.

That mental error was compounded by Mac Jones being unable to throw an incompletion three plays later, forcing the Patriots to burn their final timeout of the half and severely hurting their chances to score a touchdown before halftime.

In this game -- yes, despite a clear holding penalty -- the kickoff unit allowed a 97-yard kickoff return to a player who returned two kicks for touchdowns last year and almost certainly was on everyone's radar heading into the night.

In this game, Myles Bryant made an unnecessary and illegal hit on Adam Thielen, turning what would have been a third-and-15 for Minnesota into a first-and-10 at the 11-yard line. Instead of a field goal near 40 yards, Minnesota would end up getting a chip shot for their kicker, who's missed five field goals this year and had missed his fifth PAT of the season earlier in the game.  

In this game, facing the long odds of driving 89 yards for a game-tying touchdown in one minute with no timeouts at the end of the fourth, Mac Jones took a sack near the goal line, then completed a pass in bounds, then inexplicably completed a pass in the middle of the field, killing any chance of even a Hail Mary attempt.

And perhaps worst of all, in this game, rookie running back Pierre Strong ran into the punter a solid tick after the ball was gone, giving Minnesota a free first down. Instead of punting, the Vikings were in the end zone three plays later with what proved to be the game-winning touchdown.

The Patriots just aren't good enough to overcome that many miscues. One? Maybe. Two? You're pushing it. Three? Critical mass. But all of them, on the road, in front of a roaring crowd full of people partaking in Viking cosplay, against an 8-2 team, on a night when the men in stripes were not helping out in any way? That's never going to be a win. Not for these Patriots.

Thursday night was a blunt reminder of how fragile life can be for a team existing on the periphery of contention. Perhaps in years past, with that intangible Tom Brady magic, the team could have gotten away with such a night while still escaping with a victory. Those days, though, are long gone. And as a result, the 6-5 Patriots dropped out of the playoff picture into the eighth seed in the AFC and back into last place in the AFC East.

Wins will be fragile things for the Patriots moving forward. Mistake-filled nights like Thursday are certain to shatter them more often than not.

Now, leftover thoughts from the Vikings' 33-26 win over the Patriots.

--The Patriots were also 0-for-3 on red zone trips. Can we give them a break on the Hunter Henry overturn which was called back due to the NFL citing a rule that went off the books in March 2018? Sure. Fine. Let's be fair. That was pretty much a touchdown.

But on their first red zone trip, they ran a reverse. James Ferentz got blown up, and linebacker Za'Darius Smith was left untouched, with only Mac Jones in the open field left to try to block him. It was a mess, and it fooled nobody.

That set up a third-and-14 back outside the red zone. Field goal.

The second red zone trip came before halftime, after the aforementioned Henry gaffe of not getting out of bounds. On first-and-10 from the 18-yard line, with 30 seconds left and one timeout, Jones ... took a sack.

Final timeout burned, completion over the middle, rush to the line to spike, and all that was left to do was try an end zone fade to ... Kendrick Bourne. The Patriots could have forced the issue by trying a pass into the end zone again on third down, as 6 seconds remained on the clock. But perhaps the memory of Tom Brady taking a wild intentional grounding call in Seattle in 2012 flickered in Belichick's memory banks, because the coach sent the field goal unit out there to ensure some points would be scored.

--The Patriots have now scored touchdowns on just 36.4 percent of their red zone trips this season. That's second-worst in the entire NFL, with only the disastrous Broncos scoring less often. And the gap between third-worst and second-worst is quite large, with the Colts ranking 30th in the NFL at 43.3 percent.

Given how consistently inconsistent the Patriots have been at getting the football across the goal line after entering the red zone, do they need to change their philosophy in play-calling?

"Yeah, well, we lost yardage on the reverse. But yeah, you know there was the end of the half drive and the drive [before halftime]. So yeah, obviously we've gotta do a better job there -- not any one thing, just in general," Belichick said Friday morning. "There are different circumstances, different plays, but we've just gotta do a better job."

To say the least. Yes.

--Now it's time to talk about a controversial decision on a Hunter Henry touchdown. No, not that one. I'm talking about the decision to cut back to the middle of the field instead of just running on into the end zone.

Wild move. Worked out though.

--People love to talk about quarterback play, obviously. So I'll note that I found this tweet to be distasteful!

How uncouth!

Kirk Cousins was certainly OK in this game, but using this particular performance as a slam dunk in the face of those who question Cousins' ability to shine in prime time is an odd route to take. His interception was horrific.

He almost turned a throwaway on a broken play into another pick.

Neither one of these passes got picked off, somehow:

(If Jack Jones had picked that off, it would have killed what ended up being a field goal drive. If Jonathan Jones had picked that off, it would have given the Patriots the ball on the Vikings' side of the 50, trailing by seven midway through the fourth quarter.)

I don't know. Outside of having the intelligence to simply keep throwing the football at Justin Jefferson, I don't think Cousins turned any naysayers into believers in this one.

--Where the Vikings WERE incredibly impressive offensively was in their protection. I wasn't the only one who predicted a lot of sacks in this one, after the Vikings allowed seven sacks on Sunday and lost their starting left tackle. But that line held up.

Josh Uche got the Patriots' lone sack of the game, on the first play of the fourth quarter. Matthew Judon, the NFL's sack leader, got a couple of QB hits, and Jalen Mills got one as well, but that was it.

That's a major credit to Kevin O'Connell and Wes Phillips for altering their game plan on a short week to remedy what was a major issue on Sunday. It goes to show what good coaching can accomplish at the NFL level.

--The Patriots' offense was most certainly very good overall, especially coming off their own brutal performance Sunday vs. the Jets. The 409 yards were their second-most of the year, Mac Jones hit a career high in single-game passing yards at 382, the Patriots scored their first first-quarter touchdown of the season (IN WEEK NUMBER TWELVE!!!), and they also scored two offensive touchdowns for the first time since Week 7.

Still, with the game up in the air in the fourth quarter, here's what that offense did:

--Three plays, one yard, punt
--Three plays, nine yards, punt
--Seven plays, 48 yards, turnover on downs
--Three plays, 31 yards, end of game

The turnover on downs drive ended with a fourth-and-16 play where four rushers went up against six blockers ... and won. 

TO BE FAIR, the Patriots were in that position after the officials seemingly missed a tripping call on Danielle Hunter's sack of Mac Jones:

But to be fair the other way, an elite pass rusher isn't in the backfield alone with the quarterback if Trent Brown doesn't make the head-scratching decision to try to cut block Hunter in the first place.

And TO BE FAIR, one three-and-out came after officials missed both a defensive holding penalty and a facemask penalty committed against the quarterback. 

Officials generally have their peepers peeled for any fouls committed against the quarterback. But not that time. And the clear contact by Smith upfield prevented what could have been a massive gain for Hunter Henry.

That contributed to the offensive woes, no doubt. But the officials aren't always going to be helping you out, and you usually have to overcome some missed calls. That's sports. Despite the offensive performance looking very good on the surface level, the unit really couldn't win when the game was on the line. There's still work to be done, clearly.

--The Patriots were also 3-for-10 on third down and 0-for-1 on fourth down. And one of the Patriots' third-down conversions was the last play of the game, a useless 23-yard gain over the middle with no timeouts in the final seconds. 

They rank 23rd in the NFL at converting third downs, better than only the Raiders, Colts, Commanders, Cardinals, Titans, Jets, Texans, Broncos and Panthers. 

The Chiefs convert 51.7 percent of their third downs. In the division, the Bills convert 50.8 percent while Miami converts 42.6 percent. But the Patriots are at 37.1 percent.

They've also converted just 25 percent of their fourth-down attempts, which ranks 29th in the NFL.

There's a reason these are called gotta-have-it plays. And the Patriots aren't getting them.

--Also, maybe this is rude or something, but I'm personally subtracting 23 yards from Mac Jones' passing total. The 23-yard completion over the middle at the end of the game was arguably the least useful pass in NFL history.

Clock running, down seven, at your own 19 ... completion over the middle for 23 yards.

It's kind of a moot point, as a victory there only comes via miracle. (See: Miami, 2018.) But that entire final sequence -- from the sack on first down, to Bourne being unable to get out of bounds on second down, to the useless completion on third down -- was tremendously uninspiring.

--Some quick Harrison Smith appreciation:

If the 11th-year safety (!) doesn't make those plays, it could have very easily led to eight more Patriots points. The big open-field hit came before Henry's failure to get out of bounds, and Stevenson likely would have stopped the clock to give the Patriots more time. The one where Smith tripped up Stevenson just enough prevented a first down being picked up, thus forcing a field goal from Nick Folk.

I think the aforementioned slight grab of Henry on a third-and-1 was a veteran play too. If they call it, they call it. If they don't, you just saved a chunk play in a big spot and forced a punt.

Sometimes, it's the non-highlight plays that really make a difference.

 --The other day, I wrote that Bill Belichick and Adam Thielen likely don't have any leftover ill will from their somewhat-forgotten on-field shouting match from a few years back. But maybe I was wrong!

Whew!

In case you lead a normal life and don't have instant access to such memories, here it was back in 2018:

--I didn't put this in the list of mistakes, because I can't 100 percent confirm it. But after Myles Bryant fell over, resulting the Zero Humans Defense giving up a 25-yard pass over the middle on a third-and-7 ...

... the Patriots called timeout before the next snap. I think they only had 10 players on the field.

Timeouts were obviously pretty valuable in this game, so whatever it was that forced this untimely use of one was yet another mistake by New England.

--Everyone agrees unanimously on this: If you're a punter and you celebrate a running into the kicker or roughing the kicker penalty, you deserve to go straight go jail. Just, whatever the urge may be, do not do it. 

Everyone's going to be bothered by it. Everyone. Don't do it.

--Technically, if the Patriots were going to lose one of their Thursday night games, then doing so against the Vikings would be better than losing to the Bills. Out of conference, tiebreaker, all of that stuff.

But technically, beating the Buffalo Bills is going to be a lot harder than beating the Minnesota Vikings. And that's kind of the spot the Patriots are in next week.

Win, and they're back, comfortable at 7-5, owners of a 3-1 record in the division, owners of a 6-2 record in the conference. Surely back in the playoff picture. Not bad!

Lose, and they're 6-6, surely still in last place in the division, with losses to Miami and Buffalo in the AFC East, with a path to a playoff spot in serious peril.

It's not great for the team, considering the Bills are 4-1 against the Patriots since Tom Brady left New England, with that lone Patriots victory coming in the midst of some tropical storm-force winds in Orchard Park last year. In the other non-cyclone games, Buffalo's outscored New England 142-68.

It's not a great spot. And the 8-3 Bills opened as six-point favorites in Foxboro.

For as entertaining as the Thanksgiving game was, things are about to get heavy next week on Thursday night at Gillette.

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.