New England’s vaunted defense played its worst game of the season on Thursday night.
The New England Patriots defense appears to be trending in the wrong direction, and on Thursday night against the New York Jets played its worst game of the season.
The numbers speak for themselves. The unit of coordinator DeMarcus Covington surrendered 24 points — compared to 3 scored by the Patriots offense — and allowed the Jets to convert 10 of 15 third downs en route to 400 total yards.
All of those represent season-worsts for New England, as does another: the Patriots missed 14 tackles on the night. That statistic in particular seemed to bother the team after its three-touchdown loss.
“Very uncharacteristic,” said head coach Jerod Mayo during his postgame press conference.
“It’s one of the things I’m very disappointed in as a defensive-minded coach. Especially at the second level we struggled all day as far as tackling. Even when we tackled, we hit them in the backfield, just the lack of fundamentals, the lack discipline and the lack of execution definitely continued to show up. That was very uncharacteristic for us.”
The Patriots’ tackling issues reared their ugly head from early on in the contest. The game’s first touchdown, a 10-yard connection between Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wide receiver Allen Lazard, was one of the early examples of New England’s insufficient performance in that area.
A quick pass to the outside, the Patriots had a chance to stop that play behind the sticks. However, cornerback Alex Austin came in too fast and Lazard side-stepped him without much of a problem. Kyle Dugger’s clean-up tackle also never materialized.
Aaron Rodgers has his first TD at MetLife as the @nyjets QB!@NFL | #TNFonPrime pic.twitter.com/yhQj6Jyh4W
— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) September 20, 2024
“We were just not sticking to our fundamentals. There were a lot of missed tackles, myself included. That’s just not us,” said linebacker Jahlani Tavai after the game.
Based on the first two games of the season, that assessment is accurate. Against the Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks in Weeks 1 and 2, the Patriots missed a combined 11 tackles — three fewer than on Thursday night.
What was the reason behind the sudden and dramatic collapse in tackling success? For team captain Jabrill Peppers, it all came down to execution.
“Plain and simple, we just didn’t play well enough or play well at all,” he said. “Too many missed tackles, missed assignments, lack of hustle at times. It’s just too uncharacteristic of us. Man to man we know we have to play better on all facets of the ball but especially on defense.”