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Back-to-back shockers for Patriots: Loss and Gordon

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Sep 18, 2018

Twitter photo Often troubled wide receiver Josh Gordon is now a New England Patriot in a deal made Monday with the Cleveland Browns.

In a few days, perhaps the shock will wear off.

Not only about Sunday’s New England Patriots loss at Jacksonville, but also the fact the Patriots surrendered a fifth round pick for an incredibly troubled – and yes, talented – receiver in former Cleveland Brown Josh Gordon.

First, as far as winning and losing goes, perhaps all it will take to restore order is a win over the seemingly overmatched former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and the Detroit Lions.

Perhaps then it will be seen as a loss to a good team on the road in tough (heat) conditions.

If Sunday’s 31-20 loss at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars was anything more for the Patriots, it will become evident in the coming weeks.

Was the Gordon trade part of an overreacting? Not likely. The Patriots have been working high and low to try to upgrade the position according to what they want. The deal for Gordon was the 28th transaction they’ve made involving the receiver position.

But Gordon? No doubt if he’s without trouble, he’s an immense talent, even after playing just 11 games since the end of the 2013 season. But history – and recent history, as recently as this past weekend – shows he’s simply not going to be able to stay out of trouble with his substance abuse history.

Meanwhile, concerning the loss to the Jags, there will be plenty of overreaction among the fan base. Some warranted, some not. It’s not a loss to simply discount, not when you are the victim of arguably the best game of Blake Bortles’ spotty career. And not when the Jags were missing back Leonard Fournette and also, after an injury early in the game, their starting left tackle.

Also, this is not, on paper, thought of to be the most talented Patriots team of recent years. Offensively New England is limited, especially minus receiver Julian Edelman – hence the move for Gordon. Defensively the playmakers are few, even though the scheme looks improved.

The Patriots were stuck playing catch-up on the road. Not a good thing.

“We didn’t perform to our level of expectation in any way,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said Monday in his weekly paid WEEI radio interview “And when you go on the road and do that against a good team, you’re going to come up short. There’s not area in the game where we perform where we needed to be.”

Defensively, one might think the heat was a factor, but it appeared de facto defensive coordinator Brian Flores got schooled. Jacksonville was able to hit short routs in space, with room to run. And with Trey Flowers out with a concussion early, Bortles could, for the most part, wait for the play to develop. He found the right people in the right spots for multiple catch-and-runs. This is something opposing coaches always try to do to the Patriots with their vulnerability at linebacker, but few are able to stick with it. But that type of scheme is right up Bortles’ alley.

“We have to do a better job of playing with leverage, and tackling, and getting the runner on the ground,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said in his Monday conference call, which not surprisingly produced a few more analytical answers than his immediate post-game responses.

Belichick’s theme was that if one little thing was off offensively or defensively on any play, the Jaguars knew enough to take advantage of it.

On offense, when Gronkowski gets just two receptions and is targeted only four times, it’s trouble. Maybe Gordon, if he can behave.

Brady said Gronkowski was double covered most of the time on third down. “We were really out of rhythm all day,” Brady said. “…And when you do that, you play a good defense, it ends up showing by a lack of scoring points. Especially when it happens early, and you get behind on the road, against a good pass rush, it just makes for a very hard day.”

Belichick said that taking players out of the play is something the Jaguars specialize in defensively.

“They’re a good defense, I’d say almost everybody has trouble with it,” he said “That’s what they do, and they do a good job of it.”

“Things just don’t magically happen,” Brady said Monday. “You’ve got to make them happen.”

Whether this editon of the Patriots has the ability to do that at a high rate remains to be seen. You see, weaker opponents may hide some of these things. This showed what a horrendous job Houston and coach Bill O’Brien did in Foxborough Week One.

The test is when you go up aganst good teams, like the Jaguars have proven themselves to be with their smashmouth, fairly simple dare you-to-beat us style.

“In the end, we didn’t have enough productive plays in any phase of the game,” Belichick said. “They were able to take advantage of that like any good team does.”

“Hopefully,” Brady said, “it’s a big lesson for us.”

Hopefully the Patriots won’t learn another lesson in taking a chance on Gordon.

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