Bill Belichick has always said the game of football is about scoring points.

Pretty soon, the New England Patriots, including Belichck, will need to get the point.

It ain’t workin.

That’s the cry from Joe Fan with regard to the Patriots’ offensive approach. Sunday they managed just seven points, turned the ball over three times, and Miami Dolphin Tua Tagovailoa ruled again. He’s 4-0 against the Patriots in his lackluster career.

Yeah, they Stunk for Tua. More than Tua stunk for them.

No one is confusing the Dolphins defense with the Steel Curtain, but the Patriots turned the ball over three times, and could only muster seven points coming on a 92-yard drive. Quarterback Mac Jones was a mediocre 21 of 30 for 213 yards, and to make things worse, suffered a back injury that apparently was bad enough to prevent him from speaking with the media as required by the NFL after the game.

“We couldn’t get enough points, and we got into their territory,” Belichick said. “We got in there six, seven times, whatever it was, and it was seven points. So we’ve got to do a better job of finishing.”

Kendrick Bourne’s lack of playing time continues to be a mystery; he told MassLive after the game that he hadn’t been “giving the coaches what they want” but was trying to change that. More catches like his 41-yard reception would change that.

The Patriots could have won this game.

Here’s what the they need: better play from their offensive line. Jones was under fire a lot, including a strip sack that produced a crushing Miami touchdown by Melvin Ingram who said afterward the Patriots game plan “was everything we expected.”

Ouch.

“We beat ourselves up,” Patriots center David Andrews said. “Three, four turnovers, a strip sack for a touchdown. More of can’t win till you keep from losing kind of day than anything else. …

“… Go back and see what we can do better, what I can do better, and go from there.”

The Patriot need playmakers, explosive plays. It just looks like they’ll beat the lousy teams, but struggle against some others. They get a break when the go at Pittsburgh next week because it certainly sounds as if Steelers sackmaster T.J. Watt is lost for the season with a torn pectoral muscle.

“We had two plays where we had enough to block (the Dolphin defense), but we didn’t block it properly,” Belichick said. “Yeah, there were two of those.”

And unless something changes, there will probably be more. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Jonnu Smith looked more engaged, and then there’s Bourne. Ty Montgomery is a capable veteran, but not on a run up the middle on third and 3. Not the right guy for that.

Now we’ll wait and see how things unfold, and whether or not we’ll be looking at Brian Hoyer starting next Sunday. It’s going to be an interesting week, in what we hope is an interesting season.

“Look, Super Bowl is not decided today, right?,” Andrews said. “We’ve got 17 – 16 more games to now. So, look, how many years you come out here and see a team go 8-0,6-0 and then don’t make the playoffs?”

Well after Sunday’s loss the Patriots now don’t have to worry about being one of those.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.