We apologize.

Sunday we mapped out a way for the New England Patriots to win as many as 10 games, given a favorable schedule during the immediate two weeks and then for a stretch in later November-early December.

That, of course, was under the assumption that New England was an average football team that could raise its level just a notch and beat other average or below average teams.

Of course, after what we saw Sunday at Gillette Stadium, time for a, uh, slight adjustment.

The New England Patriots are a bad football team.

We could amend that slightly and say at least that’s how it looks now, but after Sunday’s 34-0 putrid loss to the fairly average New Orleans Saints, we’ll hold off on that.

An average team beat the snot out of a bad team.

Ugh. It was as bad a Patriots performance as you will ever see, and embarrassment above all embarrassments. It’s the fourth 30-point loss of the Bill Belichick Era, the third being last week’s ugly 38-3 beatdown at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys, and then two others were both at the hands of the Buffalo Bills – the Wild Card playoff game two years ago and then the famous Lawyer Milloy game of 2003. At least after that ill-fated 2003 season opener the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl.

This one doesn’t have a prayer.

Good football teams in today’s NFL can suffer a lopsided loss. A team can have your number, etc. But not two. Not being outscored 69-0 over a two week stretch. Offensively, they haven’t had a touchdown in their last 10 quarters, since the first half against the New York Jets.

“I don’t know,” center David Andrews said when asked just what the heck happened yesterday. “Not good enough. Turnovers, same old story.”

The Patriots locker room, as one can imagine, was like a morgue. The Patriots were outgained 304-156. Once again, the quarterback stunk. Under heavy pressure, felt it, rushed throws, etc. etc. One led to an early pick six, Jones just tossing a flutterball when bothered by the rush and feeling the heat and Tyrann Mathieu grabbed it and went 27 yards to paydirt. Gillette was one collective groan eight minutes into the game. You’ve all seen it before.

And we’ve heard the same responses before, including Jones’ famous one “I’d have to look at the film.”

Don’t bother. Just look at the scoreboard.

“Got to do a lot of things better,” he said in perhaps his only real tangible comment, “to win in this league.”

Two years ago it looked like Jones could do just that. But it’s obvious that once he feels pressure, he panics and turns the ball over or rushes throws, as he did Sunday, early on missing wide open receivers.

New England’s problems are all over the place, and Sunday showed that. This was the perfect game to fit Belichick’s standard line of “We all have to do a better job.”

And again in the game of football, you need to score points.

“Execution,” a well-dressed Kendrick Bourne said yesterday when asked just what went wrong. “We need to score points. Just got to execute the plays, man, move the ball down the field. … We’re not making the plays that need to be made, got to get first downs, got to move the ball down the field.”

Does Bourne have faith in what those plays are? Remember, last year he and many on the offense, including Jones, didn’t in the Matt Patricia reign of error – not that Bill O’Brien’s system is looking any better.

“Yeah, I do,” Bourne said. “I feel like the plays were there, we’ve just got to make ’em. We’ve got to make harder catches, whatever may be. I feel like the plays were there, a lot of them showed themselves. We’ve just got to finish. As athletes, we’ve got to make the play better than how it looks, too.”

Then Bourne said what everyone could see.

“We need more effort,” he said. “We need to want it more. We need more energy.”

They need better players to give that energy. There certainly no electrifying players on this roster right now. Even the head coach is showing he has no faith on what he’s got. He punted on fourth-and-3 at midfield early in the fourth quarter from the Saints 40, with the visitors up 24-0. No thoughts at all of going for it.

“Until we’re better on third and fourth down, I don’t think so,” he said.

Just what the heck is the solution?

“Just keep working hard,” Bourne said. “It’s all about hard work. … We’ve got to work harder in practice, just try harder, individually, personally, and as a group.”

Or, as Belichick said, “Start all over and get back on a better track than we’re on right now.”

If this continues, one team owner named Robert Kraft may do just that.

Tom King may be reached @Telegraph_TomK, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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