The New England Patriots expected plenty of growing pains when they named rookie Mac Jones their starting quarterback for the 2021 season, but there is no excuse for one of the mistakes they made late in their loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
Taysom Hill scored a touchdown to give the Saints a two-possession lead with just over 2 minutes remaining in the game. New England would have had a much easier time stopping him on 1st-and-goal if they had 11 defenders on the field. As Patriots play-by-play announcer Bob Socci pointed out on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Rich” show Monday morning, they only had 10.
As @BobSocci just pointed out to us, the Patriots seemed to only have 10 men on the field for the Saints final TD. pic.twitter.com/atrnwNQhOf
— Toucher and Rich (@Toucherandrich) September 27, 2021
You can see in the video below that Hill scored easily:
Patriots had 10 men on D & Taysom ran in a TD
you can see Bill rotating off personnel before the play and 50 Winovich trying to enter the game late at the 10 yard line top of the picture just before the snap
Bill had 2 timeouts…but didn’t use one
touchdown
(h/t @PhilAPerry) pic.twitter.com/aluHrmamqG
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 27, 2021
The Saints had 1st-and-goal from 4-yard line, and they only needed a field goal to go up two possessions. New England was probably going to lose anyway, but those are the types of mistakes we are not accustomed to seeing from Bill Belichick-coached teams.
Belichick probably was not happy with himself, his coaching staff, or his players on that play. Jones had some nice plays like the throw he made right after ditching his knee brace, but there weren’t many positives for the Patriots overall.
