Mazz: Bill Belichick the coach is failing, too

Just last week, out of curiosity, we posed a question on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. While nearly 50 percent of all respondents wanted to fire Bill Belichick, a more eye-popping total of just under 40 percent voted to retain him while stripping his duties as general manager. On many levels, the results spoke volumes.

But in the end, here's the the truth in the endless discussion about Bill Belichick The Coach and Bill Belichick The GM: both are failing.

As we all know, the free-falling Patriots spiraled again on Sunday, this time dropping a 21-17 decision to the Las Vegas Raiders in the desert, where the circling of the buzzards intensified. In Week 6 of the 2023 NFL season, the Patriots had 10 penalties, committed another turnover and took a safety in their own end zone trailing by two points with just under two minutes to play. Of New England's 10 penalties, five were of the pre-snap or procedural variety, one of the surest signs of coaching or disciplinary ineptitude. That isn't so much shooting yourself in the foot as it is blowing off one of your legs, the other of which the Patriots have injured with their extraordinary ability to turn the ball over.

Yesterday, once again, the Patriots continued to enable the opposition. Quarterback Mac Jones threw his seventh interception (second-most in the NFL this year) to facilitate a Raiders field goal. Then there was the safety the Patriots allowed late in the game when Jones took a sack in the end zone, meaning that the Patriots directly contributed to five Raiders points on a day when the margin of defeat was four. Though the Pats were even in the turnover battle yesterday, they are minus-8 for the season, tied with the Cleveland Browns for worst in the NFL.

Simply put, the Pats are one of the most penalized teams in the league while simultaneously being one of the most careless with the football, and even Belichick knows that is a reflection on the coaching, no matter how much he may try to deflect that.

For those of who still reluctant to move on from the coach, here's the real question: why? Out of loyalty? Out of appreciation for what Belichick has done here? Such sentiments are understandable. They're also driven by the wrong reasons, particularly for someone whose explanation over the years has often been based on practice of doing "what is best for the team."

This isn't a one-year decline, folks. It's more like two, three or four, depending on where you want to draw the line. Since Tom Brady departed, the Patriots are now 19-30 against everyone other than the New York Jets, including 0-5 this year. During that span they have committed 76 turnovers, the 11th-highest total in the league. The Patriots haven't been good for a while whether you want to admit it or not.

In you're in to more recent trend lines, the Patriots have been headed for something like this nosedive for going on two years now. In 20-21, they went 1-3 down the stretch, their only victory a 50-10 win over what was then a wretched Jacksonville team playing under Urban Meyer. Then came last year's 8-9 record in which the Pats lost five of their final seven. Now they are 1-5. Add it all up and the Patriots are 10-17 in their last 27 games, their additional wins comings against the Jets (three), Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Arizona, and Miami (without Tua Tagovailoa).

Has talent been the primary problem? Sure. But part of the reason - no, the primary reason - the Patriots have Belichick is to get more with less. Now are getting less with more, at least with regard to the coaching, which is something the Kraft family would call a poor ROI, the all-important Return On Investment.

The solutions for this, of course, are numerous. The Pats could limit Belichick's responsibilities, which it seems they have already done. They could cut his salary, which they may (or may not) have done. They could continue to bend over backwards for a man whose primary purpose now is a selfish pursuit of Don Shula's record for career victories by an NFL coach, the ultimate violation of Belichick's most familiar refrain.

Or, at season's end, barring a dramatic and unforeseen turnaround, they could just do "what is best for the team" and settle on a simple solution that we all know to be the best choice.

Cut bait sand move on.

It's just time.

When you look this bad in consecutive weeks, there's a festering problem that goes beyond just the players. There's also something wrong on the New England Patriots' coaching staff.

And it begins and ends with the man at the helm of the football operation.

Bill Belichick suffered the worst loss of his career last week against the Dallas Cowboys, based on the 35-point margin of victory. But this was worse. A 34-0 shutout at the hands of the decent-at-best New Orleans Saints, in which Derek Carr and the offense connected for big plays and finished touchdown drives in the red zone, and the Patriots offense bottomed out.

This game was always going to be sneaky-challenging. Carr isn't terrible, and the Saints have a handful of legitimate playmakers on both sides of the ball. But for the Patriots to not even be competitive in this game, on their home turf, against a team that's less than a top contender (like the Cowboys or Eagles), was inexcusable. And it's impossible to excuse Belichick.

"Plain and simply, we've got to find a way to play and coach better than that," Belichick said after the game. "So that’s what we are going to do, start all over and get back on a better track than we're on right now."

The Patriots' players are certainly not playing well, especially on offense. But at what point do we stop wringing our hands over them and look at the guy tasked with putting them in position to succeed? Because Belichick and his staff aren't doing that right now.

Historically, that was Belichick's calling card. He was ahead of the competition. His guys were going to be the more prepared and disciplined group. It was a big reason for those first three Super Bowl wins. It was key to Malcolm Butler's championship-saving interception. And it was the main reason Belichick was able to drag one of the worst rosters in the NFL with terrible quarterback play to seven wins in 2020, and to grind out eight wins with a defensive coach running the offense in 2022.

It's been a while since the Patriots inspired any confidence that they could beat a good team. But they at least had Belichick's coaching ready to outclass inferior operations, and to keep it closer than expected against good ones.

He just got his ass handed to him by Dennis Allen. At home. Allen is in just his fifth season as a head coach in the NFL. He just went into Foxboro and had the significantly better, more prepared team. And this was a group that had issues of their own going into Sunday. Not against Belichick, apparently.

The Patriots' players aren't THIS bad. They're objectively more talented on paper now than they were in 2020, and you can make that case against the 2021 team in certain key areas. Their pass-catchers aren't good, but are they worse than N'Keal Harry, Damiere Byrd, Ryan Izzo? Is Jakobi Meyers really that much better than Kendrick Bourne, DeVante Parker, or JuJu Smith-Schuster? (Well, JuJu, yes.)

There's a reason this version of the Patriots offense, despite getting an established coordinator in the off-season and building a better collective group of talent, just keeps going backward. There's a reason they're plagued by slow starts. Mac Jones was asked what he thinks is behind those.

"Really, just not being ready to go, I guess," Jones said. "I mean, as an offense, you want to go out there, you’ve practiced all week and you feel confident so definitely want to get improvement on that. And not any of these games are not starting off very hot, so we’ve just got to improve."

Players play. It's not their job to "be ready to go." That's on the coaches. That's on Belichick.

And with him, it's extra-complicated because he also picks the players. Belichick can't pull a Bill Parcells and bemoan his inability to shop for the groceries. And he can't even make chicken salad out of chicken shit anymore.

Belichick is responsible for the players. He's responsible for what they ultimately do (or not do) on the field. So when it gets this bad, he's responsible for that too.

Considering the clear improvements the Patriots have made on their roster since 2020, it stands to reason that it's possible Belichick's grip on the players is slipping. It's possible the message isn't getting through. And if it is, it smells.

"We'll keep working on it," Belichick said, when asked about that.

Belichick has to be running out of time to work on messaging. It would still be a seismic shock if we wake up Monday morning and Belichick has been let go. It's more likely that Robert Kraft at least lets the 2023 season plays out.

But what's that going to accomplish? Even if Belichick and his staff step up their game, and this Patriots roster suddenly looks prepared, disciplined, a step ahead of the competition? They're still not overly talented. Jones isn't good enough to make up for those deficiencies.

Even if Belichick reaches deep down in whatever he's got left and goes on one last run, and gets the most out of his players ... can the Patriots possibly get to nine wins? That seems so far away, that even grinding out 6-7 victories would be a meaningless exercise. Fans across the region are probably already looking at the top draft prospects.

If anything, Belichick would get in the way of that. But it's a best-case scenario. Realistically, he's here to stay for the rest of 2023. But the way it's going, he won't be able to eke out many more victories, anyway.

And if he's wondering why, he should look in the mirror.

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Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Check out all of Matt's content here.