4 hours Ago By Bernd Buchmasser
Little has gone right for the New England Patriots over the first six weeks of the 2024 regular season. While they did win their opener in Cincinnati in upset fashion, they have since failed to reach similar success en route to losing five games in a row. The issues that have plagued the team are plenty.
Near the top of the list, according to head coach Jerod Mayo, is his team’s inability to start fast — something he hopes will improve against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. “We’ve got to start games faster,” Mayo said. “We’ve got to start games faster, and that’s definitely a point of emphasis this week.
” In three of their five losses so far this season, the Patriots found themselves trailing by multiple scores rather quickly. They fell behind 14-0 against both the New York Jets in Week 3 and the Houston Texans in Week 6, and dug themselves into a 20-0 hole versus the San Francisco 49ers in Week 4. In those three games, they first scored with 3:56 left in the second quarter (Jets), 11 seconds left in the second quarter (Texans), and on the final play of the first half (49ers).
For a team like the Patriots that lacks offensive firepower and has struggled in pass protection, those deficits proved themselves too big to overcome. “We have to start faster. It’s been bad this year,” said offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
“We put a lot of time and effort into the first 15, and we haven’t gotten that done yet. So, always an emphasis to start fast and hopefully that will start paying off some of the work that we’ve done in practice.” As Mayo pointed out, the Patriots’ emphasizing fast starts also manifested itself in a change in practice procedure.
“We have a period in practice [Wednesday] where it’s like nothing else really matters. It’s not about X’s and O’s and schematics,” he said. “We have a start fast period where it’s just offense versus defense, and we’re rolling out of the gate, and that’s the plan.
” Whether or not that special focus on getting off to a good start will lead to a different result versus Jacksonville remains to be seen. Fact is, however, that another sloppy start might prove itself lethal even against a 1-5 Jaguars team..
