Bill Belichick suffered the worst loss of his head coaching career in Dallas last week and he suffered the worst home loss of his career this week.
The Saints humiliated the Patriots 34-0 on their home field to drop the Patriots to 1-4 on the season. The previous record loss for Belichick at home was a 38-9 loss to the Bills in 2020.
Belichick pulled quarterback Mac Jones early in the fourth quarter with New Orleans up 31-0 and Bailey Zappe played the rest of the way. It’s the second straight week that Jones has been pulled and he threw his third pick-six of the season in the first quarter. Belichick stuck with Jones after the Dallas debacle, but Zappe saw more reps in practice this week and the Patriots will have to figure out if there’s any hope for better results by sticking with Jones after another disastrous outing.
The Patriots have not scored a touchdown since the first half of Week Three, so there will need to be some changes even if they stick with Jones as their quarterback.
It’s the first home shutout for the Patriots since 2016 and they are 1-4 for the first time since 2000. They play the Raiders next week and Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels will provide a reminder of happier offensive days in New England.
The Saints won’t have to make any tough calls about their offense. It felt like things were heading in that direction after last Sunday’s loss to the Buccaneers, but they rolled up 308 yards on their way to the win. Derek Carr threw a pair of touchdown passes and running back Alvin Kamara scored his first touchdown of the 2023 season.
The offensive success was more than matched by the defense. They picked Jones off a second time and also recovered a botched pitch to running back Rhamondre Stevenson. Carl Granderson had a sack and provided the pressure on the interception that Tyrann Mathieu returned for a touchdown.
New Orleans is now 3-2 and they’ll head to Houston for a date with the Texans next weekend.
