Patriots lament ‘missed opportunities’ in loss to Commanders

New England dropped to 2-7 on the year on Sunday.

The New England Patriots played a competitive game against the Washington Commanders in Week 9. However, once again their efforts were not enough to come away with a victory.

Losing 20-17, they are now 2-7 on the season. And if the team is to be believed a big reason for that is an inability to take advantage of opportunities.

“We know where we’re messing up, and we know that we’re beating ourselves,” said defensive lineman Deatrich Wise Jr. “In most of the games that we play, there’s a lot of things that we’re doing wrong. We’re not capitalizing on opportunities that we have.”

The Patriots defense registered two takeaways on the day, but it had its fair share of opportunities to make an even bigger impact. However, the unit allowed the Commanders to move the chains on nine of 17 third down plays — including a 24-yard scramble on 3rd-and-24.

While New England suffered from some defensive breakdowns, the offense and special teams units also had their miscues as head coach Bill Belichick pointed out.

“It’s all the way across the board, all three units,” he said after the game.

“Had a chance there at the end, couldn’t make enough plays. Obviously had plenty of opportunities along the way that we needed to make more out of. Just a disappointing result. Just got to do a better job of making the plays when we have the opportunities to make them. It’s as simple as that.”

Special teams saw some untimely penalties, inconsistent coverage, and punt returner Demario Douglas gaining a total of -2 yards on his two runback attempts.

The offense, meanwhile, once again failed to hold up its end of the bargain. While it played good football in spurts, which allowed it to erase a 10-0 deficit, consistency was once again a major problem on that side of the ball.

The Patriots going 3-for-12 on third down and 1-for-2 on fourth down was only one part of the problem. They also missed some big plays that waited to be made — whether it was drops by wide receivers Jalen Reagor and JuJu Smith-Schuster or a floater by quarterback Mac Jones that erase the chance at a big play to running back Rhamondre Stevenson.

“We had opportunities not just in the two-minute, but opportunities to make a play, make an impact, and we just didn’t really do that,” said center David Andrews. “You’ve got to look in the mirror and go back to work. It’s not going to break my spirit. It’s not going to break our spirit. We’re going to come back, take tonight, come back to work tomorrow, see what we can do to correct it and get ready to go to Germany to play Indy.”

Belichick echoed those remarks about the offense.

“We moved the ball, but weren’t able to finish as many as we needed to,” he said. “Had our chances, as I said. Need to make more of those opportunities. We had plays that we just couldn’t obviously quite make.”