Flawed Patriots aren't panicking

FOXBOROUGH - If you believe your eyes, then the Patriots are in trouble. But if you listened to what they said in the wake of a third straight lackluster preseason performance, a 27-17 it-wasn't-as-close-as-the-final-score drubbing by the Philadelphia Eagles at Gillette Stadium last night, then things are not as bad as they look in this awful, 0-3 preseason.

While you would have expected self-flagellation after another disappointing performance, the Patriots tried to strike a confident and optimistic tone after the game. Panic. What panic?

"We can't be up and down with the media and the fans because that's what it is, it's a roller coaster," said cornerback Ellis Hobbs. "You can't allow your emotions to set in especially so early in the season, where the season hasn't even begun. I'm not necessarily saying we don't have problems that we need to correct, but [it's] having the sense and poise to say these problems can be corrected and it's not to late.

"Right now, as far as we're concerned we're 0-3 in the preseason, but we're still 0-0."

But something is clearly amiss with this team, at least in the preseason, and it goes beyond the absence of quarterback Tom Brady, who missed his third straight preseason game with a sore right foot.

The team that former Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel returned to play against bore no resemblance to the one he left, having gone from perfect to perplexing.

The Patriots followed a familiar and distressing formula. Matt Cassel (8 of 14 for 60 yards, sacked three times) struggled, the defense was shredded, and an overall lack of execution permeated everything the Patriots did.

The Eagles led, 24-3, at the half, and outgained the Patriots, 242 yards to 56. The Patriots punted on four of their five possessions, and their best offensive play was a 47-yard pass interference penalty that a double-covered Randy Moss drew on safety Sean Considine. That led to New England's only points of the half, a 35-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski.

For the third straight game, a Patriots' opponent took the opening kickoff and cruised down the field. The Patriots allowed Philadelphia to string together a 14-play, 76-yard drive to take a 3-0 lead.

The Patriots offered less resistance on the Eagles' next scoring foray, which concluded with McNabb, who was 13 of 17 for 180 yards and a touchdown in just a half of action, hitting Jason Avant for a 7-yard touchdown.

The Patriots had to resort to replay with 4:24 left in the half to finally stop the Eagles.

McNabb appeared to throw a 7-yard TD pass to Hank Baskett. However, the Patriots challenged and the play was overturned and ruled a touchback. The officials declared Baskett did not have control of the ball when he passed the pylon and lost it out of bounds.

In his first three possessions, Cassel led the Patriots to just one first down, a 22-yard rush by the QB on third down. Cassel emphatically celebrated the first down by pumping his arm, but he did not have much else to get excited about.

In the six possessions with Cassel, the Patriots punted five times, going three plays and out on three of them. Cassel has led the Patriots to just two field goals in 15 preseason possessions. He was replaced by Matt Gutierrez with 4:09 left in the quarter.

Cassel was sacked by Philadelphia defensive end Jerome McDougle on the final play of his final series and hobbled off the field, his night mercifully - and painfully - coming to an end.

Running back Sammy Morris said the offense's inability isn't on Cassel.

"There are a lot of things where there are injuries to other positions," said Morris. It's difficult right now just because the people that are in there, we're not executing. Regardless of who is in there, we're not executing. That's the bottom line for us."

Gutierrez fared much better (14 of 20 for 217 yards and two touchdowns) than Cassel. He got a great one-handed, 1-yard touchdown catch from Chad Jackson to end an 11-play drive early in the fourth quarter and found C.J. Jones for a 9-yard TD pass with 41 seconds left in the game to cap a 99-yard drive and make it 27-17.

But the Patriots added special teams to their futility, allowing a 101-yard kickoff return by Quintin Demps that followed Gostkowski's second-quarter field goal, giving the Eagles a 17-3 lead.

Then on the final play of the half the Patriots punt coverage parted for DeSean Jackson's 76-yard jaunt to the end zone, reddening the face of coach Bill Belichick.

"It wasn't good situational play," said Belichick. "I'll take the responsibility for that, but regardless you still have to cover."

But if you believe what the Patriots are saying, they're like that object in your rearview mirror - closer than they appear.

"It's not a lack of effort or talent," said Hobbs. "I think it's just focusing that much more. We're there, but they're making the plays and we're not. We need to start turning them over a couple of times for us whether it's on offense, defense, or special teams. It's not like we're not there. We just have to continue to push and it will fall."