Patriots fans know they shouldn’t overreact to the 31-20 loss to the Jaguars

It was 97 degrees outside. Stephen Gostkowski shanked a 54-yard field goal attempt into the upper deck. On the Jaguars opening drive, Trey Flowers forced an incredible fumble that bounced right into the hands of a Jaguars player who picked it up for a first down. On that same drive, Flowers was knocked out of the game with a concussion after he took a hit from teammate Keionta Davis.

On the next play, Kyle Van Noy made a tackle and his helmet did this:

What did you think was going to happen in this game?

The Jacksonville Jaguars outplayed, outcoached, and outmanned the New England Patriots on Sunday. They deserved to win because they won in every facet of the game. But this game was like watching a series of unfortunate events for New England with worst-case scenarios at every turn, including a different concussion suffered by Patrick Chung.

CBS Broadcast

And we all know not to overreact, right? This type of game won’t happen again with all of the injuries and bad bounces. And if and when the Patriots and Jaguars meet again in the postseason, it won’t be 97 degrees outside.

A terrible, no good, very bad, lousy Patriots performance in the first four games of the season has been like clockwork since 2014. There was the blowout in Miami (the 89 degree game mentioned in the above graphic) in 2014 and there was the Kansas City Chiefs “they’re just not good anymore” game. They were shutout by the Buffalo Bills in 2016. They were crushed by the Chiefs (again) in 2017.

Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl appearance.

There’s a lot that the Patriots need to work on in order to make it back to the championship and we shouldn’t take the team’s success for granted. Someone on the offense needs to step up while Julian Edelman is suspended. The defense really needs to figure itself out because they’ve played six quarters of sub-par and terrible football.

But I also trust that the Patriots coaching staff will figure this out and that someone will step up on offense and the defensive scheme will settle down in week 6 or so and start playing at a high level. Bill Belichick is still the head coach. Tom Brady is still the quarterback.

There wasn’t much to like about this Jaguars game and the severity of the concussions suffered by Flowers and Chung could have a major impact on next week’s game against the Detroit Lions.

And yet these circumstances are familiar. We’ve been here before and we’ve already heard this story.

The Jaguars have the driver’s seat. The Patriots will be ready for the January rematch.