Week 14 Recap: Pats Get Blown Out by Rams and (Likely) Blown Out of the Playoff Hunt

Not our night. pic.twitter.com/7e0RWM6R0f

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 11, 2020

The tweet says it all. It was just not the Patriots night. The Patriots were riding a two game winning streak into Thursday night against the Los Angeles Rams. Could the Patriots somehow have won this game, it would have improved their record to 7-6 with the AFC East left on their schedule. Instead…they flat out just got outplayed and didn’t show up in arguably the biggest game of the year. The Rams flat out bullied the Patriots to a 24-3 victory. The loss drops the Patriots record to 6-7. Before we head to Miami (fun!), let’s look back at this game for a very quick second.

Cam Akers

The Rams were smart and ran the ball down the Patriots throats. The Patriots run defense is horrible. This victory had a big part of it come from Cam Akers. Akers had 29 carries for 171 yards. This front seven for the Patriots d-line is so horrendously bad and Cam Akers showed it. The running back made it look easy for the Rams and the Patriots couldn’t stop him all night long.

Cam Newton

9/16 with 119 yards. I’m not going to lie, I’m done with this guy. You’re not making the playoffs. He makes mistakes, holds the ball too long, and he just doesn’t have the same electricity as he used to have in Carolina. You’re basically out of the playoff race. Cam is more than likely going to try to move on to another team next year at this point. So why not start Stidham for the last three games of the year? Cam Newton isn’t your answer for the long-term, so see if Stidham could be that long-term answer.

So Now What?

Embrace probably not having playoffs this year Patriots fans. You need to win out against the AFC East at this point just to get over .500 for the season. Another loss? No shot at a playoff berth. So just enjoy the last three weeks, the payroll opens up, and then you hope the Patriots go make some moves to improve this football team.

In Conclusion

This game was ugly all the way around. Defense in the first half stunk. The offense couldn’t do anything against Aaron Donald and that defense. Let’s just see what happens the next three weeks and hope a lot of craziness happens!

–Al Nahigian (@BigAl2793)

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Feat. image courtesy of wpri.com/