FOXBORO — The Patriots’ offensive line struggled again Sunday against the Cardinals, but two performances stood out as particularly concerning.
Left tackle Vederian Lowe allowed a tackle for loss and sack on consecutive plays in the first quarter while letting up four total pressures overall.
Patriots offensive line coach Scott Peters noted that Lowe has been limited by a shoulder injury.
“We know that, but I think some of the things that went on, it’s just getting back to fundamental techniques, and we didn’t execute a couple things that were really key blocks that got isolated,” Peters said. “He’s fully aware that he made those mistakes, and those mistakes hurt us. The focus and the refocus has been, we got to get back to the fundamentals. Unfortunately, you can’t — nobody cares. There’s no asterisk next to your name. If you’re injured, you have to produce. You have to perform in order to be able to put us in the best positions, and in order for him to have a spot on the field.”
The Patriots typically don’t dress a backup tackle on gameday. Mike Onwenu could flip over from right guard to right tackle, and Sidy Sow has some experience at tackle. The team also has Caleb Jones on the practice squad, but he has yet to be elevated for a game.
Center Ben Brown also uncharacteristically had two bad snaps. The cause of those is somewhat comical.
“There was a towel that he was wearing,” Peters said. “And a lot of times I’m like, ‘I don’t care what your issue is, there is no excuse for a bad snap.’ He had a towel tucked in his pants, like, literally, in his undercarriage that was hitting the ball. The ball was hitting it, and I’m like, ‘get it out of there.’
“So we pulled the towel out of there, right? But the issue was, I’m like, ‘we’re in the desert, why do you have a towel?’ Well, the issue is, he was sweating profusely, and it was kind of like Drake (Maye) wanted to make sure, you don’t want the ball wet. So when he’s under center, that was the purpose of the towel, but the towel was literally down, and the ball was hitting the towel because he had bulk in his pants. That’s a new one, but we removed the towel and then we didn’t have an issue.”
Sweating shouldn’t be an issue in Buffalo this week when the high is 17 degrees.
Head coach Jerod Mayo said kicker Joey Slye “is our kicker” before pausing and finishing with “right now.” The team also has John Parker Romo, who traveled with the team to Arizona last week, on the practice squad … Mayo said the team signed veteran wide receiver Alex Erickson to the practice squad to serve as depth in case Marcus Jones can’t play Sunday … Mayo said there’s a “slight” chance Jones could suit up.