How bad was Saturday?

The Patriots never reached the red zone.

They allowed seven straight scoring drives.

They committed more penalties and turnovers than the Chargers. They got shut out on fourth down and steamrolled on third. They failed to pick up a single takeaway or a sack. They missed seven tackles and forced the Bolts to miss just one.

Last Saturday marked the Pats’ worst loss of the season; a game where even Drake Maye couldn’t help them. And that wasn’t all.

Here’s what else the film revealed about the Patriots’ latest loss:

Drake Maye

12-of-22 for 117 yards, TD

Accurate throw percentage: 66.7%

Under pressure: 1-of-4 for 36 yards, TD, 4 sacks, 2 rushing yards

Against the blitz: 1-of-6 for 7 yards, 3 sacks

Behind the line: 1-of-2 for 5 yards

0-9 yards downfield: 8-of-10 for 51 yards

10-19 yards downfield: 2-of-3 for 29 yards

20+ yards downfield: 1-of-3 for 36 yards, TD

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is sacked by Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. during the second half of an NFL game Saturday in Foxboro. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Notes: Taking a blow to the head on your third play from scrimmage would be tough on anybody, but especially a rookie quarterback with an overmatched supporting cast. Throw in a growing deficit as the game wears on, making it almost impossible to gain ground, and this was a no-win situation for Maye.

That said, his play has cooled the past two weeks, even accounting for his lack of help. Maye posted his third-lowest accurate throw percentage of the season Saturday, and again failed to overcome pressure in the way he did earlier this season.

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Maye took two avoidable sacks; one he ran into on the opening drive and another on fourth down where he missed an open Hunter Henry who could have converted. Maye also got punished for his tendency to roll right when under pressure, which led to another sack and more incompletions. His lone highlight was the 36-yard touchdown to DeMario Douglas on a free play, where Douglas made an outstanding adjustment to score.

The film revealed a better performance than Maye’s box-score stats would indicate, but this was a small step back.

Critical areas

Turnovers: Patriots 1, Chargers 0

Explosive play rate: Patriots 8.3%, Chargers 3.9%

Success rate: Patriots 34.8%, Chargers 53.2%

Red-zone efficiency: Patriots 0-0, Chargers 2-4

Defensive pressure rate: Patriots 11.4%, Chargers 27.3%

Offense

Game plan

Personnel breakdown: 87% of snaps in 11 personnel, 13% snaps in 12 personnel.***

Personnel production: 35.6% success rate in 11 personnel, 33% success rate in 12 personnel.

First-down down play-calls: 75% pass (58% success rate), 25% run (25% success rate)

Play-action rate: 12.9%

Whatever offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt drew up during the week mostly went out the window once the Patriots fell behind 17-0 after running a dozen plays. The Pats were immediately forced to play catchup. Even Maye’s touchdown pass, a free-play prayer tossed up during a two-minute drill, can’t be credited to scheme or coaching.

What can be left at Van Pelt’s feet, however, is an inability to adjust to the Chargers’ pressure tactics that exploited new center Cole Strange. All-Pro safety Derwin James, whom Maye and Jerod Mayo singled out during the week, got home on two sacks; once on a blitz where multiple Patriots identified him as a threat pre-snap.

Los Angeles also ran several read blitzes, where two encroaching linebackers rushed at the snap and eyed the reactions of unoccupied interior Patriots offensive linemen. If one of them, often Mike Onwenu or Layden Robinson, tried to block a rushing linebacker, that player would drop into coverage, while the other linebacker ran through another gap created by the Chargers’ four down linemen tying up the Patriots’ four remaining O-linemen.

The Chargers regularly presented six-man fronts like this and dropped players into the middle of zone coverages the Pats couldn’t beat often enough without a penalty or sack interrupting. Van Pelt eventually retreated into the Day 1 chapter of his playbook, the simple concepts the offenses has come closest to mastering. Maye’s most common throws were out routes to wideouts and stick/stop routes to his tight ends over the middle of the field, both at the end of a three-step drop.

Player stats

Broken tackles: RB Antonio Gibson

Pressure allowed: Team (sack, 2 hurries), C Cole Strange (sack), QB Drake Maye (sack), RB Antonio Gibson (sack), RB Rhamondre Stevenson (QB hit), LT Vederian Lowe (QB hit), RT Demontrey Jacobs (hurry)

Run stuffs allowed: Team 2, Jacobs

Drops: None

Notes

Basic mistakes set the Patriots back, and game situation put them to bed. Start with Kendrick Bourne failing to line up properly on the opening snap, where Drake Maye and Hunter Henry both had to send him to the opposite side of the formation before they could run a play.
Then came Demontrey Jacobs’ allowed run stuff on the second drive, Vederian Lowe’s illegal use of hands penalty on the third series and Maye’s missed pitch to DeMario Douglas three plays later that led to a brutal lost fumble.
Two possessions after that, at the start of the second half, Hunter Henry got called flagged for holding. The next drive, Derwin James sacked Maye on fourth-and-two for a turnover on downs, and then James did it again to kill the following series.
Nothing matters for this offense or organization until fundamental errors like these – hand placement, ball security and blitz ID – get fixed. Nothing.
Granted, the starting place for this offense was an uphill talent battle, and the Chargers expertly took away Henry and Bourne as Maye’s favorite targets and most reliable pass-catchers to exploit the Pats’ lack of depth and weapons.
Bourne saw a double-team on the Pats’ initial third down, when James blanketed Henry in man-to-man coverage. Later on, as they played increasingly more zone, Los Angeles tilted coverage to Henry, who went without a catch for the first time this season.

Among the other weapons, Rhamondre Stevenson took more snaps than backup Antonio Gibson until the final drive despite pregame declarations from Jerod Mayo to multiple media outlets Stevenson would sit on account of his fumbling.
Between them, the Patriots had a single successful run until the last series of the game. The offensive line stood little chance against a strong Chargers front, but missed assignments and missed blocks eliminated any hope on the ground.

New England Patriots tight end Hunter Henry, left, battles with Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Tarheeb Still during the first half of an NFL game in Foxboro on Saturday. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)

Gibson ran hard to the end, while Stevenson failed to break or miss a single tackle. Both allowed one pressure in blitz pickup: a sack where James pulverized Gibson en route to the quarterback and a QB hit Stevenson allowed using poor technique.
Not a bad debut for Cole Strange at center, save for LA’s tricky pressures, which also fell on coaching, and a premature third-quarter snap that led to one sack. Strange’s individual pass protection was far ahead of his run-blocking.
Third-round rookie Caedan Wallace took just 15 snaps, all in garbage time. He deserves a start, if not a long look in Sunday’s season finale.
The coaching staff still does not trust Ja’Lynn Polk to run more advanced concepts and routes, returning him for yet another third-down play where the offense ran an all curls concept. Polk played a dozen snaps.
Fellow rookie Javon Baker has one game left before he ends his first season without a catch. He was blanketed on his only target, a backside slant where he couldn’t separate from single coverage.
The Patriots’ last 13 pass plays produced a single successful play, reflecting a complete breakdown at all levels of the offense.

Defense

Game plan

Personnel breakdown: 40% base package, 36% three-corner nickel, 22% dime, 2% three-safety nickel.****

Coverage breakdown: 57% zone, 43% man

Blitz rate: 20.5%

Blitz efficacy: 55% offensive success rate and 6.6 yards per play allowed

Defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington was a step behind Chargers’ offensive play-caller Greg Roman all game, but Covington had the right idea to start.

The Pats beefed up with base personnel on early downs to stop a Chargers rushing attack that threatened to control the game if left unchecked. They played man-to-man on most passing downs against a so-so receiving corps, and sprinkled in some zone pressures on third down to keep Justin Herbert off-balance. The trouble was Hebert never felt bothered, and neither did his No. 1 option.

Rookie slot receiver Ladd McConkey repeatedly ran away from Jonathan Jones’ shadow assignment, a ploy that worked perfectly the week before against a similar player in Buffalo’s Khalil Shakir. This time, McConkey, aided by the Chargers’ bevy of man-beating route concepts, broke free for eight catches, 94 yards and a touchdown. Jones couldn’t shut him down, and the Pats were reluctant to double McConkey on a consistent enough basis.

Once Christian Gonzalez, who erased LA’s big perimeter wideouts, left the game with a concussion, Covington kept calling man-to-man. With Jones struggling, that left all of his corners vulnerable, and Herbert picked on his best matchups over and over again, with the help of a couple coverage busts that allowed for two touchdowns. Covington didn’t bother to blitz more, either, until midway through the third quarter; which then exposed his corners again and revealed his defense was playing squarely between a rock and a hard place.

Player stats

Pressure: OLB Anfernee Jennings 2 (2 hurries), DL Keion White 2 (QB hit, hurry), DL Deatrich Wise (hurry)

Run stuffs: Team 3, DL Daniel Ekuale

Pass deflections: CB Alex Austin

Los Angeles Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins (27) tries to break away from New England Patriots linebacker Anfernee Jennings during the first half of New England’s 40-7 loss on Saturday. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Missed tackles: CB Isaiah Bolden 2, S Kyle Dugger, CB Jonathan Jones, LB Christian Elliss, S Marte Mapu, Ekuale

Notes

A complete no-show. This was unlike anything we’ve come to expect from a Patriots defense this late in the season. Blown coverages in the back, a step slow in the middle and manhandled up front.
Were it not for a drop or two on the Chargers’ opening possession, there’s a chance these Pats allow eight straight scoring drives to start the game. That, more than anything, illustrates how Los Angeles controlled play, and especially in the trenches.
For the fifth time this year, the Patriots failed to record a sack or a takeaway. Their 11% pressure rate marked a new season low. Double that, and it’s still below league average.
Keion White was the only player to generate quick pressure up front, something he offset with iffy run defense. White tallied the game’s only QB hit against Justin Herbert, who perpetually looked at ease and in command before and after the snap.
Hebert often diagnosed most Patriots’ pressures, with roaming safeties and linebackers tipping their hands prematurely; perhaps afraid of missing an assignment or suffering a miscommunication, issues that have dogged this defense all year long.
Christian Gonzalez’s departure, of course, factored, but unless the coaching staff could clone him they had problems anyway. Jonathan Jones couldn’t contain Ladd McConkey, and second-year corners Alex Austin and Isaiah Bolden both allowed multiple catches.
Another brutal game for Kyle Dugger. Once viewed as a foundational piece of the defense, Dugger failed to execute a switching coverage on the Chargers’ first touchdown pass, got caught disguising too close to the line of scrimmage on another score and missed a tackle on their last touchdown.
Dugger’s play has been affected by an ankle injury he’s fought through most of the season, but he’s become a liability. Thankfully for the Patriots, fellow safeties Marte Mapu and Jaylinn Hawkins played well, though it hardly mattered in a game plan that leaned on base personnel and three-corner packages.
A stat to capture the Pats’ talent deficit:  defensive tackle Jeremiah Pharms Jr., a developmental run-stuffing tackle, was forced to play 60 defensive snaps Saturday, including several on third down. He played 90 total last season.
A state to capture the Pats’ coaching deficit: Los Angeles converted 5-of-6 third downs when rushing, often by baiting the Patriots into lighter personnel groups and them running right over them.

Special teams

Newly-signed return man Alex Erickson provided a couple sparks, taking one punt back for 15 yards and a kickoff 34 yards, the longest return of the game.
Punter Bryce Baringer downed half of his four punts inside the Chargers’ 20-yard line, and the Patriots came within a couple penalties of allowing a 93-yard punt return touchdown in the third quarter.
Veteran kicker Joey Slye was only called onto the field for an extra point try. He hasn’t attempted a field goal in two weeks.
Undrafted rookie Dell Pettus tallied the only solo tackle on special teams, while coverage ace Brenden Schooler and backup linebacker Monty Rice combined on a stop.

Studs

N/A

Duds

CB Jonathan Jones

A reversal from last week, Jones allowed four catches in man-to-man coverage and lost most of his battles with a shifty No. 1 receiver. This time, Ladd McConkey went off for 94 yards and a touchdown.

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S Kyle Dugger

This season can’t end soon enough for Dugger, who has dealt with injuries and was in the vicinity of three Chargers’ touchdowns. He also missed a tackle.

TE Hunter Henry

Henry finished without a catch for the first time this season and got whistled for a holding penalty.

Pass rush

Only four hurries, two hit and zero sacks. The talent is poor, but results like these also speak to coaching. A complete failure.

New England Patriots fans watch play against the Los Angeles Chargers during the first half of an NFL game, Saturday. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Run-blocking

One successful run before the game’s final drive, a pure garbage-time exercise, is mind-blowing. The Patriots got zero push up front.

*Explosive plays are defined as runs of 12-plus yards and passes of 20-plus yards. 

**Success rate is an efficiency metric measuring how often an offense stays on schedule. A play is successful when it gains at least 40% of yards-to-go on first down, 60% of yards-to-go on second down and 100% of yards-to-go on third or fourth down.

***11 personnel = one running back, one tight end; 12 personnel = one running back, two tight ends; 13 personnel = one running back, three tight ends; 21 = two halfbacks, one tight end.

****Base defense = four defensive backs; nickel = five; dime = six; dollar defense = seven.