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Is Cam Newton to blame for the Patriots losing streak?

Liz Loza and Matt Harmon examine Cam Newton and the Patriots' offense after a particularly brutal loss to San Francisco.

Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

LIZ LOZA: Let's talk about unfair expectations, because I think it's a really interesting way to frame the final match-up, San Francisco at New England. What a miserable day from Cam. Yeah.

MATT HARMON: Who knows? It feels-- the, like, good vibes Cam Newton in week two, that feels like a thousand years ago at this point. Obviously, a lot has happened to Cam since then. He was positive for COVID, and people can make the assumption about whether that has something to do with why he's underperformed the last couple of weeks. Belichick says he's the starter going forward, even after getting benched today for Jarrett Stidham amidst just a horrible outing.

But I mean, like, New England got outclassed at several levels in this one. And I feel like that's kind of been my main takeaway from the last two weeks. Like, obviously, Cam has not been good. But like, this Patriots team as a whole is not good. The margin for error is extremely thin. And if Cam is playing at an average or below-average level, then this whole thing can fall apart really, really quickly. Like, this is the same offense that had Brady, like, looking like he was washed last year, and we know what Brady's doing down in Tampa now at this point.

Like, again there's not a lot of skill-- like, there's no a lot of skill position talent there. The defense has taken a number of hits in the off season because of opt-outs and everything like that. This is just-- and they've also had a lot of injuries on the offensive line as well. And I feel like that hasn't been discussed enough. Like, this is just not a team that could sustain too many mistakes, and now that Cam is making mistakes, they're going to get outclassed 33 to 6 on this-- in a spot like this.

LIZ LOZA: Well, and it's completely cyclical. I feel like it's feeding upon itself, because Cam is making mistakes because he clearly doesn't trust his receivers. And the one that he should be able to trust, Julian Edelman, clearly isn't healthy. And so now there's a reason why Cam shouldn't-- Cam knows that, like, he's not at 100%, and maybe can't perform, or do the thing that Cam would like him to do in the moment. And nobody on this receiving corps is stepping--

I mean, you got, like-- when you look at this, you've got every single receiver involved. I mean, like, there's a target for Jacob Johnson, a target for Dalton Keene, a target for Ryan Izzo. Ryan Izzo is, like, someone that we're definitely talking about beyond Dynasty League-- not that we should be, but as a, like, well, who's going to do it? Who is going to bring this team into production?

And so I don't know. This isn't just the-- I think, you know, at the top of the season we're always patient with New England. Even in-game we're patient with New England. But now it's almost November, right? Well, Halloween is next week. November 1 is next week. This isn't just, like, oh, now, you know, the leaves are starting to change color. It's like, there's snow happening right now.

So you would imagine that they would have found themselves, or be closer to finding themselves, than they are at this point in the season.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, I mean, I feel like it just-- again, it comes back to the fact that their entire season had a giant wrench thrown into it when, you know, they-- a ton of players were positive. They had a they had to miss a game, they had to reschedule. They flew two separate damn planes to that Chiefs game that they probably never should have played.

Like, you would think that a team like New England would actually be one that would adjust really well to being thrown off course. But it is a lot to ask, especially when you've built this, like, team kind of on the fly, and you've had-- there's only so much that great coaching can cover up, and there's a lot of problems on New England to cover up right now.