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Future Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Bill Belichick has been on the cusp of reaching his 300th win as a head coach the last two weeks. However, one wouldn't know it from the way his New England Patriots have performed. They've been outscored in consecutive losses by a total of 72-3 across their 38-3 Week 3 loss at the Dallas Cowboys and their 34-0 Week 4 defeat versus the New Orleans Saints. 

This stretch of futility makes the 2023 Patriots only the fifth team in the last 35 years to lose back-to-back games by 34 or more points as well as the first team since the 2019 Dolphins, the "Tank for Tua team," to be outscored by 69 or more points in a two-game span. These last two losses are the worst and the second-worst defeats of Belichick's head-coaching career. In his first 453 games as an NFL head coach, Belichick lost by 30 or more points once, and he has now lost by 30 or more points in each of the last two games. 

Sunday was a new low for Belichick's Patriots as they failed to get on the scoreboard and lost by 34 points. The deflating defeat registers as the largest home shutout loss in team history.

"Obviously it was a poor performance," Belichick said postgame on Sunday, via The Athletic. "Slow start. Just couldn't really get the game under control."  

The Saints' scoring began with Patriots third-year quarterback Mac Jones being hit in a collapsing pocket, which resulted in a 27-yard interception return touchdown by Pro Bowl safety Tyrann Mathieu. This play marked the second pick-six for Jones in as many weeks, making him the first New England quarterback to throw pick-sixes in consecutive games since the 1984 season when Steve Grogan did so. Jones now has four career interception return touchdowns thrown at Gillette Stadium in his three-season career, which is as many as future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady had in his entire 20-season run with the Patriots. 

On top of the pick-six, Jones also threw another interception and lost a fumble as he completed 12 of his 22 passes for 110 yards. Backup quarterback Bailey Zappe got in the game for New England for the second consecutive week, but that doesn't mean Belichick is considering changing quarterbacks. Jones has thrown four interceptions, no touchdowns and had three giveaways, two interceptions and one strip-sack turned into opponent touchdowns the last two weeks. 

"There were a lot of problems, it certainly wasn't all him," Belichick said when asked about Jones' performance on Sunday.   

The Patriots will hope to right the ship against a familiar face in Week 6 when they head to Las Vegas to face former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and the Raiders.