The New England Patriots Week 6 contest against the Las Vegas Raiders felt like a do-or-die game. After getting their doors blown off by the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints in consecutive weeks, the Pats desperately needed a win in order to stop the bleeding. Everything surrounding this team was falling apart at the same time, and without a win against the Raiders, there would seemingly be no end in sight.

And yet, New England ended up leaving Las Vegas with another disappointing 21-17 loss in the books. Despite the fact that the Raiders spent the entire second half with Brian Hoyer as their quarterback after Jimmy Garoppolo was forced out of the game with a back injury, the Patriots couldn't score enough points on offense or get enough stops on defense to win this game. But hey, at least the game was competitive this time around, right?

Nothing is going right for the Patriots, and that's not going to change anytime soon, as their next two games are against the new AFC East superpowers in the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. Things are going to get much worse before they get any better, and it begs the question of how much longer this merciless beating will go on before team owner Robert Kraft steps in and decides to make some serious changes.

The Patriots are in dire need of a full-scale rebuild

Bill Belichick New England Patriots coach

There's no beating around the bush; after a few years of remaining somewhat competitive in the wake of Tom Brady's departure, the Patriots are officially one of the worst teams in the NFL. They are getting destroyed by superior competition, and while they almost beat the Raiders in Week 6, there's an asterisk next to that statement since they closed this game out with Hoyer under center. At this point, the Pats are hitting a new low with each passing week.

After their horrendous loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 5, I outlined the reasons why the Patriots immediately needed to move on from Belichick, and that case has only gotten stronger with a crushing loss to the Raiders. Losing to his longtime protege in Josh McDaniels for the second straight season is a terrible look, and it was pretty unsurprising to see Jakobi Meyers have a strong game (5 REC, 61 YDS, 1 TD) after Belichick let him walk in free agency this past offseason.

We don't need another in-depth look at why Belichick needs to go, but he's digging his grave deeper every time he sends this team out onto the field. The offense is atrocious, the defense has some talented pieces but is way too banged up to do what is needed to win games, and the coaching from top-to-bottom isn't getting the job done. The collective message is not reaching these players, and it's hard to argue otherwise when watching their play on the field.

Beyond a potential coaching change, the entire offensive scheme needs to be blown to shambles. Mac Jones' future in New England is basically nonexistent at this point, but that's not to say this is all his fault. His offensive line is actively attempting to get him injured on a weekly basis, and aside from maybe Kendrick Bourne, there's no playmaker on this offense that is taking pressure off of Jones under center.

Regardless, Jones' confidence is clearly shot, and he is spending his weekends now trying to play hero-ball to save the Pats offense. On one hand, it's admirable, but you can't win games as a quarterback when you are second-guessing your own reads. Jones has regressed to the point where cross-body interceptions are becoming a weekly occurrence. It's worth noting you are taught during your Pop Warner days of football to never throw the football across your body, but here we are.

All the optimism surrounding the offense heading into the season was for nothing. Bill O'Brien hasn't made this team look any better than it did when Matt Patricia was running the offense, and Adrian Klemm's knowledge of offensive line play should be seriously questioned six weeks into the season. Again, the personnel they are dealing with is not good, but something's got to give, right?

It all adds up to the ugly mess that the Patriots currently are, and after losing to McDaniels and Hoyer, changes need to be made. The chances of Belichick getting outright fired midway through the season are seemingly low, but even if he almost certainly won't be back next season, Kraft needs to do something to accelerate his exit. These sorts of losses cannot become the standard in New England.

A full-scale rebuild is needed, and it's time to rip off the band-aid and begin the process of figuring out how to fix this team before things get even worse. The 2023 season is already a lost cause, so there's no sense in delaying the inevitable. Trade off any pieces you can, acquire draft capital, and begin building a plan for the future that doesn't involve Belichick, because one way or another, he's not going to be around much longer.

It all doesn't have to happen in one week, but changes need to be made in order to ensure that the Patriots can become a winner in the future, because they very clearly are not one right now.