Esiason on D&C: Pats 'petty' to punish Welker

CBS Sports NFL analyst Boomer Esiason joined Dennis & Callahan for his weekly Patriots Monday appearance to analyze the Pats' 20-18 loss to the Cardinals.

"This loss for the New England Patriots is just about as bad as it gets," Esiason said, adding: "It's just inexcusable. You can say whatever you want about the referees, you can say whatever you want about [Rob] Gronkowski's supposed holding call there at the end on the final touchdown that was called back, but at the end of the day, Tom [Brady] and Bill [Belichick] and everybody up there know better than I do and anybody else does that once you have a subpar opponent, you can't every allow them to think that they're in the game. And I think as the game went on yesterday, it was kind of interesting, the Arizona Cardinals felt like they were just able to stay in the game."

Esiason didn't have a clear answer as to why the offense struggled as much as it did.

"I saw a flat offensive team," he said. "I saw a team that came out and lost of their most important weapons, Aaron Hernandez, to an ankle injury. Then I saw a team that was going crazy in the fourth quarter to try to get back into it. … This is a team in New England that usually wins games like this. Tom Brady's never lost a home opener. So, there's obviously something going on there that I can't put my finger on. I don't know if it's the Wes Welker stuff, I don't know what's going on there. But I know one thing: It's going to be a long week of practice for them. And they're going to have to button their chinstraps this next week because they're going to be playing a very intense game against the Ravens."

Weighing in on the Welker controversy, Esiason speculated that Belichick is holding a grudge against the veteran receiver, who did not start Sunday.

"I think this has to do with the fact that he didn't sign a long-term contract extension," Esiason said. "I also think that it has something to do with them trying to force-feed Brandon Lloyd. Bill does some quirky things. It's Bill's franchise, this is the way he runs it. I think Wes Welker being quiet about it tells you a lot, meaning that he does not want to piss off the head coach, the guy that makes the decisions, and he's going to be a loyal soldier. But inside he's got to be burning. Certainly he has a lot of pride for who he is as a football player. … I think Tom Brady gets stuck in the middle here. I don't care what Tom says, it's got to be frustrating that a very dear friend of his on the field is for some reason being made an example of. I certainly don't like it. I wouldn't have liked it if I were the quarterback. But this is something that goes on constantly in the NFL."

Added Esiason: "In my estimation, this has more to do with him not signing a long-term contract extension, and them saying to him in a sense that the reason you have those numbers, the reason you are thought of as being as great as you are is because of this offense and the quarterback that you're playing with."

Esiason said that if indeed it's true that the coaches are trying send a message to Welker, it sets a bad precedent.

"I want the best players on the field that are going to help me win. That's the bottom line," Esiason said. "I always thought that coach Belichick is a bottom-line guy. If there's something else going on -- if he showed up out of shape, if he didn't do something in a meeting or if he's been late to a couple of meetings or if he's bitching and complaining internally and this is the reaction that the coach and everybody else has towards it, then those things I can understand. Since we don't know if in fact that is the truth and all we can do is speculate about what the situation is, then I think you're hurting your team by not playing Wes Welker more if in fact you're trying to get a point across that he's not starting, that he's not playing because of a contract issue.

"To me, I always say this, and they say this about the player, too: When you're on the field, you've got to forget about all the negative stuff, you've got to forget about all the contract stuff and you've got to go out and you've got to play and you've got to be motivated and you've got to be focused. I would say the same things for the coaches. You want the best players on the field in order for you to win. I can't imagine -- it just seems that this would be very petty of coach Belichick and coach [Josh] McDaniels for not starting Wes Welker because he doesn't have a contract extension or turned down the contact extension."

To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. For more Patriots news, visit the team page at weei.com/patriots.