2022 Patriot Offense

Toe Nash

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OL and running game was very good. Other than that I was not impressed. Steelers should have had three picks and while the defense looked good Trubisky is really terrible, if embedded Patriot Gunner holds on to the ball I think we're all singing a different tune.

It's not so much a recalibration from the Brady years but a realization that the team is not going to get past Allen and Mahomes (and Burrow, and Jackson, and maybe Carr, and...) with Mac unless they can build a great roster around him and win a grinding game where they force turnovers. Maybe that's the same as recalibrating but it's hard to feel rosy. It's an average team on the playoff bubble like 10 other teams.

I would feel a lot better if Mac looked better than last year (he doesn't) or if they had more contributions from the TEs, who it feels like should be making the catches over the middle and RAC yards that only Myers is giving them.

Go ahead and yell at me, I don't think we are as bad as we looked game 1 but lots of games against other average teams are going to come down to turnovers and luck like the first two, and I don't see much evidence they can control a game against a good passing offense (obviously they haven't really played one yet, jury out on Miami). The schedule from Thanksgiving on looks rough. YMMV
 

lexrageorge

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Parker, Smith, Henry, all zero catches for zero yards was interesting.
If Mac throws for 250 yards a game (he had 252 yesterday), that's 4,250 on the season. That's not an insanely high number of course, but it isn't bad. It would have ranked #9 in the NFL last season.

If he throws for 250 yards a game, what's the ideal distribution? What distribution exists whereby we aren't looking at SOME of the players as either busts or disappointments? Does such a distribution exist?
It's possible that Parker, Smith, or Henry were open and Mac missed them, which would be a fair criticism of Mac. I think part of the reason this stat is so notable, however, is the fact that the Pats are paying Smith and Henry a lot of money and fans were hoping for improvement from both given a full offseason in New England. And Parker was acquired for a 3rd round pick, and so far all 3 have been meh at best this season.

2 game caveat obviously applies, but it's a stat that will generate attention.
 

BaseballJones

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It's possible that Parker, Smith, or Henry were open and Mac missed them, which would be a fair criticism of Mac. I think part of the reason this stat is so notable, however, is the fact that the Pats are paying Smith and Henry a lot of money and fans were hoping for improvement from both given a full offseason in New England. And Parker was acquired for a 3rd round pick, and so far all 3 have been meh at best this season.

2 game caveat obviously applies, but it's a stat that will generate attention.
Well yes but Agholor had a big game. If you took his yards and TD and distributed them to the TEs, yes it looks better for them, but now Agholor is back to being a bust of an acquisition.

Again, what's the ideal distribution? If Mac threw for 252 yards a game that would have ranked him #9 last season, which is pretty darned good. Not ELITE, but pretty darned good. There's no way to distribute those yards such that SOMEONE doesn't look like a waste of a pick or of free agent dollars or of a draft pick (that was used to trade for the player).
 

cshea

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Sure, but a large part of the offensive inefficiency so far has been Parker and the 2 TE's. They've been drive killers. They have combined for 6 catches on 15 targets for 62 yards and the 2 INT's. Sure, Agholor has picked up the slack and had a nice game yesterday, but they're in big trouble if they can't get more production out of Parker, Smith and Henry.
 

Toe Nash

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Well yes but Agholor had a big game. If you took his yards and TD and distributed them to the TEs, yes it looks better for them, but now Agholor is back to being a bust of an acquisition.

Again, what's the ideal distribution? If Mac threw for 252 yards a game that would have ranked him #9 last season, which is pretty darned good. Not ELITE, but pretty darned good. There's no way to distribute those yards such that SOMEONE doesn't look like a waste of a pick or of free agent dollars or of a draft pick (that was used to trade for the player).
Well so far Mac has 64 targets, Jacobi has 19 and Agholor has 11. RBs have 13. So that leaves only 21 between the two high-priced TEs and Parker who was a big acquisition and has been on the field every snap. The ideal distribution would be probably less forcing to Meyers and checkdowns to RBs and more to Henry, Parker, and Smith. I think they would like the offense to work that way but the TEs and Parker or not really getting open; Meyers is a nice player but you don't want 30% of your throws going to him.
 

BaseballJones

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Meyers has 13 receptions on 19 targets - 68.4% completion rate, at a solid 11.5 yds/reception. Maybe that's "forcing" it to him but that's a pretty good success rate going to him.

Personally, I'd like Bourne to get more action. He's dynamic. But I recognize that if Bourne is going to get more action, that's going to mean less chances for other guys. And if people want Smith and Henry to catch a lot more balls, that's going to mean decreased stats for Bourne or Agholor or Parker. If Mac throws for 4,300 yards, those yards are going to be distributed somehow, and the more that goes to Players A, B, and C, the less goes to Players X, Y, and Z. Unless people's expectations here are that Mac ought to be throwing for 5,500 yards or whatever, which seems.... a bit unrealistic.
 

scottyno

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Parker, Smith, Henry, all zero catches for zero yards was interesting.
Pats ran almost no 2 TE sets yesterday, I believe only 1 or 2 all game not counting the kneel down unless you count Lil Jordan as a psuedo TE. Parker's snaps were decently decreased too, Bourne seemed to take most of them.
 

rodderick

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I was extremely encouraged by their ability to close out that game on a 5+ minute drive with the running backs grinding away when Pitt knew the run was coming. That's the sort of drive they haven't really had since 2020, just a game winning, take it from them, kind of 4th quarter performance to come away with a tough win on the road. That was far and away the biggest positive for me. OL and running game were great, defense did what one could reasonably expect of them in today's NFL, even against an anemic offense, and the passing offense I thought was kind of a mess, mostly due to Mac's performance. Overall, I like the mentality and mental fortitude, this is a team that has come up short on do or die moments for too long now, let's string some of those together.
 
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SMU_Sox

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Dopes, just a humble suggestion but I think we have the makings of a 2022 Offense Thread from here.

I want to respond to the Parker and tight ends question. Here's the deal, IMO, with why we should stop the hand-wringing over Bourne. Bourne isn't an X. Agholor and Meyers have been their best WRs so far this year. Agholor was better than his stats indicated last year and now is on the same page with Mac. Belichick has confirmed his consistent performance. Agholor this year is being used as a Z, off the line of scrimmage. So he's getting a free release even though he is outside on plenty of snaps. Agholor has looked terrific so far. Agholor might be better not facing press. Given his performance to date do we really want to take him off the field? Meyers is their best route runner, is good at contested catches, and is also reliable. Agholor brings the speed, and Meyers brings the suddenness. But with both guys playing off the LOS you need an X. Parker and Mac aren't on the same page yet. I would hope that improves as the season goes on.

Henry is not good enough as a blocker to play in-line. Jonnu's pass pro is fine but his run blocking stinks. As bad as Jonnu's run blocking is Henry's is even worse. Henry hasn't been himself so far this year as a route runner or a receiver. He's looked slow and has made some mental mistakes. Last year Henry was the primary TE in 11. This year Jonnu has supplanted him. It isn't clear to me what the advantage is going 12 given that Henry isn't crushing it as a receiver. My hope is he shakes off whatever funk he is in and they get competent play from him. It's clear however that it is unlikely they will have be able to run an effective 12 with their current tight ends as neither guy is good enough or compliments the other well enough to achieve their goals. If Henry is the receiving TE in 12 you have to ask yourself is he getting and can he take advantages of whatever mismatches he gets in 12 vs say Agholor in 11? I think the answer to that right now is a resounding no.

Jonnu should be more productive but he's better at schemed touches vs getting open on routes.

According to OTC they can cut Henry next year and save 10.5 million with a 5m dead cap hit. If they don't want to invest heavily in 12 or think they can get a cheaper receiver TE (maybe Humphrey is TEish enough for them in that role) then saving that 10.5 makes a big difference.
 

Gash Prex

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Thank you for starting this thread.

One interesting development is that Humphrey is being used in the Harry role as a hybrid blocking/WR (or TE if you will) and he had a lot of success. Maybe to address the run blocking issues noted above by the TE.

View: https://twitter.com/tkyles39/status/1571942828896563200


View: https://twitter.com/ezlazar/status/1571918032301338625


Sadly, Mac missed him wide open when they ran a PA

View: https://twitter.com/tkyles39/status/1571894630496768000


No idea what Mac was looking at on that play.
 
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I can’t imagine Mac doesnt see a receiver as wide open RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM again, given he’ll be seeing that footage all week. My mom could hit that throw. I mean, for 84 she’s got skillz, but still.
 

Mystic Merlin

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I can’t imagine Mac doesnt see a receiver as wide open RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM again, given he’ll be seeing that footage all week. My mom could hit that throw. I mean, for 84 she’s got skillz, but still.
Based on Mac immediately looking left I think the primary read(s) was, well, to the left, and by the time he came off it he had to shuffle left to avoid pressure, making a throw to Humphrey while the window was open challenging. I actually think that ball may get picked by the zone corner on the left if he threw it to Humphrey instead of Harris after he was flushed.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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Thank you for starting this thread.

One interesting development is that Humphrey is being used in the Harry role as a hybrid blocking/WR (or TE if you will) and he had a lot of success. Maybe to address the run blocking issues noted above by the TE.

View: https://twitter.com/tkyles39/status/1571942828896563200


View: https://twitter.com/ezlazar/status/1571918032301338625


Sadly, Mac missed him wide open when they ran a PA

View: https://twitter.com/tkyles39/status/1571894630496768000


No idea what Mac was looking at on that play.
On the first one, I am not so sure he "missed him". Jones was so focused on Myers (literally didn't look away from him from he snap) that the CB could cheat. He was making his move off of LJH once he saw Jones start his throwing motion. This isn't to say that it was a blown play, but Jones telegraphed the fuck out of that throw.
 

Cellar-Door

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Well yes but Agholor had a big game. If you took his yards and TD and distributed them to the TEs, yes it looks better for them, but now Agholor is back to being a bust of an acquisition.

Again, what's the ideal distribution? If Mac threw for 252 yards a game that would have ranked him #9 last season, which is pretty darned good. Not ELITE, but pretty darned good. There's no way to distribute those yards such that SOMEONE doesn't look like a waste of a pick or of free agent dollars or of a draft pick (that was used to trade for the player).
Small note, #13 not #9, (Brady, Herbert, Burrow, Stafford, Mahomes, Carr, Prescott, Murray, Cousins, Allen, Rodgers, Jimmy G ahead), though Lamar would be ahead as well if you don't count the game he got hurt on the 1st drive. But yeah 252 a game is right around average for a starter, and I agree, everyone can't get the ball every week, we have a deep pass-catching group, and none is a superstar so it will be week to week who gets looks.
 

BaseballJones

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Small note, #13 not #9, (Brady, Herbert, Burrow, Stafford, Mahomes, Carr, Prescott, Murray, Cousins, Allen, Rodgers, Jimmy G ahead), though Lamar would be ahead as well if you don't count the game he got hurt on the 1st drive. But yeah 252 a game is right around average for a starter, and I agree, everyone can't get the ball every week, we have a deep pass-catching group, and none is a superstar so it will be week to week who gets looks.
Oh what I meant was that 252 yards per game over 17 games would yield 4,284 yards, which would have ranked him 9th in the NFL last year. I see that you were understanding me to mean 252 per game AVERAGE, when I meant "projected". But that's a bad job by me in communicating what I meant.

Yeah, you get my point though. If you actually go through the exercise of allotting those 4,284 yards to the various Pats' receivers, there's virtually no way to do it such that there aren't a few guys whose numbers end up being "disappointing" or even "bust"-like. Like if Mac threw those yards mostly to the tight ends on Sunday, we're all glowing about how great the TEs are, but then we're like, ok, but man Parker, Bourne, Agholor....they all suck because they caught 1 pass between them.
 

Cellar-Door

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Oh what I meant was that 252 yards per game over 17 games would yield 4,284 yards, which would have ranked him 9th in the NFL last year. I see that you were understanding me to mean 252 per game AVERAGE, when I meant "projected". But that's a bad job by me in communicating what I meant.

Yeah, you get my point though. If you actually go through the exercise of allotting those 4,284 yards to the various Pats' receivers, there's virtually no way to do it such that there aren't a few guys whose numbers end up being "disappointing" or even "bust"-like. Like if Mac threw those yards mostly to the tight ends on Sunday, we're all glowing about how great the TEs are, but then we're like, ok, but man Parker, Bourne, Agholor....they all suck because they caught 1 pass between them.
Okay, yeah I see you meant more if the team averaged 252 passing yards per game, it would be tied for 9th last year. Which is true, I was just noting that when you talk QBs it's different.

I do agree with the overall point though, I think I mentioned something similar before the season in that we had too many guys for everyone to have good numbers, it was either going to be feast/famine, or a spread with everyone having "disappointing" numbers because they all had okay numbers.
 

SMU_Sox

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Couple of random notes here from film review.

1) It's kind of funny to me that Jonnu Smith's split zone blocking is horrendous. He is SO choppy and it looks so awkward. The thing with split zone blocking though is you have to be going at full speed and sometimes kind of make a horizontal adjustment to line your guy up. And then I remembered - oh yeah his routes are really choppy too. Maybe he is high cut or stiff - he definitely has some sort of movement skill issues especially when going fast.

2) I think I know why Bourne isn't getting more reps. A) He is a bad blocker. B) He has a limited route tree he can run well. C) His work as a flanker or X on the perimeter is basically unplayable. He has to work from the slot and then his best work is on in breaking routes or routes that you can run without a lot of deception like crossers, overs, etc.

Edit: re: Bourne: he doesn't get open reliably and his hands are hit or miss. He's not necessarily bad wrt hands but he isn't reliable either. His RAC is really good but he isn't as consistent a route runner or catcher vs other receivers and the routes and places he plays well in make him more of a rotational piece. He's a good WR3/4 type you deploy for schemed touches and from the slot.
 
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joe dokes

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If Thornton is for real, do one of Bourne or Agholor have to go?

EDIT: to spell the guy's name right.
 
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Shelterdog

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If Thorton is for real, do one of Bourne or Agholor have to go?
Not for this year--both Bourne and Agholor are injured right and having some depth isn't bad--and Agholor is a free agent at the end of the year.

That said trading one of them to, for example, Green Bay, might make some sense and right now it's hard to see either of them in the Pats' plans for next year so a trade might make sense. And given where the receiving corp is, I think you'll be looking for a couple pass catchers this offseason.
 

DJnVa

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If Thorton is for real, do one of Bourne or Agholor have to go?
Well, it takes more than a game to figure out if he's for real, so I'd say no, unless blown away by an offer. WR depth is a good thing.

Parker also has a tendency to get banged up as well, so as much fun as it is to type Lil'Jordan Humphrey, I don't think we want him playing a lot down the stretch.
 

Pandemonium67

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A big variable with Tyquan is if his skinny physique will hold up to the inevitable banging. I think he's got the goods otherwise, but I think it wise to hold onto the WR depth for a while.
 

Jimbodandy

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A big variable with Tyquan is if his skinny physique will hold up to the inevitable banging. I think he's got the goods otherwise, but I think it wise to hold onto the WR depth for a while.
We're in the part of the program where we've moved past "we don't have enough of this guys" into "we have too many of these guys, let's trade one". This is not unique to BBtL but still weird.

Sometimes it's in the context of "we're so desperately in need of X, that we should trade one of our extra Y to get it", and that makes sense. But it's not always.

What's the problem that we're trying to solve by trading one of our WR?
 

joe dokes

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Well, it takes more than a game to figure out if he's for real, so I'd say no, unless blown away by an offer. WR depth is a good thing.

Parker also has a tendency to get banged up as well, so as much fun as it is to type Lil'Jordan Humphrey, I don't think we want him playing a lot down the stretch.
I also screwed up counting. There's 5 major leaguers--Thornton, Bourne, Agholor, Myers and Parker. I thought that Thornton and a healthy Agholor made it 6. So a big never mind (for now).
 

Harry Hooper

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We're in the part of the program where we've moved past "we don't have enough of this guys" into "we have too many of these guys, let's trade one". This is not unique to BBtL but still weird.

Sometimes it's in the context of "we're so desperately in need of X, that we should trade one of our extra Y to get it", and that makes sense. But it's not always.

What's the problem that we're trying to solve by trading one of our WR?
Moving Agholar yields some cap space breathing room that is needed. If a trade could be part of getting an inside LB upgrade (via Theo Epstein-ish multi-team moves), that would be great but unlikely.
 

FL4WL3SS

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Crazy thought, but what about Sean Payton. Not for offensive coordinator, but bring him in a consultant on offense. He's as great offensive mind and could help mentor the offensive coaches.

Trying to think outside the box to help the last 6 weeks of the season. I don't see Patricia getting fired.
 

BigJimEd

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Payton is under contract to the Saints. He's not going anywhere without compensation.

I think Payton will be looking for someplace where he'll have full control.
 

Cellar-Door

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One thing.... is this an attractive job?

You're dealing with a team that has some okay skill players but no super-stars, and an young QB with no real mobility and whose arm is nothing special, the line is meh, and it's married to high expectations and no real short term path to the top.

A top O-coordinator isn't leaving somewhere else to come here, honestly the college top O-coordinators are probably aiming for college head coach jobs over here.

Your best bet for a creative OC is to go get a QB coach from somewhere. Overall though.... that's not really what Bill has done lately, he's brought on mostly guys he already knows.
 

tims4wins

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One thing.... is this an attractive job?

You're dealing with a team that has some okay skill players but no super-stars, and an young QB with no real mobility and whose arm is nothing special, the line is meh, and it's married to high expectations and no real short term path to the top.

A top O-coordinator isn't leaving somewhere else to come here, honestly the college top O-coordinators are probably aiming for college head coach jobs over here.

Your best bet for a creative OC is to go get a QB coach from somewhere. Overall though.... that's not really what Bill has done lately, he's brought on mostly guys he already knows.
I think it’s extremely attractive because you have the chance to be the next HC
 

Cellar-Door

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I think it’s extremely attractive because you have the chance to be the next HC
when? and with what GM? There are too many unknowns, and you have to follow Bill which is a losing game. I don't think OC look at a spot and think "oh I can be in charge if the other guy retires", not many of those happen, TB I guess but Leftwich didn't just join Arians, he'd been working with him for a decade plus. Usually guys get jobs with a different team and come in with a GM/front office in place.
If I wanted to be an NFL head coach. NEP O-coordinator is not one of the more attractive spots.
 

lexrageorge

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It's not a coaching issue; it's the personnel. Bringing in a high profile offensive coach is not going to fix anything.
 

Cellar-Door

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It's not a coaching issue; it's the personnel. Bringing in a high profile offensive coach is not going to fix anything.
I think it's both. Good schemes make players look better, and good playcalling helps a lot. We saw it here when McDaniels who is widely thought of around the league as a good playcaller was here, he got good performance out of what wasn't any more talented a team last year... couldn't totally overcome talent against top defenses, but he helped a good deal on the margins.
 

SMU_Sox

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Yeah I think it’s a mix of bad scheme, bad spacing, and bad playcalling. Play-calling is an art and Matty P is still learning. When the OL is this bad (last 3 games) it’s hard to do much consistently well. You are going to be limited in the variety of things you can do which makes you more predictable and the effectiveness of what you can do which makes you for lack of better words suck. I don’t know how they fix the offense with this line. It’s going to take a lot more short passing and maybe RPOs.
 

SMU_Sox

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I will say I thought the spacing was better today but that’s without seeing the all-22.
 

Justthetippett

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One thing.... is this an attractive job?

You're dealing with a team that has some okay skill players but no super-stars, and an young QB with no real mobility and whose arm is nothing special, the line is meh, and it's married to high expectations and no real short term path to the top.

A top O-coordinator isn't leaving somewhere else to come here, honestly the college top O-coordinators are probably aiming for college head coach jobs over here.

Your best bet for a creative OC is to go get a QB coach from somewhere. Overall though.... that's not really what Bill has done lately, he's brought on mostly guys he already knows.
I think it depends largely on your dynamic with Bill. If you fit with him, then it’s a great job and (for better or worse) the league continues to give Bill’s assistants chances at head coaching gigs if that’s the ultimate goal. I don’t think most of these guys make decisions based on personnel, unless it’s one of those rare situations (Rodgers, Brady, Allen, Mahomes, etc.). They look more at organizations, their boss and, honestly, compensation.

The offense is just a bad operation all around right now. What we know from Bill is that they’ll grind it out and likely improve, but that’s probably not enough to do anything serious this year, even if they do get into the playoffs.

How about Matt Nagy?
 

SMU_Sox

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Absolutely not on Nagy. Those Bear offenses were horrid his last two years. Stale and rotten.
 

SMU_Sox

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Yeah I think it’s a mix of bad scheme, bad spacing, and bad playcalling. Play-calling is an art and Matty P is still learning. When the OL is this bad (last 3 games) it’s hard to do much consistently well. You are going to be limited in the variety of things you can do which makes you more predictable and the effectiveness of what you can do which makes you for lack of better words suck. I don’t know how they fix the offense with this line. It’s going to take a lot more short passing and maybe RPOs.
View: https://twitter.com/tkyles39/status/1594562390426648576?s=20&t=AFxSXTxt6WNt7Wb6mX5fng


NFL Next Gen Analyst and former coach Taylor Kyles:

Patriots’ offense is more interesting than it gets credit for. They’re trying new things weekly and show a desire to adapt, imo. Biggest issues are growing pains leading to lack of sync. Idk if they can overcome those this season. Largely (but not solely) bc of the OL situation

Coaching is clearly not blameless. Lack of execution starts at the top. But you’ve also got a rookie LG with very real technique issues to overcome, an inexperienced RT, an undersized backup center likely forced into a starting role, + a Pro Bowl caliber LT who’s underperforming

Practice is important, but you grow the most during actual games. Offense can’t find a reliable of core plays to hang their hat on because there’s so few functional reps. Everything just seems difficult, even when they’re driving (which they do more than you’d expect)


Listened or read Bedard, Perry, Curran, Lazar, and now Kyles. Mac was the least of their problems today. All of them had B+ kind of opinions on his game today. The line, the penalties, the mistakes by the pass catchers, the atrocious run-blocking, the difficulty of running an offense that goes from having what should have been a top 10 OL to a bottom 10 one... I mean I think Josh would have had trouble coming up with how to handle this.

Both Lazar and Kyles pointed out the full house looks on offense which were creative (2 TEs in the backfield with the RB). Bottom line is I don't think they can fix the offense this year. Strange needs too much work, Ferentz is not someone you want starting, Cajuste is awful, and Brown is unpredictable. 3/5 members of the OL are significantly below average to bad. 1/5 is more or less playing like an all-pro, and one is average at best but probably overall below average this year.

Add to that Jonnu and Henry have been super inconsistent as blockers as well. You can scheme around bad blocking but only to an extent and we are past the tipping point.
 

ZMart100

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Strange isn't the same player he was the first few weeks of the season. I wouldn't be surprised if he is playing through an injury.
 

Eddie Jurak

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I will say I thought the spacing was better today but that’s without seeing the all-22.
One thing I noted and posted about in the other thread is that, unlike the prior 3 weeks, the offense cut way down on the useless/negative completions.

In the Bears, Jets #1, and Colts games, Mac was 47 of 71 for 354 yards. But that included 14 completions of 4 yards or less (for a total of 12 yards). All were thrown on first or second and long. (There was also a 3-yard TD to Rhamondre but I'm not counting that). If those were all incompletions Mac's line would have been 33 of 71 for 342 yards.

Yesterday, Mac was 23-27 for 236 yards and he only had 3 short completions (for 10 yards total), calling those incomplete would lead to a line of 20-27 for 236.

I'm not sure how much of that is Mac vs fixing some of what is broken in the offense (I'd guess the latter). But if the latter is the case, it shows what a broken mess of an offense Mac has been working with.
 

j44thor

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Strange isn't the same player he was the first few weeks of the season. I wouldn't be surprised if he is playing through an injury.
Good article on some of Strange's struggles and a deeper dive into the NE offensive struggles.
Seems they are more mental than physical according to this analysis.

A look at the film shows a recurring theme: his pressures have largely been the result of defenders beating him at the point of attack, avoiding his punches to get past him.
Strange’s inconsistency delivering punches off the ball have also been noted by offensive line guru Brandon Thorn.
“That’s been an issue for him in college too. It’s definitely caused problems this year,” Brandon told Pats Pulpit. “To me it’s about striking timing and lack of independent hands. He’s punching with two hands at guys oftentimes late or early, leaving zero margin for error. You can’t play like that and win consistently.”
Brandon added that, in his book, Strange has had a rough year. However, there is potential for him to become a solid player even though it will take some time.
That is not just true for his technique but also his diagnosing skills.
https://www.patspulpit.com/2022/11/20/23468948/sunday-patriots-notes-analysis-cole-strange

I think the offensive struggles largely point back to lack of offensive coaching talent on that side of the ball. Matty P just seems over his head having to handle both offensive play calling and OL coaching. The talent is arguably better offensively this year than last but the results just aren't there.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,854
Lazar on the Pats lack of offensive identity and if there are things we can take from the Jets game

New England's offense is disjointed and inconsistent because they're calling individual plays in a vacuum rather than sequencing together complementary schemes. When you can't lean on a strong foundation as an offensive play-caller, those game-planned calls and big plays off play-action eventually run out on you
Until the Patriots pick a direction and stick with it, this Patricia-led offense operates like its training camp. Working on different styles of plays one by one to get practice reps in, but it's not building up to anything in particular. It's simply not good enough to score points in an NFL game.
There's a 20 minute video review of all 6 sacks as well, which I haven't watched yet.

  • Jones's processing and decision-making were mostly good, but he left a touchdown on the field when the Patriots flooded a cover-four zone out of trips with three verticals. Mac spoke after the game about taking profits with the Jets playing soft zones, like quarters, to take away big plays. But if he held on the read a beat longer, he could've dotted Henry with up the seam for six. Instead, he checked it down to Stevenson.
  • From a spacing and timing standpoint, this was an improvement. If they can get Jones some protection, there were available receivers on the rhythm or second-read throws.