What Problem Areas Do The Patriots Need To Target In This Bye Week?
The Patriots are heading towards a critical phase of the season, a stretch where they face the second-toughest schedule in the entire NFL. The team has rattled off two wins in a row, and have won four of the last five games, but the wins have not been without their fair share of problems. With a bye week in week nine, here are some areas that the Patriots should take this extra time to focus.
Mac Jones Needs To Gain Confidence
There’s a lot going on around him – confusion at coaching staff, struggling receivers, bad offensive line play – that certainly reduces the current ceiling for Mac Jones with the Patriots. However, the QB, even normalizing for this, has had a tough season so far, and hasn’t been able to find the form that helped him lead last year’s playoff run.
There are incremental steps in the right direction, and in the last three halves of play, Mac has had two touchdowns and no interceptions. If he can continue to curb his turnovers, it can be important for his confidence, as his season stat line at halftime of the Jets game had him at two touchdowns and eight interceptions for the season to that point.
With the increased security, though, the second-year Patriots QB needs to start playing more aggressively. In the last two games, he’s totaled 44/65 passing, with 341 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. In these two games, he has averaged just over 5.5 yards per attempt, and really hasn’t aired it out much.
The way those games played, it ended up being fine, but the Patriots are playing a slew of high-powered offenses towards the end of the season, and are going to have to air the ball out to keep up. Furthermore, he needs to zoom out beyond his first read, be more discerning about when to step up in the pocket, and in general do a better job adjusting to situations where he’s under pressure.
Mac has clearly been bothered mentally by both his injury and the perceived competition with Bailey Zappe. This is time for him to slam the door shut on the Patriots’ QB competition.
The Offensive Line Needs To Hold Tighter
Certainly, one of the reasons that Mac’s confidence is lacking a bit is the lack of protection he’s getting. Mac has been sacked ten times in the last two games, and he’s been rushed many more. The Patriots’ running backs aren’t able to find adequate lanes, and Mac can’t find time to throw the ball. With injuries to the unit, there are weakness both on the edges and on the interior of the line.
To capture the magnitude of this problem, here are a few key stats. The Patriots rushed for 70 yards on Sunday, which is normal enough, but a whopping 65 of those 70 yards were AFTER contact, meaning that if not for the hard, physical running of Rhamondre Stevenson, the Patriots would be in an even worse offensive situation. Most stunning was the fact that 38% of the Patriots’ non-kneel-down snaps went for zero or negative yardage, largely because of how early the offensive line was penetrated
Offenses can’t even START to figure out a strategy if so many of their plays are dead on arrival. The offensive line needs to get healthier, and even when they are, there needs to be better, mistake-free execution at the line of scrimmage to survive some very threatening defensive fronts that are upcoming on the Patriots’ schedule.
The Defense Needs To Figure Out A Strategy For Running QBs
The Patriots have been incredible on defense this season on all levels from secondary to front seven – with one glaring exception. Against running quarterbacks, they’ve struggled, and their worst games on that side have come against Lamar Jackson and Justin Fields. Even in the games they’ve played well in, their most vulnerable moments have come while the quarterback is scrambling or on a designed run.
In the next few games, the Patriots will be going up against a number of dynamic quarterbacks, including Josh Allen and Kyler Murray, and will need to come up with a better strategy and have better linebacker play to be on the winning end of those games.
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