Patriots Offense Shows Lethal Versatility in Victory over Browns

Patriots Offense Is Back With The Return Of Tom Brady

It’s official, Patriots Nation. Brady’s back, and he’s out to destroy the rest of the NFL and make a statement right in Roger Goodell’s face. Leading up to the game, various NFL coaches were expressing their fear over how well Brady would play when he returned from his suspension. On Sunday afternoon, we witnessed just the start of the dominance of the Patriots offense led by Brady.

Brady did not regress at all during his suspension and he seamlessly slid in to his starting quarterback role against Cleveland. He was making all kinds of plays on Sunday, including throws into extremely tight windows, long shots down the field, and even quarterback runs like this one.

What really stood out on Sunday was the fact that the Patriots were able to combine so many parts of their offense into a successful game plan. This started with the versatility of New England tight ends Martellus Bennett and Rob Gronkowski, who combined for 176 yards and 3 TDs. The 6′ 6″ tight ends are both matchup nightmares, and their receiving skills alone make them the best tight end duo in the league.

However, they aren’t just receiving tight ends, as they are also excellent blockers. Having both of them line up on the offensive line allows the Patriots to essentially have eight offensive linemen on the field, and this is a great asset to have at the goal line. Gronkowski’s blocking ability was clearly visible on LeGarrette Blount‘s first touchdown of the day, during which Gronkowski forced Browns linebacker Cam Johnson towards the rest of the offensive line and allowed Blount to run into the endzone untouched.

Gronkowski and Bennett also reminded us of how dangerous they could be in the passing game against the unprepared Browns secondary. Even though Gronkowski is still facing the effects of a lingering hamstring injury, he didn’t hesitate to get involved right from the get-go and caught a 19 yard pass and a 34 yard pass from Brady on the team’s first drive. On the 34 yard catch, Gronk slipped through the arms of several bewildered Browns defenders and looked the part of the best tight end in the NFL.

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However, this was really Bennett’s day to shine, as he caught all 3 of Brady’s touchdown passes. The scariest part of the Patriots’ tight end duo is that both tight ends attract lots of attention from defenses and subsequently take pressure off of each other. Today, with Gronkowski receiving lots of attention from the defense, Bennett found himself often open in the red zone. After seeing this performance, teams will want to put more defenders on Bennett in the upcoming weeks, and this will leave Gronkowski open more often. Teams will struggle to contain both tight ends for the rest of the season, and this will make the Patriots almost impossible to stop in the red zone where their tight ends out-muscle smaller defenders.

Hogan Breaks Out

Another intriguing aspect of this game was Brady’s affinity for using Chris Hogan as a home-run target. The Patriots have not had a great deep ball receiver for many years, and this has forced the team’s offense to rely mostly on short or mid-distance passes. This problem appears as though it may be solved, as the 6′ 1” Hogan immediately found success on several long routes in his first game with Brady.

He caught a 48 yard pass to set up a 2nd quarter touchdown and then made another spectacular 63 yard diving catch late in the 2nd quarter. Since defenses will be preoccupied with stopping the Patriots’ tremendous tight end duo, Hogan can be used to catch teams off guard with huge catches like he made against the Browns.

Running Game Slows With Brady’s Return

The ground game was not spectacular against Cleveland, as September’s AFC Offensive Player of the Month LeGarrette Blount was held to just 37 yards on 18 carries (2.1 YPC). His performance included being stuffed at the goal line on 4th down during a 2nd quarter drive, forcing the Patriots to turn over the ball on downs. Despite this, Blount did score the first touchdown of the game. The Patriots offense did not need him to do much today, and many of his runs came during junk time when the fate of the game was essentially decided. Expect Blount to bounce back from this performance and have better weeks in the future.

The Patriots don’t really need him to carry the load of the offense now that Brady is back, but he showed that he is capable of doing this during Brady’s suspension (he was 3rd in the NFL in rushing yards during the season’s first four weeks). Blount will mainly be used to maintain the flow of the Patriots’ drives, to pound short touchdowns into the end zone, and to kill time late in games.

James White also had an effective performance, rushing for 26 yards on 5 carries (5.1 YPC) and catching 4 passes for 63 yards. He is a great checkdown option for Brady out of the backfield and can make something out of screen passes with his shifty feet.

Finally, as always, Brady targeted the team’s tough slot receivers Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola. Although Edelman only caught 5 passes for 35 yards, he

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was targeted 10 times, proving that Brady hasn’t lost the desire to feed the ball to one of his favorite weapons. The Patriots took control of the game early on, and they did not need Edelman to make a major receiving impact because others like Bennett, Gronkowski, and Hogan had great games.

The beauty of the Patriots offense is that they have so many deadly weapons that all of them do not need to make a major impact in order for the Patriots to succeed. Even though Edelman’s stat sheet against the Browns didn’t look amazing, he did his job in this game by making tough blocks and he will almost assuredly have a number of stellar games later in the year. If Edelman is ever banged up, Amendola will be able to step up as the team’s main slot receiver just like he did last year.

Next: Quick Reactions To Patriots Win Over Browns

The Patriots offensive display against Cleveland was a perfect sampler of their lethal plethora of weapons. With the best quarterback to ever set foot on the football field, two monster tight ends who create major mismatches and can block like linemen, tough slot receivers, a speedy deep threat with smooth hands, and great short yardage and pass catching running backs, the Patriots seem to have all of the components to a complete offense. The NFL hasn’t seen such a complete offense in quite a while, and it will be very interesting to see how opposing defenses plan to counter it. Oh, and don’t forget, the Patriots are also coached by some guy named Bill Belichick.

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