Patriots Gridiron News: More James White, more offensive production

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots need to utilize running back James White more to get offense back on track.

There was a time during the season that New England Patriots running back James White was the team’s most productive and reliably playmaker on offense.  Lately, his production has declined, and it is no coincidence that the offense hasn’t been as crisp.

With a quarterback like Tom Brady and weapon on the field such as Rob Gronkowski, Josh Gordon and Julian Edelman, it is unfair to put all the emphasis on White, but his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield made him a needed weapon for Brady during the beginning to middle of the season.

While the health of some of the other offensive weapons have contributed to less James White, the numbers prove his efficiency is what makes the offense click.

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In games in which he touches the ball seven times or fewer, the New England Patriots are 0-4 and struggle to score more than 10 points.  Proof in case is Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers where White finished the game with just 37 total yards on seven catches.

With both Sony Michel and Rex Burkhead healthy, the decline in snaps is understandable, but the team should still find ways to get him the touches he needs to be productive.

Appearing on WEEI’s Dale & Keefe Monday, James White addressed his declining role.

"“Everybody wants to be out there as much as possible, and with our offense it is a gameplan offense, so we know you’re not going to be out there each and every play every week,” White said, via WEEI.  “So everybody has to accept their role and when you’re out there you have to make the most f your opportunities.  That is all I can really say about that.”"

White went on to talk about the team’s toughness and each player’s need to play the game with both physicality and smartness for 60 minutes of football. If the team does that, they should have no problem winning their final two games at Gillette Stadium and savage what has suddenly become a disappointing season.

A part of taking care of business will involve utilizing James White the way they did prior to Burkhead’s return and the insertion of Josh Gordon into the offense.  Get him the touches and the offense will click much better.

Overall, the offense needs to open up

While more James White is a key to the offense flowing more smoothly, they just have to play the game and just have some fun on the field.

Dropped passes combined with a level of frustration has limited what the team has been able to do the last couple of weeks.  Even with an aging Tom Brady appearing to be on a decline, he is still a top NFL quarterback and with weapons like White, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon and Chris Hogan to throw to, the offense really shouldn’t have the difficulties they have been having.

Much of it is self-inflicted via penalties and dropped passes in key situation, but a lot of it may be that they are pressing too hard.  When asked following the Steelers’ loss, Brady related it to finding a rhythm.

"“I think it’s just finding our rhythm out there and doing a better job overall,” Brady said.  “We just haven’t done a great job of that.  We’re still in a decent position.  We’re ahead in division, we have a lot of football ahead.  We just have to look at this as an opportunity to learn from what’s happened this week, and what happened last week, and go out there and go have a good week.”"

That rhythm can only happen with less mistakes on the offensive side of the football.  The New England Patriots simply have to cut down on the mental mistakes, have some fun on the field and allow the offense to flow within the game.