Vanilla play-calling holding New England Patriots offense back

The New England Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-14 away Sunday in a hard-fought game that was looked upon as a critically important one even this early in the season. It was if the Patriots are to have any realistic shot at an ephemeral reemergence to the top of the AFC East or even a playoff spot at all.

But a win away against a good football team is a good win, no matter how you slice it. They did enough to eke out a win and that’s always the bottom line.

There were lots of takeaways from the Steelers win. Yet, the offense, expected here to be a solid if not a dominating one, has yet to hit its stride after two games. One of the reasons may be the play-calling/selection.

Let’s take a look at the breakdown and surmise if this is one of the factors holding the Patriots’ offense back.

New England Patriots’ play-calling is too vanilla

Outstanding Patriots beat reporter Phil Perry broke down the plays called by the New England and de facto offensive coordinator (small “oc”), Matt Patricia.

Here’s how Perry saw it,

On first analysis, several aspects of Perry’s report stand out like a proverbial sore thumb. First, there was only one play-action pass. This of itself is a glaringly unacceptable statistic, especially for a team that has little big-play potential in its still mediocre wide receiving corps (Nelson Agholor’s big TD yesterday notwithstanding).

Play action equates to deception. Deception leads to defensive hesitation. Defensive hesitation leads to big gains and maybe very big plays. New England’s continuing aversion to using this aspect of deception is unacceptable.

Perry continued to say that there were no RPO plays whatsoever. Now let’s be clear, Mac Jones has an issue with his left knee. Nothing’s been said about it but the brace thereupon speaks volumes.

That means too many programmed runs by Jones are not to be countenanced. However, with his newfound slimmed physique, Jones proved against Pittsburgh that he can and will run, but it was on broken plays.

This is in no way to say the Patriots should build numerous running plays into Jones’ offense, a la Cam Newton. Not at all. What it does say, however, is that the threat of Jones running is there now and should be utilized as a weapon. The way to do that is through RPO plays.

Whether the lack of experience of the makeshift offensive coaching staff or just a plain aversion to this approach by Bill Belichick and company is keeping the Patriots from using it is subject to conjecture. Whatever the reason, it should change, and fast.

They need it in the offensive structure big-time and Jones is experienced at running it which he did at Alabama. It’s just another arrow in the quiver. Not using it just continues to telegraph New England’s offense like a bullhorn in a library. Diversify and you’ll help open things up.

The New England Patriots need to diversify their offense

And the third statistic that Perry alluded to on Twitter was the number of offensive plays the Patriots ran. It was 66 according to ESPN.  As Perry noted,

"At first blush, it looked like there was one play-action pass, no RPOs, one “gap” run, and three plays that included pre-snap motion."

This is the essence of the “vanilla offense” alluded to earlier. The Patriots make it too easy for opposing defenses. This needs to change, and fast if this offense is to break out of its lethargy.

Another thing that’s holding them back is Jones himself. He needs to be sharper passing no matter what plays are called. Jones completed a pedestrian 60 percent of his passes for252 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

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On the year he’s slinging at a very un-Jones-like, 64.6 percent with two touchdowns and two interceptions. These performances aren’t going to get the team into the playoffs, never mind win them a playoff game.

He has to be a whole lot better to cut the mustard in an AFC East with Josh Allen and Tua Tagovailoa, who threw for six TDs in bringing his Dolphins team back to beat the Ravens, next Sunday’s Patriots opponent.

The play-calling has to be more diversified and the execution better. Devastating penalties have to end. In short, the entire offensive structure has to be better. The issue of it being a new offense, blah, blah, blah is just so much tripe. Throw those excuses out the window. This is the regular season.

The New England Patriots as their head Coach Bill Belichick is wont to say, have to coach better and play better – and they have to open things up on offense. What the heck are they waiting for?