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New England Patriots Need To Reevaluate Their Offense

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By @petahrahgas

Tom Brady

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

It is pretty apparent through three weeks of football that the New England Patriots’ offense is floundering. Actually, less floundering and more sinking. So far the only consistent play in the Patriots’ playbook is “Everyone block, Tom forces it to Julian Edelman. On three. Break!” With the schedule getting more difficult, the offense needs to fix itself fast.

While many Pats fans will look to Tom Brady’s lack of a receiving corps and the offensive line’s inability to stop a nosebleed as the cause of this abomination, the real blame falls on the shoulders of Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

I feel at least once a game, I, among with all my Patriots friends, shout every known obscenity at McDaniels as he tries to cleverly catch the defense off guard by calling a screen pass on third-and-14. Of course the play goes for two yards and the Patriots have to punt. This is a common occurrence when McDaniels is calling your offense, and I don’t understand why. McDaniels is seemingly obsessed with running screens, draws and quick passes hoping the defense can’t tackle, which doesn’t often happen because, surprise surprise, that’s their job. If the coaching staff just took a deep breath, looked at the players they have and put them in a position to succeed, this offense could quickly get back on track. They may even start scoring second half touchdowns, which would be pretty amazing.

Aaron Dobson has been a healthy scratch since Week 1, and America is still trying to figure out why. Supposed to be the future at the receiver position, the 6-foot-3 receiver was the Patriots second-round pick last year and at times flashed moments of brilliance along the outside. Yes, he did have the dropsies at times — creating one of the best heckling nicknames of all time: Aaron Drop-son — but having him stand on the sidelines isn’t going to help his catching. Dobson needs snaps to get on the same page as Brady and this offense. The Patriots need to see if he can be the future at receiver, and right now they seem wildly unwilling to do so. I’m still quite flabbergasted that we haven’t even seen Dobson this season, and that I knew how to spell flabbergasted.

Dobson’s running mate Kenbrell Thompkins got to play on Sunday and was the welcome recipient of one football. He had one catch against the Oakland Raiders. One. This was after he was a healthy scratch against the Minnesota Vikings. I think he and Dobson play rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets to play each game. Dobson has obviously got to start throwing more rock.

Brandon LaFell did show at least some improvement last week against the Raiders which is heartening since it seems he will be the only other receiver McDaniels will run plays for outside of Edelman. And where has Tim Wright been this whole time? Locked up in a classroom until he can recite the Patriots’ playbook backwards by heart? Seems a bit much.

Here’s how the Patriots’ offense should look: Dobson as the X receiver, LaFell at the Z, bump Edelman into the slot (which is where he does most of his damage anyways) and then use Thompkins when you need size and Danny Amendola when you need shifty speed. And of course Rob Gronkowski would be the starting tight end. The Patriots would be utilizing all their receivers and placing them in the best positions to succeed. Instead, Dobson hasn’t played, Thompkins gets his one play a game, LaFell gets thrown floaty, impossible-to-catch sideline passes and Edelman, standing at an amazing 5-foot-10, is currently playing on the outside. Stupid.

I don’t know what will make McDaniels relax and fix these issues, but something has to be done. Right now the offense is putting the wrong players in the wrong spots and running plays that are just wrong. That’s way too many wrongs for a team that hopes to win the Super Bowl! The offense could be so much better if the coaching staff simplified the offense and put their big, deep threat receivers on the outside, their small slot receivers in the slot, let their feature running back be a feature back and left their third down back to cover third downs. To me, that makes a lot more sense. But maybe I’m just crazy.

Peter Rogers is a New England Patriots writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @petahrahgas, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google

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