The Patriots Need an Offensive Coordinator, This Mess Isn’t Working

By: Steve Atkinson

Just Like I predicted last week before the Vikings game I wouldn’t be surprised if the Patriots are 6-6 on December 2nd. Well, here we are the Patriots were a no-show on offense Thursday night in a loss to the Buffalo Bills. The only touchdown came on a Marcus Jones trick play who plays defense. Not one offensive positional player made a play last night. Mac Jones is running for his life and nobody can get open downfield. Why is that? They have the talent on offense they spent millions on receivers and tight ends two years ago. There is only one common denominator and that is Matt Patricia who almost ruined Matt Stafford when he was with the Lions. I’ve been saying all season he needs to go, and I will continue to say it until it happens.

For the people that want to blame Mac Jones for the offensive struggles. This offense is worse than it was in 2020 with Cam Newton. The 2020 offense had N’Keal Harry, Damiere Byrd, Jakobi Meyers, and tight end Ryan Izzo. The 2020 offense averaged 20.4 points per game and 327 yards per game. This Patriots team has Kendrick Bourne, Nelson Agholor, Jakobi Meyers, two tight ends in Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry, and also a better quarterback in Mac Jones. The 2022 Patriots are averaging 20.8 points per game and averaging 318 yards per game. They got more yards in 2020 with less talent and an offensive coordinator. Can they go back to having an actual offensive coach for 2023? Not some friend of Bill who failed as a head coach and coach’s defense. You are running the development of Mac Jones Bill.

Offensive Struggles Continue For The Patriots

Now you have players calling out the scheme like Kendrick Bourne was doing last night after the loss. Talking about the need to draw up plays to get the ball downfield and give Mac more time to throw the ball.

Kendrick Bourne: “I think Mac needs more time. He’s obviously running around, so it’s hard to get the ball downfield.”

Later said the Patriots need to scheme things up better on third downs, which have been a real struggle in the last few games. pic.twitter.com/4f7Jpr4Skv

— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) December 2, 2022

“I think Mac needs more time. He’s obviously running around, so it’s hard to get the ball downfield.”

How can Patricia coach an offensive line and play call at the same time? He obviously can’t do both and it shows on the field. Mac was seen yelling on the sideline to stop running the ball and to throw more cause the running game sucks. He’s calling out Matt Patricia even if he said it wasn’t directed at anyone during the post-game.

“Throw the fucking ball, the running game sucks”

– Mac Jones to Matt Patricia pic.twitter.com/a501U7yFkc

— Savage (@SavageSports_) December 2, 2022

“Obviously, just kind of let my emotions get to me but we’re kind of playing from behind. What I said was about throwing it deeper in the short game. I got to execute that part better. But it’s the short game we kept going to, which is working. But I felt like we needed chunk plays. I shouted that out to kind of get everyone going. That’s emotional. That’s football. I’m passionate about this game. Obviously, you don’t want to let your emotions get the best of you. But yeah, I think that’s pretty much it. It wasn’t directed at anybody. Just emotion coming out and we kind of needed a spark. When you’re playing from behind against a pretty good team and a good offense, you need to go out there and make better plays. That starts with me. Definitely wasn’t good enough by me tonight. All you can do is watch the tape and see where we can get better. Playing catch-up is hard. We didn’t want to do that all game. I didn’t do a good enough job of getting ahead early, making it work. So tough one, but hats off to the Bills for playing a good game.”

At best the Patriots will finish the season 9-8 and probably miss the playoffs. They will probably win the next two games against Arizona and the Raiders. Then either lose the following three games after that or get a win either against the Bengals, Dolphins, or Bills. Either way, if the Patriots don’t get a real offensive coordinator in for 2023 then in two years Mac will be gone and the Patriots will be in the draft trying to find the next quarterback.