Picture Week 1 at Gillette Stadium.
Tom Brady is waving from a luxurious field to deafening applause on a muggy afternoon.
The Eagles trot out to a refrain of boos courtesy of a sold-out crowd nonetheless stung by Super Bowl LII.
Kickoff arrives, Marcus Jones weaves to the 32-yard line on his return, and right here comes the Patriots offense.
What does it seem like after a couple of performs?
Is Mac Jones below heart or flat on his again?
Is Kendrick Bourne operating into open house with the ball tucked below his proper arm or is he pissed off and locked up in man protection?
Who’s beginning on the offensive line? Is it a full complement of wholesome starters — because the Patriots hope — or the ragtag group presently sowing deep anxiousness throughout a fan base?
Whatever your imaginative and prescient, some piece of that fantasy has come to life this summer time. Over greater than a dozen practices and now two preseason video games, the Patriots offense is realizing each its highest hopes and worst fears. The unit has turn out to be a Rorschach take a look at.
What you see is a mirrored image of your stage of perception in Bill O’Brien and Co. Saturday’s preseason recreation in opposition to Green Bay solely bolstered this concept, because the Pats scored a landing on their opening drive, then Jones took two sacks that ended their subsequent two possessions. Which sequence revealed the “real” offense?
All of them did, however you inform me.
Saturday’s first quarter-plus additionally mirrored what the offense confirmed in two prior joint practices with the Packers. On Wednesday, the Patriots allowed 13 sacks in reside group intervals. On Thursday, Jones went 13-of-17, together with a 45-yard landing to DeVante Parker to knock out the Packers protection in a 2-minute drill.
Jones struck once more on his first drive Saturday, hitting a 13-yard slant to Bourne that carried the Pats deep into the crimson zone. The play was a downfield run-pass possibility (RPO), the sort Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia refused to put in final 12 months whereas they as an alternative bubble-screened opponents to demise. Two performs later, at Green Bay’s 7-yard line, O’Brien known as a play-action move.
Remember these?
Last season, the Patriots known as the second-fewest play-action passes within the league, per Sports Info. Solutions. They ignored all low-hanging fruit offensively, beginning with play-action, essentially the most primary and confirmed cheat code in play-calling. But sufficient about 2022.
O’Brien is in cost, he’s selecting stated fruit, and the style is good. Meanwhile, his depth chart is solidifying properly.
Jones is the clear-cut beginning quarterback. JuJu Smith-Schuster, Parker and Bourne are his high receivers. Another wideout, sixth-round rookie Demario Douglas, is already a made man.
Douglas performed simply two offensive snaps for the second straight recreation. He’s earned the best to kick up his toes on cutdown day, particularly after changing third-and-10 on his first play in Green Bay and catching a display screen move designed for him on his second. The teaching workers is each operating performs for Douglas, and actively hiding him.
Oh, and Douglas caught 9 passes — a coaching camp greatest amongst all gamers — in Thursday’s joint follow. Ho-hum.
O’Brien’s backfield acquired stronger this week, too. Longtime star Ezekiel Elliott joined Rhamondre Stevenson at follow, the place he shouldered an precise workload Thursday; powering his approach between the tackles and swinging out for brief passes. Elliott is already drawing rave evaluations internally.
Everything is falling into place for O’Brien — besides his largest and second-most necessary place group. That place, as an alternative, is falling aside.
Rookie offensive sort out Sidy Sow, a profession faculty guard, acquired straight-armed into the backfield on the Patriots’ eleventh offensive snap and allowed a sack to Packers edge rusher Kingsley Enagbare. One drive later, Enagbare cracked Jones from behind on one other drive-killing takedown. Enagbare battered backup left sort out Andrew Stueber, a 2022 seventh-round choose who missed nearly all of his rookie 12 months.
Then, Jones missed the remainder of the sport. Two sacks allowed on 11 passing snaps was clearly sufficient for Belichick to tug his beginning quarterback. O’Brien had known as — and continues to name — video games round his patchwork offensive line, however he nonetheless couldn’t venture Jones.
How for much longer can this proceed? The present setup is clearly untenable.
Time will heal a few of their wounds. Left guard Cole Strange was noticed at two practices final week, and will return subsequent week for joint practices at Tennessee. Right guard Mike Onwenu hasn’t suited up as soon as, as he recovers from offseason ankle surgical procedure, however could be out there Week 1.
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Then once more, accidents are solely partially guilty. In the offseason, the Patriots’ entrance workplace opted for a number of low-cost, long-odds bets on the place as an alternative of 1 positive factor. They figured they may shield Jones with cast-offs and late-round rookies as an alternative of a marquee free agent or high choose.
But projected beginning proper sort out Riley Reiff is now enjoying proper guard in Onwenu’s place. Reiff’s preliminary alternative, Conor McDermott, acquired smoked within the preseason opener and is now injured. Will the Patriots belief Sow can develop quick sufficient to start out within the common season or pivot again to Reiff?
Does the 34-year-old Reiff, whom the Bears and Bengals declined to re-sign in consecutive offseasons, have sufficient within the tank? Do the Patriots even have one other selection outdoors of him and Sow? Can their offense survive with such a shaky basis, whereas Jones, Stevenson, Parker, Bourne and Douglas thrive?
Picture Week 1.
What do you see?
Source: www.bostonherald.com