Getty Bill Belichick
The New England Patriots offense is limping into the preseason and fans are concerned about what the offense will look like once Week 1 arrives. Head coach Bill Belichick might be forced to blow the game plan up.
New England had yet another poor showing at practice on Monday. Lineman were jumping before the snap of the ball, Mac Jones was struggling to find open receivers, and a whole host of other problems are currently plaguing the offense.
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After the departure of Josh McDaniels, it was expected that the offense would look different, but they are undergoing quite a significant change. The Patriots have switched to a Shanahan-style offensive game plan that focuses on running and zone blocking.
Before the poor practice, Belichick spoke about the offensive scheme and seemed to admit that he is willing to change things up if New England can’t get their new offense to work.
“In camp, in preseason, during the season, mid-season,” Belichick said. “You see things that are going well, you try to figure out a way to exploit that more or do more of it. You see things that aren’t going well, you either figure out a way to improve it or get rid of it and move on to something else that’s more productive. You have a couple different options there. You just have to decide which one you feel is the right one. If you’re spending time on something that’s not productive, then maybe you need to change it or find something else. It’s just not efficient.”
How Difficult Would It Be for the Patriots to Change the Offense?
Belichick was also asked how difficult it would be to change the system this late in the lead up to the regular season.
“That’s part of it,” he stated. “Like everything, it’s not going to work out perfectly, and again, we have a number of new players in certain positions, and we’ll have to see how they adapt, and find out what things they’re good at and what things we need to do less of and what things we need to do more of. I think we’re finding that out, certainly with the rookies and younger players, but also with some other players we’ve added to the team. That’s the process. Sometimes it takes a while, but ultimately you have to make that judgment, and sometimes you make it sooner rather than later.”
How Are Patriots Players Reacting?
At the end of practice, captain and center David Andrews was visibly upset with how the offense performed.
Andrews then met with the media and touched upon dealing with the struggles of the new offense.
“You know, I said what I said, but now we’re just trying to move forward,” the Patriots center said. “Try to correct it and come out here and have a better day.
“Sometimes you have downs of training camp, and, you know, gotta go in and learn from it, see what we can do better. And like I said, Come out here tomorrow, can’t let today or any day derail anything in the future. That’s just how it goes, wins and losses. We just got to stay steady. Can’t go up and down.”