It’s amazing how quickly things can change in the NFL. Through the first three weeks, the New England Patriots looked lost on offense, and some people even floated the idea of benching Drake Maye. Now, they look like they’re back on track after back-to-back wins.
The recent success that the Patriots have had is real, but so were their initial struggles. Now at 3-2, the Patriots are in a position to make a run in the coming weeks. However, they can’t allow themselves to slip back up on offense if they want to push the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East.
New England Patriots OC Josh McDaniels Garners Praise
There was a lot of finger pointing in the first three weeks of the season for the Patriots. That included those pointing out the shortcomings of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. In particular, his tendency toward predictable or bland playcalling.
Coming off wins where the offense scored 29 and 45 points, respectively, there’s not much complaining now. Instead, McDaniels is actually starting to garner some praise. That includes from ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky, who gave him his flowers on NFL Live.
“Giving credit to Josh McDaniels here,” Orlovsky said. “I loved the way he used a bunch of four-by-one formations. Four on one side, one on the other. One, for protection. Two, they ran the same concept out of a bunch of different looks called dagger… So, Josh McDaniels [was] using kind of a somewhat similar formation, but [in] different ways to get to it… I think it just allowed Drake [Maye] to be explosive down the field in the past game.”
Orlovsky wasn’t alone in this praise. Pop Douglas would also praise his playcalling following the Raiders win.
“He was in that mode,” Douglas said. “That’s what I’ll say, he was in that mode. He made sure everybody got their plays in. I appreciate what he was doing.”
It would be hard to be too critical of McDaniels following Sunday’s win over the Raiders. The offense could do no wrong and Drake Maye looked like the MVP contender that he was a season ago.
What’s Different for the Patriots on Offense?
This turnaround does beg a question. What’s different for the Patriots offense now?
According to McDaniels himself, not much changed for the Patriots. Instead, following the win over the Bills, he insisted that it was more about consistency than anything else.
“I just think staying consistent,” McDaniels said. “I know this is hard to believe but we didn’t really do a whole lot different from Week 1 to Week 2 to Week 3 to Week 4.”
There was some pushback of that at the time from fans who felt they saw differences in the offense. Regardless, there was better consistency, which was great to see. Importantly, there also weren’t the bad decisions that got Maye and the offense into trouble.
The major concern now is the injuries. Will Campbell and TreVeyon Henderson went down against the Raiders. A.J. Brown and Mack Hollins were already down. As those injuries stack up, it’s going to be harder and harder to for the Patriots to continue to succeed on offense.
Dan Orlovsky Credits OC Josh McDaniels for Drake Maye, Patriots Turnaround