The New England Patriots passing attack, which has just a 78.9 combined rating and two touchdowns in two games, simply isn’t playing well enough or up to its own elevated reputation.
But don’t take the media’s word for that, or even the concerns of the team’s unsettled fans who are used to seeing much more production through the air. Rather, listen to the man running the offensive show on the field in New England.
“I don’t think there are really any excuses for not executing the way that we’re capable of,” quarterback Tom Brady said on Wednesday as his team prepared for Sunday’s home opener against the Raiders. We just need to do a better job.”
Much as was the case late last season, slot receiver Julian Edelman has been Brady’s only real, reliable, productive option to open the new season as tight end Rob Gronkowski works his way back to full health coming off a torn ACL. Edelman has 12 catches for 176 yards (14.7 average) and one touchdown. Gronkowski is second on the team with eight catches for 72 yards and one score.
The rest of the attack has been less impressive. Danny Amendola has three catches for just 16 yards. Newcomer Brandon LaFell has yet to catch a pass, and after being targeted six times on opening day wasn’t the intended receiver of a single Brady throw in Week 2.
Even Edelman’s production has been heavily weighted to the first half, as only one of his catches have come after halftime for a Patriots offense that hasn’t scored a touchdown in the second half.
“I think that’s definitely a big part of what we’re trying to do offensively to make us hard to defend is to be able to throw the ball to everybody,” Brady said of getting guys other than Edelman and Gronkowski involved.
“Those guys have seen a majority of throws, and I’ve got to do a better job finding the other guys because it’s a lot of good routes, they’re big targets, guys are working really hard to get open,” he added. “So hopefully it shows up this week in our pass game. We’re going to work hard this week to see if we can all be on the same page more often.”
That will come against a veteran Raiders pass defense that hasn’t given up a lot of yards through the air this year, although the unit is last in the NFL having allowed 400 yards rushing through two games. While the Patriots will continue to strive for balance and the running game might be a major factor against Oakland’s suspect front, Brady and the Patriots passing attack are working hard to try to live up to their reputation.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Brady said. “It’s really early in the year; we’ve got a lot of football left. We’re still trying to figure out what we’re good at, and we’ll probably be trying to figure that out for a long time. All the way through the season, that adapts and changes with the guys that are out there and what we think we need to do to win, but we’re trying to make improvements. I don’t think we’re ready for the Super Bowl this week.
“I think we’ve got a lot of work to do, and certainly playing against Oakland gives us some big challenges because they have a great pass defense, and we have to understand where their strengths are and hopefully go out and execute better than we have the first two weeks,” he added.
NOTEBOOK: 31st regular-season meeting. Patriots lead series, 15-14-1. As old AFL adversaries, the Patriots and Raiders met twice a year in the early 1960s. Since then the matchups are less frequent, but that hasn’t meant less memorable games. Two of the biggest games in the rivalry came in the postseason. Oakland took a questionable victory over the Patriots thanks to a controversial roughing-the-passer caller in 1976, while New England’s dynasty was born in the snow in Foxborough after the 2001 season with the infamous Tuck Rule game that was won on a pair of Adam Vinatieri field goals. The Patriots have won three straight regular-season matchups, eclipsing 30 points in all three wins.