Partly because he had more time, Jones also had more instances where he moved on beyond the first reading, rather than panicking when it wasn’t open. That was evident when the Pats used play-action on third-and-short. The first lead was a whip route to Vaughn that was well covered, but Jones calmly moved to the second lead, where Demario Douglas made a 16-yard catch.
The Patriots QB said there were some instances where he looked down on the rush instead of sticking to reads, but Jones was much better at that. Mack also made “big time” throws to TE Pharoah Brown (seam) and rookie WR Demario Douglas (seam) and fully executed the elements of his planned offense (quick game, play action, RPOs, etc.) . Overall, Jones earned an excellent expected points of +0.34 on his 39 dropbacks (84th percentile).
We’ve had some tough battles against quarterbacks over the past three weeks, but Jones performed well against the team that carries his number against the Bills on Sunday.
3. Patriots offense scores season-high 29 points due to personnel and scheme adjustments
After back-to-back losses to the Cowboys and Saints, the Patriots’ mantra was to “start over,” guided by their head coach’s post-loss comments.
However, a disappointing loss on the road from Las Vegas to the Raiders discouraged them from starting over. He felt like the same movie we saw in the first four games. The same slow start (13-3 in the first half) and shaky play from the offensive line and receivers led to the same shaky play from the quarterback — if you will. I had to start all over again, hey hey, be careful below.
On Sunday, it felt like the Patriots’ offense started all over again, tweaking several aspects of the offense to stabilize the offensive line and create more collisions for the defense. Starting with personnel, the Pats’ coaching staff finally made the move we’ve all been clamoring for, moving OL Mike Onwenu to right tackle. Onwenu hasn’t started a game at right tackle since the 2021 season, and the team was looking to lock him at guard, but the move was necessary.
Heading into the weekend, the Patriots ranked last in pressures allowed (36) and 32nd in pass blocking grade by right tackles (27.9 out of 100). The team couldn’t keep rolling out Vederian Law, who was simply going over his head, so something had to give. Fourth-rounder Sidi Saw will be guarding right guard, and the Pats are going with a different combination for the sixth time in the past seven weeks: LT Trent Brown, LG Cole Strange, C David Andrews, RG Sidi Saw, right. Onwenu makes a tackle.
Despite being without inside rusher Ed Oliver, the Bills entered the game leading the league in sacks (24) and ranking fifth in pressure rate. With Big Mike at right tackle, Jones felt pressured to only complete a season-high 21.9% of his dropbacks, while the Pats had a 48% success rate on the ground. It may have been too late for the Pats to fall into a record hole, but it’s safe to say that a rebuild of the O-line could have saved their season from disaster.
In addition to reshuffling the offensive line, O’Brien has gradually added more motion to the offense, particularly in the running game, with the Pats utilizing motion on 72.7% of their plays this week. The Pats OC also called eight play-action plays (6 of 8, 95 yards) and used more RPOs.
It’s no wonder it took the Patriots this long to do the following, and we might ask: move Onwenu to right tackle, feed Kendrick Bourne and Pop Douglas, and do more. Utilizes a lot of motion and run fakes. But my guess is that O’Brien has always been this good offensively. Unfortunately, the losses snowballed.
This is the path forward for the Patriots offense. Well, let’s hope they keep it up.
4. Patriots defense finally solves Josh Allen by “charging up” Bills quarterback
The Patriots took a different approach to protecting Bills QB Josh Allen this time around, focusing on a pass rush tailored to surround Buffalo’s QB1.
As I wrote in my Game Plan article earlier this week, to defeat Captain Chaos (Allen), you’ll need to take the fight to him. New England accomplished that by blitzing 43.2% of Allen’s dropbacks, while the Pats’ coaching staff challenged the inside defensive line to pressure Allen up the middle. The idea was to have Allen run away from the center of the pocket, rather than spreading plays to the left and right, where he is most dangerous.
“You’ve got to put pressure on the middle. The edge guys can put as much pressure on him as they want, but even if you can’t put pressure on the middle against this guy, this guy is an elite quarterback. “Top-three quarterbacks” in the NFL, so you have to force him out of the middle pocket and hope both ends get him,” Godchaux told Patriots.com.
The Pats’ inside rushers answered the call with a 40.9 percent pressure rate, throwing the Bills’ offense off rhythm and forcing Allen to scramble and make rare mistakes in playground football mode. According to NextGen stats, his QB pressure leaders for the Patriots were Christian Barmore (5), Dietrich Wise (5), Jawaun Bentley (3), and Godchaux (3). As these numbers show, they were successful in pressuring Allen into the midfield.
While the Bills’ quarterback was sacked just once, Allen was rushed 18 times and took some time out of the game. On pass attempts lasting longer than 2.5 seconds, Allen completed just 10 of 24 with a passer rating of 42.0 and a better-than-expected completion percentage of -8.1.
On any given day, the Bills quarterback might have hurt the Patriots’ defense by using his feet to extend plays when pressure was on. However, Allen was absent from the game that day.
5. Rookie WR Demario Douglas breaks out with a team-high 74 scrimmage yards.
In another positive development for the Patriots offense, rookie jitterbug Demario Douglas returned from a one-game absence and led the team with 74 scrimmage yards on five touches.
