In the final minutes of Week 13’s loss to the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones was visibly upset with his team’s vertical passing game — or lack thereof. If New England’s playcalling for the first two quarters of Week 14’s game against the Arizona Cardinals is any indication, Jones’ frustration didn’t do much to change the strategy of coach Bill Belichick or offensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
Jones completed 10 of his first 16 passes on Monday. At a glance, completing 62.5% of passes is a good number. Unfortunately, though, those completions only gained 80 yards. And it wasn’t as though the incomplete passes came on deep ball attempts.
Warren Sharp noted that the average depth of Jones’ targets over those first 16 attempts was less than two yards.
Mac Jones average target depth on 16 att:
1.94 yards
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 13, 2022
It would be one thing if the offense was operating like the San Francisco 49ers or a similar team. They don’t throw deep too often, either, but have skill players adept at getting big yardage after the catch. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the Patriots. They’ve struggled on offense for much of the season.
Certainly, the overly conservative playcalling could be attributed to the team not having confidence in Jones to throw deep. But that point can’t be made without also mentioning that when the Patriots met the Vikings on Thanksgiving, they had one of their best offensive showings of the year — even in defeat. That game featured more downfield passing than what we’ve seen from New England for most of the rest of the season.
If New England is going to find an offensive spark over the season’s final weeks, something needs to change. The short passing game just isn’t fooling anyone.
[Warren Sharp on Twitter]
