Partly because he had more time on his hands, there were also more instances of Jones getting past his first reading rather than panicking when his first reading wasn’t open. That became noticeable when the Pats used play-action on third-and-short. The first strike was aimed at Bourne on a whip route that was well covered, but Jones calmly moved on to his second strike and found Demario Douglas for a 16-yard catch.
The Patriots QB said there were a few instances where he focused on the rush instead of sticking with his reads, but that was clearly better from Jones. Mac also made “big” throws to TE Pharaoh Brown (Seam) and rookie WR Demario Douglas (Seam) and adequately executed the planned elements of the offense (quick play, play-action, RPO, etc.). Overall, Jones posted an excellent expected points gain of +0.34 on his 39 dropbacks (84th percentile).
We’ve been tough on the quarterback over the last three weeks, but against a team that wore his squad number, Jones delivered on Sunday against the Bills.
3. Personnel and program changes result in a season-high 29 points for the Patriots offense
After two consecutive disastrous losses to the Cowboys and Saints, the mantra within the team, led by the head coach’s comments after the losses, was that the Patriots would “start over.”
However, a disappointing road loss to the Raiders in Vegas didn’t feel like a fresh start. It felt like the same movie we’d seen in the first four games: the same slow start (13-3 at halftime) and the same shaky play from the offensive line and receivers, leading to the same poor performance from the quarterback – if anything I started over, oh man, watch out below.
On Sunday, it seemed like the Patriots’ offense started over, tweaking several aspects of the offense to stabilize the offensive line and create more conflict on defense. Starting with personnel, the Pats coaching staff finally made the move we all demanded by promoting OL Mike Onwenu to right tackle. Onwenu hadn’t started a game at right tackle since the 2021 season, and the team tried to lock him in at fullback, but the move was necessary.
Entering the weekend, the Patriots ranked dead last in pressures allowed (36) and ranked 32nd in pass blocking by right tackles (27.9 of 100). Something had to give as the team couldn’t continue to use Vederian Lowe, who is simply overwhelmed. While fourth-rounder Sidy Sow held his own at right guard, the Pats went with their sixth different combination in seven weeks: LT Trent Brown, LG Cole Strange, C David Andrews, RG Sidy Sow and Onwenu at right tackle.
Despite missing interior linebacker Ed Oliver, the Bills came into the game leading the league in sacks (24) while ranking fifth in pressure rate. With big Mike at right tackle, Jones was pressured on just 21.9% of his dropbacks, a season-best, and the Pats had a 48% success rate on the ground. Maybe it’s too late since the Pats are down for a record, but it’s no exaggeration to say that reconfiguring the O-line could have saved their season from disaster.
In addition to reshuffling the offensive line, O’Brien is slowly adding more movement to the offense, particularly in the running game, with the Pats using movement 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 fair to wonder what took so long for the Patriots to do the following: move Onwenu to right tackle, feed Kendrick Bourne and Pop Douglas, and use more motion and run fakes. But I suspect that O’Brien always built the offense up to this point. Unfortunately, the losses simply increased too quickly.
This is the path for the Patriots offense. Let’s hope they stick with it.
4. The Patriots defense finally solves Josh Allen by “loading up” on the Bills quarterback.
This time, the Patriots took a different approach to defending Bills quarterback Josh Allen, focusing on a coordinated pass rush to put Buffalo’s QB1 under siege.
As we wrote in our game plan article earlier this week, to defeat Captain Chaos (Allen), you must take the fight to him. New England did this by attacking Allen on 43.2% of its dropbacks, while the Pats coaching staff challenged the interior defensive line to pressure Allen up the middle. The idea was to let Allen escape through the middle of the pocket instead of extending plays to the left or right, where he is most dangerous.
“You have to increase the pressure in the middle. The edge players can put as much pressure on him as you want, but if you don’t put any pressure on him in the middle, this guy is an elite quarterback. “Top three quarterbacks in the NFL, so you have to force him out of the pocket in the middle and hope the ends can catch him,” Godchaux told Patriots.com.
The Pats’ interior rushers responded to the call by contributing to a 40.9% pressure rate, throwing off the rhythm of the Bills offense and leading Allen to make some uncharacteristic misses in playground football mode. The Patriots’ leaders in QB pressures, according to NextGen Stats, were Christian Barmore (5), Deatrich Wise (5), Ja’Whaun Bentley (3) and Godchaux (3). As these numbers show, they were able to pressure Allen in the middle.
Although the Bills quarterback was only sacked once, Allen was sacked 18 times, which took him off his game a bit. On pass attempts in more 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 some days, the Bills quarterback could have upset the Patriots’ defense by allowing him to extend plays with his legs when pressure was applied. But that day, Allen wasn’t on track.
5. Rookie WR Demario Douglas breaks out with a team-best 74 scrimmage yards
Another positive development for the Patriots offense was rookie jitterbug Demario Douglas, who returned from a game out and led the team with 74 scrimmage yards on five touches.