Concern about the state of the offense in New England rose steadily during the first month of the season and peaked during Monday night’s thumping at the hands of the Chiefs.
A leaky offensive line, an unimpressive group of wide receivers and a poor four games by quarterback Tom Brady are some of the flash points for that concern and there are plenty of people wondering if the Patriots can come up with solutions to those problems. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels knows things are in a bad place right now, but he believes they can turn things around.
“I have a lot of confidence in our guys,” McDaniels said, via CSNNE.com. “We didn’t play well [Monday] night. We didn’t coach well offensively. We obviously have to do a lot better, starting with me. There is no shortcut to that, but we’ve got a lot of players that have played a lot of good football here before. We know it’s a long season. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. We know that it’s going to be critical for us to get better and improve each week.”
McDaniels’s message of patience was mixed with one for more urgency, especially when it comes to getting off to a fast start offensively. The Patriots have not scored first in any of their games this season and playing with a lead could help with the offensive line’s issues by slowing down some of the pass rush that comes when you’re playing from behind. He didn’t add any specifics about how the team will do that, but there will be a lot less stress about the means if victory is the end result.