The Patriots are coming off a week in which they scored a grand total of six points, and for the year, they’re 24th in the league in scoring.
Thus, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady hath decreed that they need to do more.
“I just want us to score points, so whatever it takes to score points, that’s what matters,” Brady said, via Zuri Berry of Boston.com. “I think you let your emotions get into it and feelings and so forth – I mean realistically, you have to come up with a plan. We have to figure out how to score points.
“I said after the game, we’re not going to win many games scoring six points. So, if we score six points this weekend, we probably won’t win. We’ve got to do a lot better than that.”
I think in Brady’s neighborhood, they call that wicked smaht.
Making the turnaround tougher will be the fact they’re playing against a Saints defense which has exceeded every expectation.
The Saints are fourth in the league in scoring defense (14.6 per game allowed), and have some guy named Drew Brees at quarterback, so the likelihood that a single touchdown will be enough to win is remote.
“I think we’ll try to put together any drive at this point to score points,” Brady said. “Long, short, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to score touchdowns. This defense really forces you into some long drives. I don’t think they’ve given up many big plays this year. They have played from the lead a bunch, which is why they probably have a lot of sacks, interceptions, and have been ahead in a lot of these games.
“We’ve got to try and score quickly, methodically, whatever it takes, because they have a good offense, they have a good team, they play well on special teams. We are going to have to play a very well-rounded game.”
Possibly getting tight end Rob Gronkowski should help, but the Patriots’ problems on offense are such that any one player is going to have a hard time making the needed impact.