The Patriots scored touchdowns on their final three possessions of last Sunday night’s game against the Texans, but their first seven drives resulted in three points and they went back home with a 28-22 loss.
Sluggish offensive performances are nothing new for the Patriots this season and one of the reasons cited for their issues has been the makeup of their wide receiving corps. Rookie wideouts N’Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers have been thrust into bigger roles alongside the recently acquired Mohamed Sanu, which means that several players are still getting accustomed to the offense.
On Tuesday, head coach Josh McDaniels was asked on a conference call about ways to make it easier for Tom Brady to work with the young receivers. McDaniels’s answer could extend to Sanu as well as it centered on there being no substitute for time.
“I don’t think there is any shortcut to being on the same page in terms of anticipating what the other person is thinking, seeing and feeling,” McDaniels said. “A lot is made of somebody thinking one thing and somebody else thinking something else. I think there are a lot of factors in the passing game that would determine what being on the same page really means. But practice repetition, there is no shortcut to it. Every rep we take in practice, every pass we throw, every side session that we’re able to take part in, every conversation, every one-on-one drill that we do in practice, every film session that we’re in, it just continues to try to build off of the last one.”
The Patriots have four more weeks in the regular season to build up those reps in hopes of finding more production during games because one bad outing come January could end this season’s push for a ring in New England.