The Patriots put up more than 400 yards of offense for the second straight week in Sunday’s win over the Raiders, but they did it in a very different way.
New England ran for 250 yards after throwing for 397 yards in a Week Two loss to the Seahawks. They also put up 217 rushing yards in a Week One win over the Dolphins and quarterback Cam Newton said in his postgame press conference that the team likes being able to do whatever it takes on any given Sunday.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what we want to do,” Newton said. “We want to put defenses in fits knowing that we have so many different ways to beat you and a plethora of different type of schemes, a plethora of different type of -- we want to run downhill. We want to run on the edge. We want to throw it deep. It doesn’t matter. I think that’s been our biggest edge, for the most part, just having that ability to attack the teams in so many different ways and to still be successful.”
Next weekend will present a tough test for the defense as the Patriots will be in Kansas City to face the Chiefs, but the chances of surviving it will be far better if they can find the right offensive mix to put points on the board.