Film Room: What’s wrong with the Patriots’ passing game?

In a battle between two first-year head coaches in Jerod Mayo and Mike Macdonald, it was the Seahawks who came away victorious by a score of 23-20 victory on Sunday afternoon.

On the surface, the matchup between two teams that love to run the football and play staunch, smothering defense was ironically decided by Seattle’s pass attack and New England’s lack of a consistent one.

The Patriots’ passing game struggled once again on Sunday as, for a second week in a row, quarterback Jacoby Brissett completed just 15 passes for less than 150 yards.

Although New England put up more points (20) than they did against the Bengals (16) Brissett completed just one pass that traveled more than 10 yards downfield.

“We definitely have to start to get the ball down the field,” head coach Jerod Mayo said after the game. “We’ve got to start pushing the ball down the field to get that shell defense, and we’ve got to be able to run. We’ve got to be able to pass. We’ve got to be able to ping-pong between the two. It’s something that we need to work on.”

On top of their crippled deep passing attack, New England can’t seem to get the ball into their dynamic playmakers’ hands. Of Brissett’s 15 completions on Sunday, wide receivers caught just three of them on five total targets. Rookie Ja’Lynn Polk led the way with two, and K.J. Osborn tallied one.

Shifty slot receiver DeMario Douglas, who many consider to be the Patriots’ top offensive weapon, wasn’t targeted once on Sunday — despite being open a handful of times:

“Yeah, you pull up the film and you can tell [I’m getting open],” Douglas said in New England’s locker room on Monday afternoon, “But things happen for a reason. Whenever my time’s ready, I’m going to show ’em.”

Brissett himself knows as well that they need more throughout the air on offense:

“I think obviously we would like more in our passing game,” he said on Sunday. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting a lot of those guys involved in the game plan and throughout the game. I take responsibility for that.”

But what’s actually wrong with the passing game? Well, there’s a variety of things — but reason No. 1 is the offensive line’s lack of consistent protection for their quarterback. Let’s have a look:

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While the pressure came from pretty much everywhere on Sunday afternoon, a gaff or two here or there is to be expected from guys like Vederian Lowe, a replacement-level tackle, and Layden Robinson, a rookie in his second career start.

Who it shouldn’t be expected from is Mike Onwenu, whom you paid a hefty three-year, $57 million extension to this offseason to be your right tackle. But that’s exactly what we saw against the Seahawks. The 26-year-old tallied a 9.4% pressure rate with three pressures and a QB hit. Here’s a look at some of his struggles from Sunday:

On Layden Robinson, although he gets somewhat of a pass given his lack of experience, the mishaps you really don’t like to see from him are when protection is most critical — for example: when a trick/gadget play is called.

Late in the third quarter, Alex Van Pelt dialed up a “leak” concept to tight Hunter Henry and had it blocked up pretty much perfectly — except for a trailing Layden Robinson on a pull:

Like Onwenu, Robinson also notched a 9.4% pressure rate allowed — the fourth-highest in Week 2 among guards with at least 30 pass-blocking snaps.

As for Vederian Lowe, he struggled to hold the edge all day long against DE Boye Mafe. The left tackle allowed a 12.9% pressure rate, which was the fifth-highest among tackles with at least 30 pass-blocking snaps.

Overall, the Patriots offensive line’s 43.8% pressure rate was the third-highest in the NFL in Week 2. Said pressure led to three sacks of quarterback Jacoby Brissett.

Speaking of Brissett, let’s take a look at some of his ups and downs from Sunday.

We’ll start with the good. Brissett’s leadership, ability to protect the football, and knowledge of the offense are what have allowed New England to commit zero turnovers through two games. He also continues to have success in the intermediate part of opponents’ defense — most notably seen on the Ja’Lynn Polk touchdown pass, and the fact that he connected with tight end Hunter Henry on eight completions for 109 yards.

But Brissett made his fair share of mistakes as well. There were multiple instances on Sunday where the 31-year-old had players open downfield and wasn’t able to find them. Here are two examples on two critical third downs:

Arguably the worst mistake of them all was the sack he took with 4:44 left in regulation. On 3rd and 1, up 20-17, on the Seahawks’ 21-yard line, Brissett had Douglas open for a first down. He unfortunately wasn’t looking in his direction and after pressure quickly mounted, he took a sack.

On the following play, Seattle blocked Joey Slye’s field goal attempt. The rest was history.

 

Ultimately, Brissett and the rest of the Patriots’ struggles begin up front. On Monday, Jerod Mayo mentioned that the unit may have tired out as the game went along:

“As it got to the second half, our pass-pro kind of broke down a little bit more,” he explained. “I still believe that we have a well-conditioned team, but I would say, on both sides of the ball yesterday, you saw a lot of hands on hips. You have to be able to push through that adversity, still be on the same page and ultimately execute.”

Speaking of adversity, New England’s entire starting offensive line made appearances on the team’s Monday injury report ahead of Thursday’s game versus the Jets:

LT Vederian Lowe, Knee (DNP)
LG Sidy Sow, Ankle (DNP)
C David Andrews, Hip (DNP)
RG Layden Robinson, Shoulder (limited)
RT Mike Onwenu, Wrist (limited)

This Patriots offense has a long way to go before they get to where they want to be, and while fans may already be clamoring for them to make a quarterback change, the best bet for both the team and rookie quarterback Drake Maye’s long-term future is for them to fix their issues in the trenches first.

Follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!