There are a lot of plays you could pick out to highlight various issues with the Patriots’ offense, but ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky found two in particular from Sunday’s loss to the Bengals that really bothered him.
Tom E. Curran expects Patriots to bring in Bill O'Brien
They were two key plays in the first quarter: New England’s first two third downs of the game. In a video posted to his Twitter account, Orlovsky expressed his dismay with the confusion and poor play design on both plays, which he says was even more inexplicable given that both came so early in the game that they should have been scripted and covered extensively in practice and walkthrough.
On the first, a third-and-four, tight ends Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith run into each other in the middle of the field. Mac Jones was clearly looking in that direction, but couldn’t pull the trigger because of the collision and wound up taking a sack instead. Henry suffered a leg injury on the play.
“This is such bad football,” Orlovsky says. “…The quarterback, why can’t you find anybody open? Well, they’re running into each other. That’s the first third down of the game. You spent all week preparing for this, all week getting ready for this moment, and then that happens.”
On the second, a third-and-six, Jones makes some sort of check at the line while looking in the direction of the three receivers to his right. At least one of the three doesn’t get the message or misinterprets it, because the top two receivers start blocking like it’s supposed to be a screen pass while the third takes off deep and never even looks for a screen. Jones again has to double clutch while watching his first read blow up and ends up throwing incomplete while trying to check down to his running back instead.
“These are the plays that you are so prepared for. You know what kind of call is coming in these moments,” Orlovsky says. “…What page are we on? Try to get set, no one’s ready for it. Quarterback snaps it. Who are we throwing the ball to? I mean, what? That’s your first two third downs in a game that is a massive game. Incredible. Incredible to watch.”
Watch the two plays and Orlovsky’s breakdown below:
Related
