Matt Patricia is no Josh McDaniels when it comes to being an offensive coordinator.
In other news, Christmas is 10 days away.
Anyone watching the Patriots with any sort of attention or analyzing their 2022 offensive numbers compared to last season can see the drop-off in Mac Jones and New England's offense more generally without McDaniels versus their final season with him.
This team ranked sixth in scoring, 15th in total yards, second in drives that ended in score of some kind (48 percent) and sixth in the average time of their drives (2:59) with a rookie Jones in 2021, for example.
Now? They're 18th in scoring, 24th in total yards, 20th in scoring drive percentage (34.2) and 21st in average drive time (2:39) -- all noticeably worse across the board.
But this isn't just about calling the right plays on a snap-by-snap basis or having the perfect game plan drawn up as much as we tend to focus on those aspects. The Patriots' offensive players have all but told us that over the last few weeks.
"Josh is a great coach," Jones told WEEI's Merloni, Fauria, and Mego on Tuesday afternoon. "Pushed me really hard and coached me hard. We worked together, and we were with each other every day and working hard.
"He expects a lot out of his players and he’s a smart, smart guy. He’s got a great memory, great recall. He remembers things from certain games and all that stuff. Definitely a great coach and looking forward to going against him this weekend."
None of this is to say Patricia is stupid. He's not. But the one thing that always seemed to be a question about this new partnership -- the coach's ability to bond with Mac Jones -- feels magnified as this crucial matchup approaches.
Jones keeps talking about wanting to be "coached harder," which he also referenced after the Bills loss a few weeks ago. I take that to mean McDaniels' exacting, uncompromising coaching style.
I was there in 2021 training camp for the way he would dog-cuss Yodny Cajuste for missing an assignment or lay into Rhamondre Stevenson for poor blitz pickups. You never had any doubt about whether those guys were being coached hard enough or held accountable.
Even if McDaniels' offensive playbook had been whittled down as far as this year's version of the Patriots' offense has, one wonders if his intense focus on details would have sharpened up the execution of the team's simple, repeatable concepts into something sharper or minimized the number of blocking breakdowns or poor route design -- he was a former wide receiver, after all.
Of course, his playbook is anything but simple as most would tell you. His system demands that you be able to be prepared for any number of potential outcomes on a given play, adjust accordingly and make sure the entire offense is on the same page with how they see it. That's a lot different than just running a bunch of screens or queueing up four verticals and "989" every other snap.
For one thing, that sort of offense certainly seemed to appeal to Jones' own detail-oriented personality and desire to understand the sequence and purpose behind everything he does. He functions best when he can win before the snap with his mind then swiftly sort through his shortlist of options once the chaos begins.
But the accountability is arguably the more important part of the equation. Think about this report from Phil Perry on NBC Sports Boston heading into the Raiders game on Sunday:
"I think they understand they don't have the details that they need going into these games week to week in order to have success," Perry said. "It was my understanding before [Monday's game] that the players were going to be trying to hold the coaches accountable going into this Cardinals game to get those details that they needed to have success…they are pleading with the coaching staff to give them more, to give them more tools in the toolbelt in order to have success. They're not getting it consistently enough, and you're seeing the results of that."
When offensive players have to literally beg their coaches to give them the standard of preparation they deserve and need to win a football game, that tells you all you need to know about the state of this team's offense.
Bill Belichick almost certainly believed Patricia, for whom he clearly has a great deal of respect, would be able to teach and game plan the way he expects from his coaches when he offered Patricia the opportunity to step into a play-calling role. But as much as the head coach suggested when he claimed he "felt good about" the coaching arrangement (and Patricia specifically), the fallout from Belichick's decision to put Patricia in that role has left the Patriots in purgatory.
Finding a play-caller and coordinator that does the job up to Mac Jones' and the players' specifications should be tops on the list of needs for next season. Imagine that: Patriots players having to fight to get more out of their coaches instead of the other way around. That's where we are now.
