Patriots need to find another way

Over the course of the season, those plays won’t always go New England’s way, and the outcomes may not be quite as tight when they don’t.

That’s why the offense needs to find a way to be more productive. Running the ball is great and has allowed the team to remain competitive, but it’s a hard way to light up the scoreboard. Even with the Madden-like rushing totals in the first two weeks, the Patriots remained mired below the 24-point mark, averaging 18 per game.

Alex Van Pelt must find a way to shore up the pass protection and figure out how to get Jacoby Brissett to push the ball downfield. The wide receivers have been a non-factor in both games. K.J. Osborn is the wideout’s leader with four catches for 28 yards. In two full games (including one that went to overtime) the entire wide receiver corps has 11 catches for 85 yards combined.

The old adage is you throw to score and run to win. The idea behind that is teams need to make plays in the passing game to put points on the board and then grind out the clock behind a solid running game. The offense has the second part down, but unless the first part comes to fruition every game will rely on the defense to dominate.

It’s unrealistic to expect more than a few victories if the opponent needs only to get past 20 or so to win. As inept and uninspired as the Bengals looked in the opener, Cincy probably should have had at least 17 points if not for the aforementioned Hudson blunder. Again, realistically the Patriots defense can’t play much better than it did in the opener, and still it almost wasn’t enough.

Van Pelt has no easy task trying to fix an offensive line that is already bruised and battered and managing to unlock the passing game. But unless he does, the offense will remain limited and unproductive.

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