It might seem to be nit-picking, on the morning when the Patriots wake up as leaders of the AFC East thanks to Monday night’s loss to Atlanta, to point out that there is an aspect of the team’s offense that has been downright awful. But there’s no hiding from the fact, particularly after the win over the Saints in Week 6, that the Patriots just can’t run the ball.
The ground wasn’t great in the Week 5 win over Buffalo, totaling 71 yards on 22 carries. It was worse in Week 6 against the Saints, with 73 yards on 31 carries, an anemic 2.4 yards per carry. New England rated 29th in the NFL now with 3.5 yards per carry on average.
What’s astonishing about it all is that the Patriots have become such a vastly improved group at the line when it comes to pass protection–but their run blocking has been atrocious, and their running backs have struggled.
Mike Vrabel: ‘We’ve Had Some Pitiful’ Runs
Coach Mike Vrabel wants to run the ball, of course. But he had a blunt assessment on some of the Patriots‘ attempts on Sunday, calling them, “pitiful.”
“We’ll keep working,” he said. “We’ve had some good runs, we’ve had some pitiful ones, too.
“We just have to make sure that there’s a consistency, that we’re coaching the details, that we’re coaching the demeanor, understand that it’s going to be some dirty runs in there and that we’re going to have to make a guy miss or break a tackle, things that we’ve done throughout the season, and be able to do all those while taking care of the football and trying to move the line of scrimmage. Probably wished we had some more production in the run game there at the end.”
GettyNew England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
Patriots Offensive Line Struggling in Run Game
The Patriots lost backup running back Antonio Gibson to an ACL tear in Week 5, and that didn’t help the situation in Week 6. But the fact is, the run game struggled with and without Gibson. The team needs either an upgrade at the position with a trade or addition, or a revamp of the run-blocking schemes. Or both.
The Patriots running backs share a strange distinction through six weeks. At Pro Football Focus, lead back Rhamondre Stevenson ranks 47th out of 48 running backs in the league, with a grade of 53.1. The only back worse? TreVeyon Henderson, the Patriots No. 2 back, with a grade of 52.6.
The Patriots‘ offensive line gets a 54.1 run-blocking grade, sixth-worst in the NFL. On the flip side, the line gets a 69.5 pass-blocking grade, fourth-best in the league. Obviously, the team values protecting star quarterback Drake Maye over all else, so the dichotomy there makes sense. But they need to shrink the gap.
Patriots Focused on Ball Protection
Vrabel was asked whether the fact that Patriots backs have lost four fumbles this season has played a role in the run game’s struggles–that the backs are hyper-focused on not losing the ball and give up yardage in favor of ball protection.
He conceded there might be some of that.
But, Vrabel said, “I think there’s a balance there. We’ve talked about that. I know when we don’t turn it over, we’ve won those three games, so there’s certainly a balance there, and we have to give them a good plan, we have to block and execute that, block support, and then we have to run, make people miss and break tackles.
“We’ll work hard at that, but in the same sense, I’m proud of the improvements that we’ve made protecting our quarterback, protecting Drake [Maye], and we’ll just have to continue to strike a good balance there with running the football.”
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