Joe Murray: The Patriots’ offense is suspect

There were many excuses why the Patriots offense struggled in the 2022 season.

Matt Patricia fell on the sword running the offense, something he never did in his career, and was the fall guy.

There was turmoil on offense last season, and the team brought in a familiar face with ties to Alabama. Bill O'Brien's arrival was to fix Mac Jones and the Patriots offense.

Bill Belichick makes the team decisions, signs the free agents, and selects the draft picks. The team's personnel falls on him, but I thought O'Brien would be better than this. 

Through four games, the Patriots offense is declining. The scoring has decreased in every single game. The running game has gotten worse. The offensive line has seen four different lineups. Mac Jones has been given more autonomy with the plays. 

2023

2022 

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BETTER 

The slow starts are another thing that has made it difficult. In Sunday's 38-3 loss, the Patriots gave away 17 points off turnovers. O'Brien's background was to run the ball and not turn it over. Those things have not happened with the slow starts.

The Patriots have a chance against softer competition in the next few weeks with the Saints and Raiders. Winning both those games would put them at 3-3 and set up a divisional matchup with Buffalo. With the injuries to Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez, the offense will have to score points against the rest of the division.

AFC East Offenses Points Scored

2022 Offense with Mac Jones as Starter 

14 Starts: 16.6 PPG 

3 Starts with Hoyer/Zappe

25.7 PPG

The Patriots cut Zappe and made him available for any team to sign. He may not be the solution, but through four games, Bill O'Brien is not the answer.

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The New England Patriots fell to 1-3 on the season after an embarrassing 38-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Here are 10 players we graded "UP" or "DOWN" based on their performance in the game...

Unfortunately, this game was so bad and Mac Jones was so bad that we have to start with a DOWN. And Jones was that much of a down. He was 12-of-21 for 150 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions, one of which was returned for a back-breaking pick-six late in the second quarter. Jones also lost a fumble that was returned for a score.

Jones ended up being benched in the middle of the third quarter, with the game out of hand. He deserved the benching. Jones isn't particularly gifted physically - his throw on the pick-six looked horrible, wobbly with a noticeable lack of velocity - but if he's making bad decisions and turning the ball over on top of a lack of pure physical talent, he has no chance.

The discussion around the Patriots this week will center on the quarterback and head coach. It still doesn't feel like a strong possibility that Jones is benched for good, but he played bad enough to make it worth talking about for a week.

Stevenson looked as good as he has all season so far in this one, despite the chaos in front of him. Stevenson had five carries go for no gain or negative yardage, but it's obvious at this point that it's more about shaky blocking than him. He had a good, hard 12-yard run called back because of a holding penalty way behind the play.

The numbers look bad for Stevenson, but he passed the eye test on Sunday, when he had a fair chance to carry the rock. It's too bad the Pats can't block right now.

Four catches for 51 yards for Henry, and looked good in the process. One of his catches was a diving one-hander. Henry has been a consistently reliable target for Mac Jones and one of the most consistent players on the team. No real complaints about him in this game, which was otherwise a stinker.

Just one catch on five targets for Smith-Schuster, and even his one reception came up one yard short of a first down. The Patriots signed him to convert those plays.

On top of that, Smith-Schuster was in as a blocker on a failed fourth down push play with Mac Jones, and still appears out of sync with the quarterback or unsure what to do from play to play. This signing has simply not worked out so far.

Dugger had a team-leading 15 total tackles on the day, one of which went for a loss of yardage. He showed a little something in this game, which virtually no one on the offense did. The defense wasn't great but it didn't have a terrible day, either, and Dugger can be counted among the rare good things.

If the opponent is running well on this defense, it almost certainly means the middle linebacker and chief run-stopper at the second level isn't having a great day. Tony Pollard averaged 4.3 yards per carry, and the same average on runs up the middle. It's not all on Bentley, but you need more than just five tackles from your MLB against a team that runs the ball 30 times.

Tavai racked up a sack, two tackles for loss, and a pass breakup in a largely good afternoon. He's been a pleasant surprise over the last season-plus, overall. It's tough to put much, if any, of this bad loss on him.

It's tough to blame any one player for the Cowboys' successful fake field goal try that earned them a two-point conversion. Perhaps no players deserve blame. You can easily point to special teams coaches Joe Judge and Cam Achord for that one. They weren't even close to ready for that play. Total breakdown by that particular unit.

It was an active day for Wise, who had a sack and four total tackles. There were other plays in which Wise didn't record anything on the official stat sheet, but clearly had a hand in the pressure up front. His edge defense against the run has always left something to be desired, but this was a good day overall for Wise.

Onwenu had three penalties. Two false starts helped stall out offensive drives, and a holding penalty negated a 12-yard run by Rhamondre Stevenson. Onwenu is a good player and better than he's shown overall since returning, and should get better as the season progresses. But his lack of off-season work is showing.

Next Ups & Downs will come after the Patriots finally return home to take on the New Orleans Saints in Week 5 at Gillette Stadium.

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Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Check out all of Matt's content here.