The Patriots’ silent killer and 4 more thoughts on Week 7 – Boston Herald

LONDON – Welcome to the Friday Five, England edition!

Every week during the NFL regular season, I’ll be dropping five thoughts on the Patriots on Friday to recap the week in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.

Ready, set, football.

1. Great first quarters

The Patriots opened practice this week with an unusual time frame.

The starting offense faced the starting defense down in the red zone. Full speed, full contact, full drive.

The idea, Jerod Mayo explained Wednesday morning, is to jump-start one of the NFL’s slowest starting teams and address another area where the Pats have struggled. Offensively, they score the lowest touchdown in the league with 35.7% of their attempts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Life isn’t much better on defense, as they have the 10th-worst touchdown percentage in the red zone.

As for their slow starts, last weekend the Patriots trailed 14-0 after the first quarter against Houston and cut double-digit gaps at halftime against the Jets and 49ers. Overall, they allow almost as many points in the first half (11.3 points per game) as they score per game (13.8).

In general, it’s hard to win this way in the NFL, but especially as a run-first offense with pass protection issues.

2. Maye King time

Drake Maye’s off-the-charts plays were some of the most impressive he made in his starting debut last weekend. Maye gained 30 yards on an unplanned pitch-and-catch with tight end Hunter Henry and gained 11 yards on another longer play. On dropbacks where he held the ball for more than 2.5 seconds, Maye scored a first down 42% of the time, compared to 28% when he got rid of it within 2.5 seconds.

Above all, Maye’s ability to escape and keep plays alive helps a receiving corps that struggles to separate.

Because as Patriots defensive lineman Jonathan Jones said to me this week, “You know, if you can give (receivers) six seconds, eventually even Grandma will be open.” They don’t need a lot of space like these quarterbacks need the ball can throw. The quarterbacks are coming out of the pocket, and as a defensive back I know the whole world is crazy, but I don’t think you can even cover grandma forever.”

3. Play-action offense

Led by offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, the Patriots’ offense is designed to create explosive plays from deep shots.

Due to problems at quarterback, receiver and in pass protection, the Pats have yet to complete a single deep pass off play. While Mayes’ arm has breathed new life into the offense, play-action dropbacks are still relatively new for the former college quarterback who worked exclusively with the shotgun. Maye said this week that he’s more comfortable making those drops — his footwork has improved significantly in recent months — but the ability to read a defense a second time after turning his back on a play fake is different Challenge.

Callahan: The Patriots are making more changes after Drake Maye, so who’s next?

“Our defense does a good job of flipping coverages and changing the picture after the snap, and that’s something I’ve really started to understand and learn,” Maye said this week. “The image I see when I first get the snap and when I turn around and look at it may be different. So if I’m just trying to find my checkdowns or find a way out, that’s going to be something that I’m going to like.” Then try to exploit them with matchups.

Last year, the Browns averaged the fourth-most yards in the league with Van Pelt outside the game. This season, the Patriots have the fewest completions and the second fewest passes outside of play. Expect to see more bombs on Sunday as Maye looks comfortable and Jacksonville is allowing more completions and yards on play action than any other defense in the NFL, according to Sports Info. Solutions.

4. Underdog story

The Jaguars are considered 5.5-point favorites for Sunday’s game, the first time since 2006 that they have been considered favorites to win against the Pats.

Back then, the Patriots won 24-21 in Jacksonville on Christmas Eve and secured the AFC East title. Tom Brady’s leading receiver was rookie tight end David Thomas, who had 83 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, Mayo was a young college linebacker at Tennessee and Maye was barely four years old.

Before this regular-season win, the last time the Jags were favored in a Wild Card playoff game over the Patriots was in 1999. At kickoff, more than half of the Patriots’ current players weren’t born yet.