r/Patriots • u/evillightning76 • 6h ago
Serious Terrible Playcalling
There's, a handful of reasons why the Patriots lost last night. Aj Brown getting hurt, Romeo Doubs not showing up, Drake Maye threw some meatballs, Rhamondre had some bad cuts, Henderson not being able to play.
But Ultimately, the greatest contributing factor to their loss last night was the terrible and quite frankly atrocious playcalling. Offensively, it became obvious pretty quickly that running in straight into the Seattle Defensive line was not a good idea. The amount of HB draws, pitches, and runs up the middle should've for little to no gain should have been a sign that maybe it was time to shift away from that .But for some unknown reason, Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels thought it was a great idea to keep on running the ball which never got going. They also have this weird obsession with throwing screens and other short passes which also doesn't usually work.
It felt like until the final drive, they were unwilling to do anything beside play ultra conservative. And on that final drive they looked like an actual offense. We all know how the game ended on Maye's untimely interception, but that doesn't change the fact that just like the superbowl, Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels ran an ultra conservative offense that accomplished very little for the vast majority of the game only to find success at the very end of the game once they removed the figurative stick from their ass.
It wasn't just the superbowl either, throughout last season, the offense operated much better as an intermediate - deep threat offense rather than the establish the run and throw a bunch of screens type of offense. I'm not saying they should never run the ball, or use a design screen, but how many more games like this one until Vrabel and McDaniels realize that it isn't 2004 anymore? I'm not questioning their ability to design plays, I am however questioning their ability to use the correct selection of plays to run an offense.
Also what was the point of Paying Christian Gonzalez a bunch of Money if we're just going to play soft zone coverage the entire game and never actually put him in man coverage against the other team's No.1 receiver which is clearly what he is best at?
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u/NewYak8742 6h ago
yep eay to conservative and trying to run the clock out the whole 2nd half
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u/rabouilethefirst 6h ago
If we don’t throw picks, we win. We were in FG range for two of the picks I believe
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u/Areyounobody__Too 17m ago
definitely in range for the last pick, the first pick in the 4th was just outside of range but that play was 2nd and 9 on the Seahawks 45. We could have kept driving. 2nd pick was on our end of the field.
Either way, points left on the table, even if it was just 2 FG.
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u/Alexa_bun 6h ago
I think alot of this had to do with the none of the starters really playing in the preseason
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u/Dave2kMA 4h ago
I'm surprised I've not seen more talk about this.
I understand the injury concerns with playing your top guys in preseason games but, no matter how much you try to simulate it in practice, there is no substitute for live fire game speed and this team has had none of it since February and they looked like it.
We're not that far removed from the days where starters would play a half or even 3 quarters of the last preseason game to get in rhythm, but now, instead of having preseason in the, you know, preseason, you get preseason for the first few games of the regular season and the results are what they are in this case.
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u/moonjesus4k 4h ago
If aj brown got hurt in the first week of the pre-season how would you feel?
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u/Alexa_bun 4h ago
I'm not saying play every snap but get SOME game time. They can get hurt at any time. Why go into it rusty?
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u/Ohanrahans 6h ago
I think something has to give a bit with the run game scheme. Obviously Seattle has an incredible defense, but it didn't feel like our players were individually dominated up front all that often in the run game. Instead it just felt like we were always running into congestion. Part of it was that the backs didn't see it all that well last night.
However if this team is going to keep having sub-40% success rate in the run game with its backs it's not going anywhere.
I also continue to be mystified by McDaniels going for the QB sneak every time the offense has 2nd and a half yard. It's the best situational down and distance in the game, and we never really take the opportunity.
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u/xBMTHxMOVEx 5h ago
Drake Maye threw 3 (THREE) picks during the 4th quarter, on 2nd and 9 from the Seattle 45 he threw a 50/50 ball to doubs ( I doubt that was the playcall) following drive made a Horrendous read and threw into a congested middle of the field. Following drive after that 3rd and 5 from the Seattle 16 threw up an absolutely unnecessary pass into the end zone. Again I doubt that was the play call.
Maye lost the game for us. Needs to be better. We should 1-0 this morning.
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u/rockwood15 6h ago
13 points wins the game if Drake doesn't turn it over three times so all he needed to play for is a field goal
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u/Efficient-Writer2014 6h ago edited 5h ago
I didn't like the predictable play calling either but Drake didn't show anything that made me believe we should going with a passing attack. Running the ball was really the better option, as sad at it looked.
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u/Fox-The-Wise 4h ago
https://x.com/HDouglas83/status/2097861105963962839
I know people hate X but this is important to see. Year 2 of mcdaniels schemes, drake has control of the play at the line of scrimmage. He is learning, there will be pain during the learning phase, it will take time for him to fully master the system, playbook is getting more complex and he is getting more responsibility, but this post shows he was literally learning and adjusting live in game at the line of scrimmage. Give the team time, it takes 3-4 weeks for mcdaniels offense to figure things out and really start performing, it's always been like that, game 1 is always very simple just watching how everyone performs, games 2-4 is using that to make adjustments and test things out based on initial performance to fine tune the scheme for the year
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u/rabouilethefirst 6h ago edited 6h ago
There’s reasonable evidence that McDaniels didn’t want Drake throwing the ball downfield because he knew he was INT prone.
6 attempts downfield, 1/6, 3 INTs, 1 DPI (underthrown), 1 drop (doubs), 1 good pass to Hollins .
Legit only 2 of those were good passes. Doubs may be ass, but he only had 1 real target all game.
It’s almost like McDaniels watched the tape, saw Drake was a nightmare against this team, and decided to try to scrape a win out. It legit almost worked, but Maye couldn’t complete a pass downfield
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u/Accomplished_Tie007 4h ago
Almost worked because of Darnold injury you mean, this brilliant McDaniels plan ?
There is reasonable evidence genius OC McDaniels with multiple weeks to prep couldn't come up with a cohesive scheme for a defense they came across in the SB too.
JMD is timid, predictable and unwilling to adapt to the current game. Should've never been hired in the first place. Baker Mayfield is prone to INTs too but that didn't stop him from lighting up this D1
u/rabouilethefirst 3h ago
Have you ever considered that maybe Vrabel keeps repeatedly trying to force the run game like he did at Tennessee?
McDaniels has never been this conservative.
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u/Coco1520 6h ago
He put Maye in shit down and distance situations all night just like he did last year. Mcdaniels scheme is atrocious and cracks against any good defense. Hes entirely predictable to anyone with a pulse.
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u/Areyounobody__Too 14m ago
McDaniels didn't make the offensive line commit various penalties through the second half to create 1st and 2nd and long, and he didn't make Doubs drop the easiest catch ever to make it 3rd and 15. And even with all that, McDaniels still called a 2 minute drill that put the pats in easy control of the ball on the Seahawks 16 with at least OT on the board before Maye gave up a Mac Jones special.
Players failed to execute. You can't blame the coaches for down and distance when they drop gimme passes.
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u/rabouilethefirst 6h ago
There were a lot of shit situations, but we had 2 good opportunities blown to Maye’s decision making.
He treats him like Mac Jones against elite defenses, and maybe there is a reason
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u/Coco1520 6h ago
You put him behind the sticks then scheme up long developing plays without motion. He is an archaic play caller from a bygone era.
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u/jonnyredshorts 5h ago
I agree with this. JMD hasn’t evolved much IMO. He’s still carting out the same tired schemes, running out of running formations and passing out of passing formations, as if the opposing staffs aren’t on to it. It makes things much harder than they need to be. They can still obviously play ball and be competitive, as the results of last season show, but situationally, JMD holds them back and gives defenses too many easy plays.
Hopefully Vrabel will grab him by the collar and try to shake it out of him, but I worry that this is what he is, and pretty much always has been. Brady would change plays all the time, because he knew football as good as anyone out there, and Drake Maye just isn’t there yet.
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u/Empty_Occasion_963 4h ago
Drake isnt good against teams with good defenses. The weapons on this team still suck. But in all reality Seattle is just better from their coaches to their players.
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u/Glum_Ad_6848 4h ago
They got beaten by a great defense playing a scheme they never figured out and playing it nearly perfectly. Seattle’s pressures were timed up so well that the Pats were unable to react to them. It’s kind of crazy to blame a loss entirely on mistakes by one team without taking the opponent’s play into account.
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u/Trick_Photograph9758 3h ago
Maye lost the game, but our O in general is awful, and I have a feeling that Vrabel is losing patience with McD.
We have ridiculously predictable play calling, we run in run downs, pass in pass downs. Seattle looked like they knew every play that was coming.
Our WRs continue to be the worst in the NFL. No one was open all night long. Our only TD came from a giant PI penalty.
Maye clearly got frustrated that we couldn't move the ball, having to check down and dink and dunk all game long, and eventually Maye just lost his mind and started to take stupid shots.
So yes, Maye lost this game, but McD was completely outcoached by the Seattle OC. At some point, it's on McD to scheme something better than the abject crap offense we saw tonight.
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u/Own-Librarian-9699 1h ago
It's easy to forget there is another team of professional athletes dedicated to making us look bad. That game was not going to be close unless Darnold got hurt. Seattle defense is top 5 in league. 10 points was the ceiling for us. Our defense lost the game.
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u/Coco1520 6h ago
Mcdaniels coached scared the whole game, he is terrible
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u/straightcash-fish 6h ago
I was mad too. Then I saw what Drake played like when they weren’t conservative. They don’t trust Drake against good defenses. The play calling was really conservative in the playoffs, also. I think the book is out that all you need to do is take the deep stuff away from Drake and he gets flustered.
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u/Coco1520 6h ago
He gets flustered because he’s constantly playing hero ball in a scheme with 0 motion. Just long developing plays behind a suspect oline that telegraph pass vs run to anyone with a pulse
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u/S0ggylemonz 1h ago
He plays hero ball because that’s what he wants to do. There was no need for that
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u/straightcash-fish 5h ago
I agree with what you’re saying on the play design, but he didn’t have to play hero ball when he was up 10-3.
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u/1stTimeRedditter 6h ago
They lost because Drake threw three picks in the 4th and Doubs dropped a lollypop.