New England Patriots: How will the offense perform in Week 12?

How will the shorthanded New England Patriots offense perform in Week 12 against the Dallas Cowboys? The team could be down up to three receivers.

The New England Patriots have lacked the offensive power and weaponry needed to move the ball and put points on the board consistently this season. Although the Pats have tried to surround Tom Brady with the pieces necessary to be successful this season, it just seems like it’s still not enough to get by against quality competition and later in the postseason.

Going into the game against the Dallas Cowboys, it appears the Patriots are still going to be shorthanded on the offensive side of the ball. It doesn’t look like Phillip Dorsett will be suiting up, as he’s still in the concussion protocol. Mohamed Sanu is nursing an ankle sprain he suffered last week against the Philadelphia Eagles, and Gunner Olszewski was moved to IR last week to open a roster spot for Isaiah Wynn.

This presumably leaves Tom Brady and his New England Patriots with only three healthy wide receivers for Sunday’s game against the Cowboys: Julian Edelman, N’Keal Harry, and Jakobi Meyers.

It should be noted that Edelman is technically listed as questionable for the game with a shoulder injury – so he might be far from healthy himself – but he’s still expected to play. And we all know how Brady feels about throwing to his rookie receivers, but he may have no other choice this afternoon.

There have been speculation and mild discussions about how Brady feels about the amount of rookies and inexperienced guys in his offense. Almost in a Kyrie Irving type of way, Brady has expressed this season how the offense is challenging and it takes time for the “young guys” to pick it up.

The challenging and more frustrating part about this week is going to simply be the lack of rapport with each other. The rapport between Brady and Edelman is brotherly, but Tom doesn’t have the same type of connection or confidence with his rookie receivers yet.

N’Keal Harry should see a ton of targets in his second career game. The rookie receiver caught three passes on four targets for 18 yards in his first game last week against the Philadelphia Eagles. He has a great chance to make an impact on the Patriots during his rookie year now that he’s healthy and back in the starting offense.

Brady and the Pats are one of the best at running the no-huddle offense. One of the key elements to the no-huddle offense is being able to communicate through reading each other. If Brady can’t do that with his rookie receivers, then the no-huddle offense that usually works so successfully won’t do them any good.

It’ll be interesting to see how the running backs perform against the Cowboys defense. The return of Isaiah Wynn will certainly be an upgrade at left tackle for both the running and passing games. The return of Wynn gives the Pats a much better chance of running the ball and making this offense more balanced.

Sony Michel, specifically, should benefit greatly with the return of Wynn. Michel is averaging 51.5 rushing yards per game on 3.3 yards per carry. Although the loss of James Develin has affected the way the Pats are able to run the ball, the overall running attack for the Pats hasn’t looked anything close to the running game of just a season ago.

With the Pats lacking some offensive weapons this week, we should see James White and Rex Burkhead get used more heavily in the passing game. Also with the team being shorthanded, there’s a chance rookie running back Damien Harris makes an appearance this week.

This game is going to be a true battle for the New England Patriots. If the Patriots come out victorious over the Cowboys, this will be the team’s 17th straight 10-win season.