New England Patriots might need to pull plug on Matt Patricia

The New England Patriots’ offense has been nothing short of pathetic under Matt Patricia. It is already time to shake it up?  The Patriots preseason is officially over, and there are now way more questions than answers.  A team that has been the best coached in the NFL for years now appears to be suffering from the complete opposite.

We all know that the defense isn’t the issue, and while the team could use some additional help at cornerback, the team will likely again sport a top 10 defense.  Since Josh McDaniels left to be the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, the Patriots offense hasn’t been able to come close to returning to their 2021 form in which they were a top 10 scoring unit.

Both Matt Patricia and Joe Judge have been calling plays this offseason, but Patricia seems to have gotten the bulk of the work here.  A defensive coach calling plays on offense and essentially serving as the de-facto offensive coordinator is working just about as well as you’d think.

In the Patriots’ three preseason games, the team has put up 21, 20, and six points.  That’s good for an average points per game of 15.67.  Simply not good enough, and that number would likely rank in the bottom few teams in the league.

I get that both Patricia and Judge have had success coaching in New England, so it did make a ton of sense to bring them both back, but to place them in these coaching positions where they have little to no experience has turned into a giant disaster, and what looked to be a promising offense ran by a young quarterback is now looking like an offense that’ll struggle to hit 20 points per game.

Bill Belichick is unbelievably smart, and there’s no way he isn’t thinking about alternative options to what the offense has done so far.  Would Belichick really allow Matt Patricia to keep running this offense if these are going to be the outcomes?  It some cases, it almost feels like the offense is being sabotaged.

I understand that there isn’t going to be a groundbreaking, team-changing solution to offer and implement before week one, but clearly something needs to change.  I think Matt Patricia could adequately serve as an offensive assistant coach, but having him continue to call plays has effectively ruined the offense before the 2022 season even started.