Patriots de-facto OC Matt Patricia is weak link on the team

Yet again, poor play-calling greatly impacted the New England Patriots and their offensive production, or lack thereof against the Cardinals.  To be fair, New England’s offense did score two offensive touchdowns and the team put up 27 points total.  Matt Patricia is hurting this team with his play-calling.

However, it’s clear that week after week, Matt Patricia is simply not cutting it as a play-caller, and to make matters worse, his work with the offensive line appears to be subpar too.  I do think he’s objectively a good football coach, but probably needs to be re-assigned to the defensive side of the ball, which is what he knows best.

His work with the offense is simply not cutting it, and at 7-6, the Patriots cannot afford many more missteps on that side of the ball as they battle for playoff seeding.  The offense itself has regressed quite a bit since last year when Josh McDaniels was running the show, and wouldn’t you know, the Patriots’ next game is indeed against Josh McDaniels and the Las Vegas Raiders.

Their Raiders’ matchup is probably the easiest game they have left, as they play all of the Bengals, Bills, and Dolphins after that.  It’s again imperative that the team notches a win against the Raiders, who looked to be putting things together before a collapse versus the Rams.

I do think it’s too late in the season to make a switch off of Matt Patricia as the primary play-caller, but something needs to get done.  It is a bit weird that Bill Belichick did not have more of a backup plan set when McDaniels sprung for Vegas’ opening.

Perhaps he was too confident in both Patricia and Joe Judge to keep this offense afloat.  I was pounding the table for Mac Jones to be benched in favor of Bailey Zappe, but at this point, I am surprised that Jones has able to play decent football given his coaching situation.