Josh McDaniels is flirting with a Patriots mistake that Texans will exploit

The history of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has made him one of the absolute best at the position, and a big reason he has now had three stints with the Patriots over the last 25+ years. He was the perfect addition to Mike Vrabel's new staff, mainly to work with Drake Maye, and has elevated the offense to levels not expected this season.

We saw some impressive playcalling throughout the year, including familiar plays that Patriots fans recognized immediately. Hence, the playoffs were sure to bring out the best of the McDaniels playbook.

The problem is that one of those plays was a moment that was immediately deemed "too cute" and too early for McDaniels to call in last week's win over the Chargers, mainly because it failed despite being completely doable.

Perhaps it was nerves from rookie receiver Efton Chism III, who completely missed a wide-open Maye on a third-down trick play, but it was a clear sign that McDaniels might have gotten too ahead of himself.

While they'll need that kind of fearlessness when they host the Texans on Sunday, they cannot get overly excited to implement trick plays unless it's a near guarantee that it'll work, or, at the very least, don't risk it on a third-and-short play where it probably wasn't needed just yet.

Josh McDaniels needs to make better play calling decisions in the divisional round

Going against a defensive heavyweight like the Texans in the divisional round will require McDaniels to open up his playbook and get creative. We'll likely see some more calls we haven't seen during the season, maybe even more from the dynasty years, but they need to come at the right moment and not turn into a moment that comes back to bite them by the end of the game.

Of course, it's almost impossible to predict what will happen when a play is called, so it's not like they will know if a trick play is going to be successful 100%. However, they don't need to make those decisions in the first quarter on a third-and-four play, especially if the score isn't outrageous.

The play with Chism and Maye resulted in only a turnover on downs, but it very easily could have led to disaster had the LA defense got their hands on the ball, whether via interception or a fumble.

McDaniels needs to be smarter than what we saw in this moment against the Chargers, because it would be far better to lose because you just weren't the better team that day, rather than have a bad play call come back and become the source of blame for what led to a loss, or why it ended up being a closer game than it should have been.

There's no doubt that his postseason experience will become a factor in their favor on Sunday afternoon; we just need to see a better discernment of when to use those plays, particularly when it involves Maye, who cannot afford to make costly mistakes as it is.