As defense struggles, Patriots offense being asked to shoulder more of the load

FOXBOROUGH — Over the years, the Patriots have been one of the best teams in the league at playing complementary football. It’s remarkable to think that last year’s team strung together multiple weeks where they didn’t trail at all. In fact, the 2016 team went from late November until the second quarter of the Super Bowl without trailing, a remarkable run that made things that much easier on the defense.

But the last two weeks, while the Patriots offense has remained one of the best in the league — Tom Brady led New England to another 30-point outing on Sunday — the defense hasn’t held up its end of the bargain, failing to hold leads or get off the field on third down. As a result, because the defense hasn’t been pulling its weight, it’s made the margin for error on the offensive side of the ball perilously thin.



It was the same story in Sunday’s defeat to the Panthers. The offense posted 30 points, including 14 late in the fourth quarter. Against a team like Carolina that was having all sorts of offensive issues coming into this one, it should have been more than enough. But for the Patriots, it ended with another loss. It marked the third time in four games the New England defense allowed 30-plus points.

"We've been putting our offense in a shootout every week," safety Devin McCourty said of the defensive play over the first month of the season. "It's almost like they have to get seven or three points on a drive. I'm sure they must be frustrated with our defense."

Brady, who nearly pulled off a fourth-quarter comeback for the second straight week, doesn’t feel like the offense is carrying a disproportionate amount of weight.

“No, I don’t feel like that,” said Brady, who finished 32-for-45 for 307 yards, two touchdowns and no picks. “I feel like we can do a better job, and we’ve got to do a better job all the way around. We left some opportunities out there on offense, and (that) came back to get us.”

To Brady’s point, on Sunday, the offense had three drives of five plays or less, and stalled out at some inopportune times. The quarterback was sacked three times, and some of the short-yardage issues in the running game that the offense struggled with over the first three weeks reappeared.

But the simple truth is that Brady and his offensive mates did as well as expected, especially when you consider the fact that the Panthers came into the game as one of the best defenses in the league: prior to Sunday, Carolina was first in yards allowed (251.7), third in passing yards (162.0), second in points (12.3) and tied for seventh on third downs (33.3 percent). Contrast that with the Panthers’ offensive numbers before Sunday’s game: 28th in total offense (276.7 yards per game), 30th in net passing (168.3) and 29th in scoring (15.0).

Instead, it was the Carolina offense that flipped the switch, taking advantage of miscommunication in the New England secondary on the way to the 33-30 win.

After the game in the New England locker room, there wasn’t any finger pointing.

“We didn’t put enough points on the board to win the game,” shrugged wide receiver Brandin Cooks, who had three catches for 38 yards.

“We’ve got to put up more points, because we didn’t win,” reasoned tight end Rob Gronkowski, who had four catches for 80 yards. “As an offense, we want to put up points every time we have the ball. As an offense, we’ve just got to execute. I mean, we had two great drives in the fourth quarter, but we’ve got to be doing the whole game.”