Through seven weeks, the Patriots have had issues with mobile quarterbacks.
New England has yielded 182 rushing yards from quarterbacks on 24 carries, the most in the league. That’s an average of 7.6 yards per carry and 26 yards per game. New England has been gashed in the run game by the likes of Mitchell Trubisky (six carries for 81 yards and a rushing touchdown this past Sunday), as well as Blake Bortles (six carries for 35 yards) and Deshaun Watson (eight carries, 40 yards).
All stats have to be placed in some context — you can argue that the majority of Watson’s totals, for example, came in garbage time, a situation where the Patriots were up by double digits and were willing to trade clock for yardage. (Twenty-four of his rushing yards came with less than four minutes left.) And these totals include sacks and scrambles as well as designed runs. There’s also the fact the Patriots have faced an inordinate amount of quarterback who have wheels.
“We face one it seems like every week,” Bill Belichick said last week before Trubisky’s performance that included one of the more amazing scrambles of the 2018 season — he traveled 71.9 yards on his eight-yard touchdown run.
Mitchell Trubisky covered 71.9 yards of distance on his 8-yard touchdown run, the most scramble distance a quarterback has covered on any play this season.#NEvsCHI #DaBears pic.twitter.com/dTT3QJYZe9
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 21, 2018