NFL Notebook: Offensive onus will be on Tom Brady down the stretch, can he still bear that burden?

Everyone knows that two things happened down the stretch last season to lift the Patriots from shaky 9-5 contenders into 5-0 Super Bowl champions: the defense started to morph into the unit that we've seen this season, and the threat of a running game opened up the Patriots offense into a hard-to-stop unit.

Josh McDaniels talked about the offensive component in Do Your Job III.

"(Bill Belichick) said, ‘If you keep holding on to what you’d rather be — no-huddle, spread formations, 34 points a game — then you’re probably going to end up regretting a lot of things at the end of the year,’" McDaniels recalled.

That made the offensive coordinator refocus.

"What are we really good at? What’s the most consistent part of our team offensively? And then you commit to it," McDaniels said. "We had been a pretty decent running football team. It was something that we felt like our personnel fit."

Now entering the second half of the season, off their only loss of the season, the Patriots and McDaniels had to be asking themselves the very same questions as they form a plan going forward.

There's no obvious identity for this offense. Overall in DVOA at FootballOutsiders.com, they're 13th. The Patriots have never finished a season that low in the Belichick era and were fifth last season. They've faced the 26th-toughest schedule offensively to this point.

The running game, which was ninth in DVOA last year, has slipped to 19th, and the passing game has gone from fourth to 13th.

So how, exactly, are the Patriots going to carry their load offensively down the stretch? It sure seems like it's going to be all on Tom Brady.

The question is, and it could determine whether or not the Patriots win the Super Bowl again, can Brady still carry the offensive burden by himself?

And, look, we're talking about in some of these games down the stretch. We're talking about the big ones. He couldn't against Baltimore — but that was mostly on the defense that couldn't get him the ball back — but will Brady be able to do damage starting today against the Eagles, Cowboys, Texans, Chiefs, Bills and then whatever awaits in the postseason?

The feeling here is it's going to be a challenge until someone else emerges as a viable weapon, especially on the crucial downs and in the tight moments that are certain to emerge in these games.

I think what we'll see from the Patriots' offense in the second half of the season, starting with Sunday in Philadelphia, is that they're going to try to use a short, quick passing game to act as the de facto running game of a season ago. Sorry, but Ted Karras is just not getting to the second level well enough, and Shaq Mason just isn't himself. The running game is basically a lost cause for now, outside of a few jet sweeps here and there.

Most people have keyed on Isaiah Wynn's return as monumental. It will be big, but count me as saying tight end Matt LaCosse — if No. 87 doesn't make a surprise return — could be the biggest x-factor down the stretch. People forget because his season got turned upside down with a high ankle sprain in Detroit in the preseason, but LaCosse was doing a pretty good Gronk imitation for a while. He's very viable in the passing game — no one will ever be Gronk — and he did a nice job blocking on the edge. If LaCosse can give Brady a good start in the middle of the field and block on the edges for outside zone runs, then the Patriots might have something.

Julian Edelman will be himself, but he's never received this much attention from opposing defenses. Mohamed Sanu helps alleviate some of that, but he doesn't have the big-play pop that Edelman has. Phillip Dorsett needs to be put in motion to really get separation, and that won't happen unless Sanu is put out at X, or if N'Keal Harry becomes an overnight sensation there.

I wouldn't hold my breath.

The fallback for this offense has always been to put Brady in the shotgun spread and let him do his thing with the occasional inside runs. Brady can still operate that type of offense. He gets to spread the defense, see the pressure coming, and pick out matchups — even putting the back in motion, get him on a linebacker and then work the magic. It gives the Patriots an element of ball control without the running game, it allows for some big plays, but, mostly, it keeps the game in Brady's trusted hands.

The thing is, the shotgun spread/gun-run offense has never ultimately worked well for this offense.

When the Patriots haven't had a good two-down rushing attack and/or a powerful tight end, they've struggled in the biggest games.

The playoff loss to the Ravens in 2009 set the stage for the drafting of Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez because the Patriots felt they had become too gun-run reliant. Things didn't get that much better with BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Danny Woodhead and Stevan Ridley in the backfield.

The Patriots didn't break through until they had the likes of LeGarrette Blount and Sony Michel — running games you had to respect. Even Dion Lewis didn't win a Super Bowl with the Patriots when he was on the field — he got hurt early in 2016. Why? Because his best asset was as a single back in the shotgun.

The Patriots have always been at their best offensively when they could morph into anything they wanted to based on the opponent. If the opposing defense is solid, we have a hard time seeing the Patriots do that this season. That's why Wynn, Harry and, especially, LaCosse are so important.

If they can't deliver, that may mean Brady has to do this largely on his own. That will be a tall challenge.

MYLES GARRETT FALLOUT

Was what Myles Garrett did really that much worse than Albert Haynesworth using his cleat on Andre Gurode’s face, creating a wound that required 30 stitches to close in 2006? Of course not. The only thing that changed was the circumstances this time around, including media coverage and social media.

Those who are trying to extrapolate anything more from this than a momentary lapse of judgment by Garrett are just as wrong as Roger Goodell for his typical overreaching suspension that pays no attention to precedence.

Football is not a chess match; it’s not a pickup basketball game down at the Y. It is a game of violence. On every snap, players do what in normal, everyday life would be considered criminal, and they’re paid millions of dollars to do it. Suddenly, we should be appalled when one of those professional assaulters crosses a line? We should be surprised it doesn’t happen more often.

No one is condoning what Garrett did — he rightfully was suspended, is being ridiculed in public, and he could have cost his team any shot at the postseason. The incident will be attached to him for the rest of his career, and he’ll join the ranks of Haynesworth, Antonio Smith (suspended one regular-season game for swinging Richie Incognito’s helmet at him), and Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict (banished for the rest of this season after several on-field suspensions) as tarnished players.

But nobody’s perfect, especially professional violence inducers. Garrett temporarily lost his mind, expressed regret immediately after the game and will pay a very public price for what he did. This incident will follow him for the rest of his career.

It doesn’t have to be anything more than that, and it shouldn’t.

BAKER SHOULD WATCH HIS BACK

Baker Mayfield will be celebrated by the general public for his postgame comments on NFL Network, but they likely won’t play well in his locker room.

“It’s inexcusable,” Mayfield said of Garrett’s actions. “The reality is he’s going to get suspended; we don’t know how long and that hurts our team and we can’t do that. We can’t continue to hurt this team. It’s inexcusable.”

Did Mayfield speak the truth? Absolutely. But players walk a very fine line when they comment on the actions of their teammates, especially when those words could well work against Garrett when it comes to his suspension and, ultimately, his wallet.

There are two things teammates never comment on: family and money. Some players in that locker room could look at Mayfield’s words, not as an example of great leadership, but the exact opposite: a player who, like in his TV commercials, cares more about himself and how he’s perceived by others outside the team than he is inside that locker room. No one will publicly acknowledge it, but this could be a problem for Mayfield going forward.

GAME PICK

Line: Patriots by 4.5. O/U: 44.5. Season: 8-1, 5-4 ATS.

I keep going back and forth on this game, and I'm not feeling great about the Patriots, who traditionally start a little sleepy offensively out of the bye. The good thing for them is this is a rare time when both teams are coming off the bye. Maybe that helps.

The way I look at it, both teams are challenged at receiver. The Eagles are way better at tight end and offensive line. And Doug Pederson runs a scheme that is Kryptonite to the Patriots. Plus, the Eagles are getting much better cornerback play in recent weeks.

One thing going for the Patriots: if the Eagles don't get off to a good start — and they have a chance to take control of the NFC East — then the natives could get really restless.

I'm just feeling the Eagles in this one.

Eagles 23, Patriots 20.