Pretty tricky, Josh: But how long can gadget plays cover for Patriots punchless passing game?

Sunday evening in Philadelphia as he took the podium, decked out in camo, did Tom Brady look like a quarterback who could be happy with a 67.3 passer rating as long as his team picked up the victory?

Well, in case you were wondering about his feelings after the Patriots outslugged Carson Wentz and the depleted Philadelphia Eagles, 17-10, TB12 made it perfectly clear.

“I don't think it matters what I think. It matters what we do,” he said.

What the Patriots did was win … barely. But what the offense did was a totally different story.

Facing a middle-of-the-pack pass defense in Philly (ranked 16^th coming in), the Patriots managed 224 yards through the air, with Brady hitting just 26 of 47 attempts. New England clicked on just 5 of 16 third downs for the day, well below its 40 percent efficiency level. But the worst number coming out of Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday was the 4.8 yards per passing attempt by the Patriots, and that included Julian Edelman's gadget-play TD toss of 15 yards to Philip Dorsett.

“We just played for three hours, I think everyone is a little tired,” was a testy Tom response postgame when asked why he couldn't turn that smile upside down.

Brady's staredowns to his cast of targets after many of his misses might attest that the quarterback isn't quite pleased with not just his options, but the penchant of the five big men in front of him to allow free runs at him by some rather angry Eagles.

“Up and down, that's what (the offense) looks like to me,” said Brady. “We can probably do everything better.”

Rookie top pick N'Keal Harry's pro debut was rather ordinary. He caught three balls on four targets for 18 yards. Only one moved the chains, a gain of 11 on 2nd-and-10.

Of course, that seemed like a monster night compared to the new guy, Mohamed Sanu, who had a pair of catches – a 3-yarder and a 1-yarder. So much for the ex-Falcon, who cost this team a second-round pick, catching up with Brady and the offense over the bye week.

Jakobi Meyers saw much more time than the one-play performance he had at Baltimore. The rookie caught one 7-yarder in traffic but came up a little gimpy and was not heard from again.

Yes, it was a miserable night salvaged only by Edelman's TD. But that trick play – one heck of a call by a desperate Josh McDaniels on 3rd-and-11 with the Patriots trailing 10-9 in the third – covered up what was even a sketchy night for the durable Edelman.

“That was a good read on the play … it keeps his quarterback rating up there pretty high,” said coach Bill Belichick. “It was a great play by Julian. He got his eyes down field. He made a good decision, and he made a good throw.”

Edelman spent the better part of his night pinballing through tight Eagles coverage that often featured double-teams. On the night, he led New England with five catches on 10 attempts for 53 yards but cost his team four points with an inexcusable end zone drop.

In the end, though, it was Edelman's throwing, not catching, that made the difference against the Eagles.

“He made a great throw,” said Brady. “It was a great play. We needed it.”

New England certainly did.

Interestingly enough, the Edelman hookup was McDaniels' second tricky try on the day. Earlier, he had a Brady-handoff-to-Rex Burkhead morph into a throwback lateral to TB12 and a bomb attempt to Dorsett.

Unfortunately, the immortal Ronald Darby, if fooled originally, had little trouble closing on Dorsett (3 catches, 33 yards on five targets) and swatted the football away harmlessly.

That play might have provided the most telling glimpse of New England's lack of a legitimate downfield option. Playing with 10 players up within 5-to-10 yards of the line of scrimmage, the Eagles certainly hampered New England's short passing game.

Expect more of that, at least from the competent coaches/coordinators on the remainder of the schedule, unless a Harry or Meyers does something to assert themselves.

So far, it has not happened. And again, as Brady said.

This offense can “probably do everything better.”