It's easy to blame offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt for all that ails the offense. He's an easy target, and he hasn't exactly eased any of my concerns about him as the play-caller. But when I tell you that Michael Jordan and Sidy Sow spent as much time in the backfield as the guys who make their living there - you know, quarterbacks and running backs - perhaps that would explain the putrid rushing output. Sow had no answers for Arik Armstead, allowing him to go full Aaron Donald on his second year behind. As for Jordan, this was a giant step back after being the team's best offensive lineman dating back to the San Francisco game. His prior play warrants another start this Sunday, but he's now on the clock. In addition, neither player had much success picking off linebackers on or coming from the second level. It was gross.
Rhamondre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, and JaMychal Hasty weren't perfect, but they are getting very little ramp-up time, especially over the last two weeks. There are consistently one and sometimes two defenders forcing a change of direction or hesitation on that second step after a handoff. The numbers bear it out. The Pats are dead last in yards before contact in the previous two games (Texans and Jags) while averaging 2.9 yards per rush, also at the bottom of the NFL barrel. For a team whose identity needed to revolve around the ground game, not just effectively running the football but also trying to build their West Coast passing scheme off that, it's limiting what concepts Van Pelt can utilize.
TIMEOUT NEEDED?
Three contested catch opportunities for Ja'Lynn Polk. Three incompletions. If we're being fair - and I'm always fair - the longer throw down the sideline was a bad ball by Drake Maye. He was late going there, and the ball needed to be driven more toward the sidelines. Instead, he pulled Polk off the boundary, opening him up to the defender a split second earlier than it should have been. Still, if you say you have the best hands in the league, it was catchable. As were the other two.
All week, it felt like Polk was one of the players who would be impacted by Jerod Mayo's assertion that lineup changes were coming. In theory, that was true. The rookie got 34 snaps, 17 less than his week six count and 26 fewer than week five. But based on his flagging play, his actions - he appeared to take umbrage with Mayo's throwaway line about Polk needing to get over a "mental hump" earlier in the week - and his social media habits, perhaps a bigger slice of the playing time pie should be reduced this weekend. I'm not in favor of burying Polk - he's a second-round pick seven games into his career - but a reset might do him some good. Of course, what's behind him is hardly inspiring. K.J. Osborn playing the martyr on Instagram following the game was something a veteran shouldn't do. He's supposed to be the other pro in the room alongside Kendrick Bourne. That wasn't professional. I'd trade him yesterday. Harsh? Perhaps, but he's brought next to nothing. Grab a guy off someone's practice squad to be the fourth or fifth receiver. Osborn shouldn't be a part of your plan going forward, so why waste any more time, even with Polk struggling? I wouldn't.
SPIN THE DIAL
DeMarcus Covington is looking for answers. Unfortunately, the Google search is yielding no results. He tried to play a bigger front to slow the Jaguars run game at the start. It didn't work. The first-year defensive coordinator called upon a three-corner nickel package to keep Trevor Lawrence from looking good, which he hasn't for nearly the entirety of the season. All the Jags QB did was go 15-of-20 for 193 yards and a touchdown. Lawrence didn't turn the ball over, mainly because he had clean pockets (Next Gen Stats had him pressured on just 9.5% of his dropbacks. The league average this week was north of 40%). That was a choice Covington made, leaning more on playing zone than man-to-man in this one. I'd call it the wrong choice, but considering how the Pats are playing, maybe it would have been 42-16 had they gone man and blitz-heavy. At this point, nothing is off the table.
Beyond getting their butts whupped on the defensive line, especially on the interior - every player who got snaps there got worked at one point or another - the linebacker level is an abject disaster. Yes, Jahlani Tavai is playing out of position, but the number of times he's lost, or diving at shoetops, has surprised me. He's a better football player than he's putting on tape. Alongside Tavai, the switch from Raekwon McMillan to Christian Elliss didn't help. He, too, found himself on the ground too often, picking wrong gaps or getting turned out when he was in the right one. I have no idea what the solution is. There doesn't appear to be one on the roster.
UP AND DOWN
Thumbs down for Davon Godchaux. He had been one of the team's best players over the last few weeks. That was not the case on Sunday. An aging Mitch Morse had his way with the big nose tackle. If Godchaux can't hold up against the run, might as well put a stamp on the game and mail it in.
Thumbs down to Tavai, Jordan, and Sow for the aforementioned reasons.
Thumbs down to Deatrich Wise, who was pushed around by a tight end several times. Not great.
Thumbs up to Maye. He is processing well, has been poised, and hasn't been getting sped up much. It's not perfect — far from it — but Maye's command has been impressive to watch and study. That he's surrounded by what he's surrounded by is not his fault.
Thumbs up to Hunter Henry. Oh, I hated the pre-snap penalty. It came at a bad time, but he's in Maye's trust tree. They had another off-schedule play that looked eerily similar to the explosive versus the Texans. Maye got flushed to his right, then threw cross body(ish) to Henry, who had been running a return route of sorts but was wise enough to keep his feet moving, sliding into an open area as Maye scrambled. It resulted in a nice 12-yard completion. Later, his 32-yard catch on an underthrown ball by Maye had me writing in the margins, 'Thank goodness for this guy.' I suspect the quarterback, OC, HC, and anyone else with a clue thinks the same.