Patriots Return To Bread-And-Butter Offense, Pound Saints

That was more like it.

Coming off of a season-opening loss in which the New England Patriots scored enough points to win, but had issues sustaining drives, they had no such trouble against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, dominating the time of possession in a not-as-close-as-the-score-would-indicate 36-20 win at the Super Dome.

In the loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on opening night, the Patriots managed drives totaling over three minutes on just two of the fourteen possessions, punting six times and turning the ball over on downs twice while splitting the time of possession with the Chiefs - but against the Saints, seven of New England's ten possessions topped the three-minute mark, and they punted just three times...

Chris Hogan wide open

...one of those a "mercy rule" punt from the Saints twenty-five yard line late in the fourth quarter as the Patriots held the ball ten minutes longer than New Orleans with a balanced attack that featured their tight ends and running backs to compensate for their lack of healthy wide receivers.

How much of a disparity was there in touches between the wide receivers and the rest of the "skill" position players? of the 70 plays run by the Patriots' offense, only 16 went to wide receivers as the heavy lifters carried the load for New England, accounting for almost 80% of the workload.

Of course, the Patriots came into Sunday's game with just three healthy wide receivers, which was perhaps a blessing in disguise as it forced offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to go to his bread-and-butter offense, moving the chains with the short passing game with Mike Gillislee power runs sprinkled in to keep the Saints' defense honest.

The result was an attack that shredded the Saints for 555 total yards and produced four touchdowns and three Stephen Gostkowski field goals.

The efficiency of the New England offense proved a boon to the Patriots' defense, who faced no short fields and were able to get proper rest between Saints possessions, something that Patriots' head ball coach Bill Belichick would call complementary football.

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees got his typical 300-plus yards, but did so by going an ordinary 27 of 45 and only one touchdown pass when the game was still in question, throwing a second scoring toss in garbage time with the Patriots in prevent mode - most of his big plays coming at the expense of Patriots' safety Patrick Chung, whom Brees picked on mercilessly...

...getting big plays from wide receiver Brandon Coleman, tight end Colby Fleener and running back Alvin Kamara with the veteran strong safety in coverage as defensive coordinator Matt Patricia mixed up underneath coverages and alternating slot responsibilities between Chung and emerging cornerback Jonathan Jones.

The efficiency of the Patriots' offense also affected the Saints running game, putting New Orleans in an early hole and limiting the touches for backs Melvin Ingram and Adrian Peterson, which is fortunate as they averaged nearly five yards a pop in their sixteen combined carries against a Patriots' defense that was clearly playing to stop the Saints passing game.

Brady scoring tosses of 19 yards to running back Rex Burkhead and 53 yards to tight end Rob Gronkowski and 13 yards to wide receiver Chris Hogan staked New England to a 20-3 lead after one quarter, then a short Gillislee run and a Gostkowski field goal gave the Patriots a 30-13 going into the room at the half...

..and even though the Patriots' offense scored only twice more on field goals in the second half, they never varied from their aforementioned bread-and-butter approach, content to move the chains and limit Brees' time on the field.

And that is a huge departure from the previous week, when they scrapped their offensive philosophy in favor of testing the Chiefs vertically, resulting in short fields and many points for the Kansas City offense.

Was the Patriots' offensive approach really a return to that short passing game, move the chains approach that has been so successful for them for going on two decades now, or was it merely from lacking the weapons to spread the field vertically?  Whatever it was, it should have sent a message to the powers that be on the New England sideline.

The message? Never forget and never stray from what has produced eleven conference championship appearances, seven Super Bowls and five Lombardi Trophies in seventeen years.