Part of the reason the Patriots run game struggled was that the Raiders used unpredictable schemes, such as run stunts or blitzes, which prevented the Pats blockers from reaching the second level of the defense. On Thursday, McDaniels spoke about learning from the wrinkles the offense saw last week against Vegas.
“They did some things that pinched us off from getting up to the second level and the linebackers. I’m excited and eager to use those experiences to improve,” McDaniels said. “It’s really difficult to simulate movement sometimes in the running game without being in pads in a game against another opponent that does it differently than the team you practice against all the time. I think that is time on task, and it’s a great opportunity for us to see that in a live setting.”
Besides the inconsistent run blocking, which was the primary reason for the run game’s struggles, one area that stood out was the lack of motion in New England’s rush plan. According to NextGen Stats, the Patriots ranked last in the NFL with a motion rate of 18.5%. McDaniels also shared his philosophy on using pre-snap motion to deceive opposing defenses.
“Using [motion], it’s fun. It can be something that, if you’re not careful, can hurt you. It will certainly change what you’re looking at over there on the defensive side. With such variables in Week 1 and some of the unknown and uncertainty that goes along with an opening game, there’s definitely some pros and cons to it,” McDaniels said. “There will probably be weeks where we use it more and weeks where we don’t based on what we think is hopefully best for the team.”
Along with improving the run game, Maye acknowledged that he needs to be more accurate. In particular, Maye struggled with his short accuracy, going 7-of-13 on throws under 10 air yards. For comparison, Maye’s completion percentage on short throws vs. the Raiders was 53.8%, while the league-average completion rate on short throws was 76.1% in Week 1. Maye was far more accurate on underneath throws during his rookie season, so this could be about him adapting to a new system, with his offensive coordinator preaching patience with a second-year quarterback.
“We have to understand it’s his first game in our system. We all learned a lot from each experience we’ve had. Every practice, Washington [joint practice], Minnesota [joint practice], preseason games the little we were able to work together, and then the first full game,” McDaniels said on Thursday. “The biggest thing for me is he’s a young quarterback. He’s learning through all these experiences, and he’s the right guy.”
When asked if there were any common threads to his missed underneath passes, Maye noted he “rushed” some throws with the offense continuing to work on timing in the passing game.
“I think just some of them, I was rushing them. I see them and kind of rush it to try to get it out to him as quick as I can. The one to Pop [DeMario Douglas], he was getting close to the sideline with a trap corner there, so I tried to get it out as quickly as I could to him to get the first,” Maye said. “I feel like I made some pretty good throws throughout the game that I felt good about accuracy-wise. I’m not going to over-harp on too much, but at the same time, you’ve got to hit guys when they’re open.”
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