FOXBORO, Mass. — Tom Brady was in a better mood this week, even after his New England Patriots offense sputtered against the hapless Oakland Raiders.
Brady, who was unusually down after last week’s 30-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings, is happy that his team is 2-1, and he must feel that his offense has room to grow after struggling in three straight games. Brady admitted that his team hasn’t been able to get in a rhythm through three games.
“No. No, we haven’t and you know what, we’re going to work toward it and see if we can get better at it,” Brady said in his news conference Sunday after the Patriots’ 16-9 win. “Hopefully we don’t turn the ball over and we can take advantage if we get some of those. But we have to execute better on a consistent basis in order to get the ball in the end zone and score points. It’s good to be 2-1, I’ll tell you that. Starting 0-1, it’s good to be 2-1, but obviously there is a lot of room for improvement, and that’s why we’re going to come in tomorrow and work hard tomorrow to try to make it right.”
The Patriots only have so many more weeks to get it right before the real competition comes. They travel to Kansas City to play the Chiefs, who did what the Patriots couldn’t in Week 1 by beating the Miami Dolphins on the road, on Monday night. Then the Patriots play the Cincinnati Bengals in Foxboro, and they have the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts on the horizon.
The Patriots will need to improve their red-zone offense if they hope to win those games. The Patriots got into the red zone four times and scored just one touchdown on Sunday. They settled for two field goals from the 2-yard line, and in the fourth quarter, Brady saw two passes clang off his receivers’ hands when tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Danny Amendola dropped passes on consecutive plays.
“Our red area hasn’t been very good,” Brady said. “We’ve got to try to run it in. If we can’t run it in, we’re got to hit the tight throws and make the tight plays. We had plenty of opportunities today and didn’t do it, so we’ll try to get to work on it this week. It’s not one person. It’s not one thing. It’s everybody doing a better job, because it’s tough to get in. There are a lot of bodies down there. We have to make the right plays and the execution has to be at a high level in order to get the ball in there.”
In order to get in a rhythm, the Patriots might need to settle on a starting offense. Versatility and playing matchups can be valuable, but it might be helpful for Brady to know who he’s throwing to on a play-to-play basis.
