Cowboys Take Advantage Of Patriots’ Limited Vertical Passing

The New England Patriots struggled to get anything going offensively in a blowout 38-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

The Cowboys forced three Patriots turnovers and returned two of them for touchdowns. Before being pulled for Bailey Zappe, Mac Jones went just 12-for-21 passing with 150 yards and two interceptions.

While the Patriots made in-game mistakes, the Cowboys and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn organized a quality game plan to challenge New England with their weakness in vertical pass success.

Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland told reporters that the team focused on shutting down the short passing game since film showed that the Patriots had not been built on making big plays downfield, per Mike Giardi of the Boston Sports Journal.

Deep passing has been an area of needed improvement for Jones and the offense, who have scored just 55 points through the first four weeks of the season.

As the Patriots fall to 1-3 for the third consecutive season, the New England offense needs to take a step forward and challenge opposing defenses to respect their downfield passing abilities.