Patriots’ Alex Van Pelt ‘Haunted’ By Early-Season Mistakes

The Patriots have plenty of people to blame for their 1-4 start, but offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt has been the poster boy for outside criticism.

It’s deserved, too.

Van Pelt hasn’t had the strongest start to his tenure in New England, specifically when it comes to his decision-making. The Patriots’ offensive system has actually been designed well, with the zone running scheme starting to make strides and play-action concepts making sense on paper, it’s just that ever-important aspect of calling plays that has been bothersome.

The Cleveland Browns only allowed him to call plays once in his four-year stint with the franchise, which made it somewhat surprising when the Patriots hired him to be the primary play-caller in an offense that needs near-perfection in that realm to be successful.

Van Pelt, to his credit, is man enough to admit he’s been anything but perfect.

“I feel like I’ve put us in some good situations, had some bad calls. The Jets game still haunts me a little bit,” Van Pelt said Thursday, per Alex Barth of 98.5 The Sports Hub.

New England has actually allowed things to get worse since the debacle in New York, with the end of each half against the Miami Dolphins last Sunday providing a couple more examples of poor decision-making. The Patriots averaged a franchise-best 7.9 yards per carry in the contest, but consistently threw the ball in those critical situations before coming away with a heartbreaking loss.

Van Pelt was asked about the end of that first half and was less willing to admit fault.

“I’m still kind of torn on that one,” Van Pelt said, per Mark Daniels of MassLive. “… We took a shot there with one of our best wideouts on the corner, he didn’t win the route.”

Jacoby Brissett throwing to an unproven rookie wide receiver was your best shot? OK.

The Patriots will have a legitimate shot at turning things around moving forward, with rookie Drake Maye being inserted into the starting lineup alongside an improving offensive line. Maye and company won’t have much of a chance unless they see some improvements out of their play-caller, though.