13 hours Ago By Brian Hines
The New England Patriots are ready to head out West where Jerod Mayo’s team will look to bounce back against the Super Bowl contending San Francisco 49ers . It’ll be a big test for Mayo’s squad coming off a 24-3 trouncing on Thursday night football, where another poor offensive game will just make the noise louder for Drake Maye to see the field. So, let’s get into this week’s #PostPulpit mailbag to explore just that.
What does it take to change QBs? Injury? Consistent OLine play? Consistent bad QB play? — 1stStateSoxFan All of the above. If Jacoby Brissett does suffer an injury, it will be Drake Maye time. That was made clear this week as Jerod Mayo ruled out the possibility of adding another veteran quarterback at this point.
Improved line play should also make everyone feel better about Maye going in. But, your last point seems to be the biggest factor here. Jacoby Brissett has not had it easy behind a poor offensive line, but he’s leaving plays on the field when they’re available.
Again against New York, Brissett has Hunter Henry (right) open breaking towards the sideline on 3rd-and-4. Instead, he holds the ball and fires an incompletion while allowing extra time for Caedan Wallace to get called for a hold. The results from Brissett has left Jerod Mayo leaving breadcrumbs that he’d prefer Drake Maye to play.
From his comments this summer that the rookie has “outplayed” Brissett to just this week when he shared, “[Drake’s] looked good in practice, but once again, it’s just practice. You want to get a guy like that, obviously, on the football field.” Another bad week from the passing attack could be enough for Mayo to take charge and make a change.
They say real football doesn’t start till November...
.do you think the Pats can fix the O-Line by then, & if so, do you think Maye will be the starter as well? - KissBillsRings As for ‘fixing’ the offensive line, there’s no savior coming. They are doing their best to bring in tackles on the practice squad, but the personnel is what it is at this point.
The belief here remains that their best bet is getting everybody healthy and running: LT Vederian Lowe — LG Sidy Sow/Layden Robinson — C David Andrews — RG Mike Onwenu — RT Caedan Wallace. There is a clear correlation between the success of a young QB and their Offensive Coordinator. Jayden Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury for ex.
I feel Kraft hired AVP because Cleveland is still paying him. Is Van Pelt a big part of the problem with the Pats offense and Drake Maye’s future here? - BobbyBodacious Van Pelt does deserves a portion of the blame pie for the offenses early season struggles. But, he has done some intriguing things in terms of play designing that leave optimism moving forward — specifically if he can grow as a play caller.
I still do believe he’ll be a good (but maybe not the best) fit with Drake Maye, especially as he’s made it clear he’ll morph his offense to fit the QB. “We adapt everything to the skill set of our players. If a guy’s a run-and-shoot quarterback, he’ll play in a run-and-shoot system for us.
We can build it around him,” Van Pelt said Thursday. “The quarterback is always the one we think about first when we game plan and that’ll always evolve to be around what’s best suited for that quarterback that’s playing.” That’s been true for Maye going back to training camp, preseason, and even in his debut against New York, as the rookie has been in the shotgun much more than Brissett and operating those concepts.
At what point do we move on from Thorton (trade?). He’s fast ..
and supposed to be able to stretch the field .. but has yet to make any significant impact on the long game.
He’s too frail to be affective over the middle and gets man-handled in the short game. He’s too light to block. So where’s the added value here? I’m not seeing it regardless of how well he supposedly performed in pre-season.
And with that ...
How would you feel about a WR like Landers (on our practice squad) replacing him.? A WR with size that could be pretty useful when the Pats get to the Red Zone ..
and a BIG target for the endzone. Thoughts??? - Green Monstah I’m not sure there would be much of a trade market for Thornton, but do think his playing time could be set to decline with the return of Kendrick Bourne. While he may not be a prototypical X receiver in terms of body type, Bourne’s skillset would work at that spot within this offense.
We’ll see how Bourne looks from an explosive level, but he should be an upgrade on the outside over Thornton and K.J. Osborn.
As for the receivers with size, I would not expect much from Landers or recent signing John Jiles. But, those additions — who are both 6-foot-3+ — might signal towards what type of receiver Eliot Wolf hopes to add next offseason. I’m going to the game on Sunday! Hoping they can keep it competitive.
Haven’t we seen enough of the Niners to definitely say they are on a super bowl hangover? What are the chances we pull off a major upset? - sanfranpatsfan I know San Francisco is just as beat up as the Patriots, but going across country against a 1-2 Niners squad needing to get back on track does not leave much reason for optimism. But, let’s end with the potential path to doing so. On offense, it’ll start by getting back to the ground game.
New England went play-action heavy to open Thursday’s game against New York, which Van Pelt admitted may have been a mistake in hindsight. The Patriots should rely on the run game for as long as the game script allows on Sunday. Van Pelt should take a page out of his own book when he played the Niners last season in Cleveland, and from Sean McVay last week, and get downhill in the run game.
That should include plenty of duo of work, something that fits New England’s offensive line the best. In the passing attack, the Niners have played more man coverage this season then season’s pasts. That likely won't change as the Jets had plenty of success blitzing New England and forcing their receivers to win against man coverage in the secondary.
Going back to McVay, Matt Stafford and the Rams had success against the man looks last weekend in their come from behind victory against the Niners. That included speedster Tutu Atwell recording 93 yards as he was a factor over the middle of the field. Hello, Pop Douglas.
On the other side of the ball, it always starts with slowing down Kyle Shanahan’s wide-zone, stretch run game. That proved difficult for New England last week without Ja’Whaun Bentley. Beyond improved tackling as a whole, the Patriots will need strong edges from Anfernee Jennings and Co.
in the run game and could also borrow the game plan from Super Bowl 53 and play with extra bodies up front to support the outside runs. In San Francisco’s passing attack, they've used less play-action than recent year’s as Brock Purdy has operated in more of a drop back passing attack. Purdy had issues two weeks ago against Brian Flores’ red-hot Minnesota defense, who used plenty of disguises to confuse the quarterback.
The script is there for New England, but we’d bet on San Francisco’s talent being too much. Enjoy the game! That’s all for this week’s #PostPulpit mailbag. If you have questions you’d liked to be answered next week, submit them online in our weekly submission post or on Twitter using #PostPulpit.
Make sure to be following @iambrianhines and @PatsPulpit as well..
