Lack of Patience Hurt Patriots

Mark Sanchez silenced his critics across the media and NFL world (including me) against the Patriots this past Sunday. Perhaps we should not all be so surprised when you take a look at the weapons around the second year quarterback. In my last post I spoke of how easy it should be for Sanchez to score if he got LaDainian Tomlinson, Dustin Keller, and Braylon Edwards involved in the offense, and that is exactly what he did. I still do not believe in Mark Sanchez as a truly consistent NFL leader, and there will come a time this season where this fact resurfaces to harm the Jets. For now I'll try and digest how this possibly happened to the Patriots against such a young and inconsistent quarterback. The true reason the Patriots lost this game 28-14 was due to their incredibly atrocious game plan.

The Patriots seemed to have no patience at all in the second half, as all they attempted to do was bomb deep passes unsucessfully to Randy Moss. What made Tom Brady a three time super bowl champion was a simple philosophy, one that he and the Patriots forgot against the Jets. "My favorite reciever is the open man" was always Brady's M.O. and now it seems that he cannot help forcing the ball to Moss. New England began the second half with a 14-10 lead, stopped the Jets opening drive, and got the ball back. At this point the Patriots needed so stay with what had gotten them to this very point, keep moving the chains. Work the underneath routes with the tight ends, Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, and churn out first downs. It is important to stretch out the defense with deep passes down field, but only after you have worked the underneath routes and running game. Moss did have an impressive touchdown reception, but it was followed by a two catch, ten attempt overall performance.

 A deep threat is an important part of any passing game and the Patriots will need Moss to provide that. However, he cannot be the only main feed for your offense, and the Patriots had no excuses for a zero point second half. The game plan was terrible in the closing quarters and the execution was even worse. Thankfully the Patriots have a good week of practice ahead of them and then a chance to hone their skills against an easy opponent this weekend, in the Buffalo Bills. Patriots 31 Bills 14.

Sources Used

www.espn.com

www.si.com
www.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/basketball/nba/
www.weei.com