The New England Patriots offense was exposed by the Philadelphia Eagles during Tuesday's joint practice in Foxboro.
As our Phil Perry broke down in his latest Training Camp Stock Watch, the Patriots offensive line had no answer for Philly's vaunted front seven. The unit has been a glaring weakness throughout camp and failed its first test against a tough opponent. The unit had more sacks allowed (15) than passes completed (14) with Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye behind center and averaged one penalty for every 10 offensive reps.
Boston Sports Journal's Greg Bedard labeled the offense's performance "an absolute trainwreck," stating it made him "question everything" about the group heading into the campaign. That's a worrisome development with the regular-season opener in Cincinnati less than a month away.
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Perry and fellow NBC Sports Boston Patriots insider Tom E. Curran were in attendance for the practice. They shared their takeaways on Tuesday's Early Edition.
"Honestly, it's kind of a reality check that the Patriots are gonna experience throughout the year," Curran said. "I mean, there is no going back to the drawing board. The drawing board already has plenty of information on it. Just keep doing what you're doing, but try to do it better.
"When I look at those run stuffs, when I look at those unforced errors and the penalties that actually happened though, you sometimes see penalties that are a result of a team being overmatched -- and those are penalties that happened in the course of play -- and there's other penalties that happened unforced. Are they nervous? Are they ill-prepared? Are they jumpy?
"That is maddening to me, and there were center exchanges that happened today that weren't completed. Even Joe Milton got in there for one snap, boom, ball's on the ground. So, it's the tidiness that's maddening."
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The Patriots' wide receivers impressed on Tuesday, particularly rookies Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker. Perry mentioned the receiving corps as a bright spot but noted it's a moot point as long as the pass-protection woes continue.
"I would say between the 1-on-1s and just a few snippets of what I saw from Patriots receivers today, they were not the problem," he said. "Jalen Reagor made a nice catch down the left sideline during a hurry-up period from Jacoby Brissett. Goes up, high-points the football, has some yards after catch. We saw the Ja'Lynn Polk catch earlier. Javon Baker maybe had the most impressive catch of the day for the Patriots in 7-on-7s. Stacks his defender, over-the-shoulder catch, great throw from Drake Maye, dropped it in the bucket.
"But those guys are never going to be able to get the football if the offensive line and the pass protection unit in general -- I'm not excluding the tight ends or the running backs or even the quarterbacks from that pass protection issue.
"It was a massive red flag kind of issue today. Fifteen sacks is what I counted between the Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye periods today on 40 some-odd dropbacks. It's an insane percentage."
If the joint practice was any indication, Thursday could be a long night for the Patriots' offense when they host the Eagles for their second preseason game. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.