The second offensive drive of the Patriots' 2024 season took 14 plays, covered 85 yards, consumed 7:20 and ended with a touchdown.
The Patriots had one -- ONE! -- touchdown drive last season that was longer: a 17-play, 78-yard odyssey that consumed 9:30 and ended with a touchdown. And they STILL lost the game to the Raiders and backup quarterback Brian Hoyer who -- coincidentally -- spent Sunday breaking down all that went right with a Patriots offense that was supposed to be oh, so wrong.
Sunday’s stunning win over the Bengals was a triumph for the overlooked, lowly-regarded and too-easily dismissed. I’m thinking specifically of offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and quarterback Jacoby Brissett.
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Castoffs. Not has-beens but never-weres. Not just omitted from any team’s short list for as an ideal QB-OC combo, but not on a whole lot of “long lists” either.
Sunday completely validated the Patriots' decision to hire Van Pelt, Jerod Mayo’s decision to let him have free rein over the offense and the decision to start Brissett and let Drake Maye marinate.
This kind of performance was PRECISELY what Van Pelt envisioned. Dominate on the ground. Be productive on first down. Stay short and conservative in the passing game. Move the chains. Don’t give the ball to the other team. Trust Brissett’s accuracy, toughness and decision-making. Don’t ask too much of a modestly talented offensive line.
All while a talented and well-stocked defense harasses one of the best quarterbacks in the league, tackles like hungry leopards on the savannah and the special teams is efficient and opportunistic.
It was so perfectly Belichickian in every aspect that in a green room somewhere maybe a single tear trickled down his powdered cheek.
You might disagree with me thinking one game validates ANYTHING. What happens if Brissett spends the next six weeks flat on his back and it’s a weekly punt-o-rama?
To that I’d say, if it took six weeks to accomplish the vision once, how inspired was it? But if you do it the first time and PROVE what you’re capable of? Totally different story.
What they did Sunday was stupidly efficient. Aside from the aforementioned 14-and-85 drive, the Patriots had a pair of 12-play drives that ended with field goals.
Just for comparison, here’s the longest drive from every Patriots game last season and each drive's result:
So for them to go on the road against a highly-regarded Cincy team with an offensive line we’d been lampooning for weeks, starting a unit featuring Chukwuma Okarafor at left tackle (he got the hook in favor of banged up Vederian Lowe), a fella named Michael Jordan at left guard, David Andrews at center, rookie Layden Robinson at right guard and Mike Onwenu at right tackle and run the ball 39 times for 170 yards while allowing one sack?
There is something embraceably old-school about a 2024 offense saying, “We are going to run the ball. And we don’t think you can stop us.” And the Patriots have only been saying it for six months straight, right through Monday morning.
“I've told you guys the entire time. I've told the media. We've overblown the deficiencies that we have on the offensive line," Mayo told reporters.
“I don’t care if you feel like I’m giving out game plan secrets or anything like that. I’m telling you we’re going to run the ball. You’ve got to stop us.”
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There will be weeks when the Patriots can’t just fold their arms across their chest and say, “You can’t stop us.”
A lot of things went right Sunday. Hunter Henry saved the team three points when he broke up a would-be pick in the end zone. Kyle Dugger turned a touchdown into a Bengals fumble with a punch-out. Joe Cardona forced a fumble on a punt and the Patriots turned that into a field goal. That’s plus-13 in points right there.
This offensive style isn’t meant for playing from behind, the offensive line isn’t built to stand up for long stretches in pass protection and -- as enthused as you may be about the adds of Austin Hooper and K.J. Osborn -- the team is not leaps-and-bounds ahead of where it was last season at the skill positions. It’s an average collection of pass-catchers on their best day.
The Patriots need almost everything to go right to win games. On Sunday in Cincy, it did.
It may not happen again for a while. But at least you know they have it in them. And the vision they have is not a mirage.