As the season has progressed, opponents are beginning to figure out ways to pressure the New England Patriots offense.
In the last two games, the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans have blitzed their defensive backs. This has caused pressure on quarterback Mac Jones, with New England not being able to pick up the blitzes.
The Atlanta Falcons managed to generate pressure on Jones by bringing in cornerback Darren Hall and safety Eric Harris. The Tennessee Titans did something similar on Sunday, bringing in safety Kevin Byard to put pressure on Jones.
With New England preparing for a tough defense in the Buffalo Bills, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels thinks he has found a solution to stopping these free rushers, via NESN.com’s Zack Cox.
“Block ’em,” McDaniels said, laughing. “Sometimes, it’s not very complicated. When there’s a man that’s running towards the quarterback and there’s not a Patriot guy on him, I’m not very happy with that.”
McDaniels wants everybody on the offense to do their share of blocking for the quarterback.
“Everyone kind of looks at it and says, ‘Well, Mac didn’t see this’ or ‘Mac didn’t do that.’ Most of the time, it has nothing to do with Mac,” the Patriots OC said. “He sets the protection, and we’ve got to follow our rules. If our rules don’t accommodate handling the blitz, then we need an adjustment. We had one or two of those come up the other day, and he handled them fine. Then there was a couple other ones where we just didn’t react quick enough in the protection part of it to handle our responsibility. That’s an ongoing evolution with different guys.”
The Buffalo Bills come into Monday’s contest with 21 sacks on the season. Blocking may prove to be important for New England, as Jones and the rest of the offense will go up against a formidable defensive unit. The Buffalo pass rush against the New England offense of line could make for an interesting chess match heading into Monday evening.
