Josh McDaniels was counting Cam Newton’s carries as they happened in Week 1. The quarterback led the team in every rushing category with 15 rushes for 75 yards and two touchdowns. And though Newton has a long injury history, perhaps the Patriots offensive coordinator, felt comfortable exposing his quarterback to that level of contact because McDaniels knew the next week would be different.
Newton can run. It sounds like he’s willing to run. But McDaniels seems interested in mixing things up every week.
“It’s more of a function of what we feel like is best to do against the specific opponent that we were playing,” McDaniels said Monday during a video conference. “I know we did some things that we really haven’t done much of around here for a long time — or maybe ever — but I think that’s just a function of using the players that you have to the best of your ability against the opponent and scheme that you’re playing.
“I would say we’re going to be in the same boat that we always are, which is we try to adjust appropriately, change from week to week based on what we feel like gives us the best chance to have success.”
With the Patriots under Tom Brady, New England had games where they would ask their quarterback to throw without end. And they had games where they asked their running backs to carry the ball at huge volume.
“I was thinking about this the other day: We’ve been a part of games where we’ve thrown it 65 times,” McDaniels said. “That’s difficult to sustain for a long stretch of time. We’ve had games where we’ve run it an inordinate amount of times. I mean, I’ve called over 50-some runs at different times in my career here. No matter what it is you do one week, you’d better be ready to handle a totally different challenge the next week.
“And I would say there’s probably not a greater discrepancy between two different types of defenses than the two that we’re playing here to start the season. So I know we saw some new things (in Week 1). Again, it’s a function of what we felt like we could do best against Miami. Now we’re working hard to figure out what’s going to be in that bucket here for Sunday night against Seattle.”
With one week of Newton under center, the Patriots were asking their quarterback to run heavily, which is different and more dynamic than what they were doing with Brady. The cost, however, could be severe if the overuse their quarterback as a rusher.
