Not Quite Satisfied
By Kevin Duffy
Boston Herald
The Patriots offense looks on track to yet again become one of the league’s best units.
Bolstered by the return of Julian Edelman, the addition of Josh Gordon, and the weekly improvements from Sony Michel, the Pats have posted back-to-back 38-point games.
Tom Brady believes they should have scored even more against the Colts.
“Those turnovers, whether it is an interception, fumbled snap, I think that’s been something that we have to correct,” Brady said during his weekly interview with WEEI’s Kirk & Callahan. “If you look back at the first five games we’re giving away too many scoring opportunities. That is limiting our points. I thought the other night we should have put 52 out there, at least. Maybe more. When we play a team like Kansas City, we have to take advantage of every scoring opportunity because we know they are.”
Brady was intercepted twice in the third quarter of Thursday’s win over Indianapolis. Neither play was necessarily his fault. Chris Hogan let a ball slip through his hands and into the arms of Colts defensive back Matthias Farley. It should have been an easy catch. On the next possession, Rob Gronkowski couldn’t corral a deep ball down the middle. Gronkowski was hit by Farley, and the ball popped into the air. Colts linebacker Najee Good snagged it at his own 5-yard line.
“Those are things that you just have to work on and fine-tune and execute,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said on a conference call. “That’s why the execution of the passing game has to be so precise in this league. Defenders are close by and if the ball is not caught cleanly it could get into their hands. Really it just comes down to execution.
Brady has committed seven turnovers through five games, an unusually high rate for him. Consider: During the 2016 and 2017 regular seasons, Brady committed only 13 turnovers in 28 games.
“I think we’re still figuring out what we’re good at,” Brady told Kirk & Callahan. “At this point we haven’t had everyone together for that long. Now that Josh is on the team and all of the receivers are really contributing. The tight ends are contributing. The backs, Sony (Michel) missed all of training camp. It’s just kind of figuring out where we go from here and that’s a good opportunity for us. We’re five games into the year and we have a lot of football left. I think we all believe our best football is ahead of us.”