This season, the biggest knock on the New England Patriots was that their defense had been giving up too many points, but they seemed to turn the corner a few weeks ago, and haven’t given up more than 17 points in each of their last three games.
The week, the Patriots face the Los Angeles Chargers, who tend to give up a lot of points, so don’t forget to take the Patriots odds for next game.
Even though the Patriots offense hasn’t had any problem putting up points this season, they haven’t been as efficient as they are capable of because they keep leaving points on the floor when they get into the red zone, which is surprising considering they have a very big an capable target in Rob Gronkowski.
In the Super Bowl rematch against the Atlanta Falcons, the Patriots were only able to score two touchdowns in four trips to the red zone, which prevented them from blowing the game wide open.
Quarterback Tom Brady acknowledged the team’s lack of efficiency in the red zone, and said the team would love to score when they have opportunities like that, and need to do a better job.
For the season, the Patriots have made 30 trips to the red zone, which is the second most in the NFL. They’re scoring more points than the multilotto lottery results! The trips haven’t been a total loss, because they have been able to turn it into a league leading 144 points. However, the team has been settling for field goals instead of touchdowns, which is what they want to avoid doing.
The Patriots have scored touchdowns on 53.3 percent of their trips into the red zone, which is 15th in the league. With field goals included, the Patriots have scored on 90 percent of their trips to the red zone, which is 12th in the league.
For the season, Tom Brady is 23 of39 for 128 yards, 10 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, and has a quarterback rating of 104.5 in the red zone, which is ninth in the league for quarterbacks with at least 10 trips to the red zone.
Surprisingly, Brady is 3 of 9 for 12 yards when targeting Gronkowski in the red zone, 5 of 10 for 33 yards and 4 touchdowns when targeting wide receiver Chris Hogan, and connected with Brandin Cooks for this first time this season when he completed an 11 yard shovel pass on Sunday.
Part of their inefficiency in the red zone can be attributed to the absence of Julian Edelman, who suffered a season ending injury during the preseason.
Edelman, who was Brady’s favorite target, commanded a lot of attention from defenses, which would have opened up the field for players like Gronkowski and Cooks.
Without Edelman in the lineup, defenses have been focused on Gronkowski, sending double teams his way, making it difficult for Brady to connect with him.
The Patriots will need to solve their red zone woes very quickly because they host the Los Angeles Chargers, who have won three consecutive games, and have lost three of their four games by three points or less.
If Brady and the Patriots offense can’t score touchdowns in the red zone, don’t be surprised if Philip Rivers and the Chargers pull an upset.