Growing Versatility of Patriots Offense Making Them NFL's Most Dangerous Unit

For the first month of the season, the New England Patriots offense seemed to be in complete disarray. A lack of playmakers, coupled with the decline of quarterback Tom Brady, were seen as the death knell for the Patriots dynasty.

For two months since then, the Patriots have shown that they boast an array of threats on offense that makes theirs one of the most versatile, dangerous offenses in the NFL.

In the past seven games, the Patriots have featured six different players to lead the team in yards from scrimmage. That's a far cry from the two-man show featuring tight end Rob Gronkowski and slot receiver Julian Edelman to start the season.

Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com

The Patriots' statistical balance is impressive from an outsider's perspective, but of course, the Patriots are only focused on one thing.

'I think the most important thing for this team, players and coaches, is winning,' said head coach Bill Belichick. 'We all have a job to do. That job and that role changes sometimes from week to week. It always changes from week to week, but sometimes it changes more than others. Our commitment is to winning, it's not to a bunch of stats and stuff like that, which I know is important to a lot of other people, but that's not really very high on my list [and] I don't think it's really high on the team's list.'

It sounds like standard coach speak from Belichick, and it may be, but there's truth and meaning in his words anyway.

For years, the Patriots offense has been predicated not on its ability to beat opponents by consistently executing the same game plan; instead, the Patriots focus on attacking and exploiting their opponent's biggest weaknesses and neutralize their biggest strengths.

That's why they spread the field horizontally with a quick rhythm pass attack against the league's best defensive lines, like they did against the Detroit Lions. It's why they run the ball down the throat of defenses that are weaker up front, like they did against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Patriots passing game has been noteworthy, though, if only for how they have responded to the harsh criticism at the start of the season.

Source: ProFootballFocus.com

So much of the Patriots' success in past years has been based on their ability to do damage over the middle in the passing game. That success has been centered around Gronkowski, Edelman, and formerly around guys like Wes Welker and Aaron Hernandez.

These days, though, the Patriots are finding ways to spread the ball around a bit more. Brady has completed 168 passes between the numbers and 104 passes outside the numbers. That's roughly a 60-40 split-exactly 61.8-38.2, for you perfectionists out there.

One of the main factors in the ability to spread the ball outside the numbers has been wide receiver Brandon LaFell, who may earn a new nickname in due time.

Brandon LaFell is The Drive Starter. Brady loves going to him to kick things off.

- Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) October 26, 2014

It seems LaFell has become a favorite of Brady's when it is time to start a drive and give the Patriots a positive play to get the ball moving downfield. One of the ways the Patriots have been able to get LaFell involved has been on play action passes with LaFell running an in-breaking route on the backside. Bleacher Report analyst and former NFL safety Matt Bowen detailed this quite nicely in a recent post, and we saw another example of it against the Detroit Lions.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

The Patriots came out in the 12 personnel package (one running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers) with LaFell flanked out to the left. The Lions responded with their base 4-3 defense and a single high safety.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Baca Juga

Notice the huge void on the backside of the play. The defense came up to defend the run, leaving a wide open space for LaFell to run his route.

Also notice that Brady began throwing the pass before LaFell even entered his break. Brady loves doing this because it puts the defender at a distinct disadvantage, as they cannot jump the route if they do not know wht the route is yet. By the time LaFell was on his way over the middle, the pass was already on its way to his hands.

Fifteen yards later, the Patriots had their first first down of the drive and eight plays later, they had their first touchdown of the game.

That play highlights another facet of the Patriots offense that has become increasingly important this season: the play-action passing game.

According to stats website Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Brady has attempted 28.3 percent of his passes following a play-action fake, which is the fifth-highest percentage in the NFL to date. He has completed five percent more of his passes off play-action than on standard dropbacks, and has earned 2.5 more yards per pass attempt.

Of course, in order for the play-action passing game to be effective, the running game must be established. The Patriots have done an increasingly good job of getting the ground attack going so that they can catch defenses off-guard with the run fake.

Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com

As long as the running game continues to roll over its competition, the Patriots offense will be tough to stop. That being said, it's truly remarkable that the Patriots can run the ball for more than 200 yards one week and the running game can become an afterthought the next week. It's all thanks to an offensive line that is firing off the ball and firing on all cylinders.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

On 1st-and-10 with 6:58 remaining in the third quarter against the Lions, the Patriots ran the ball off left tackle. LeGarrette Blount, who re-joined the team just three days prior to this game, has not seen many holes as big as the one he had off the left side. An off-tackle run is defined by the back taking the ball behind the block of the tackle, depending on which direction the tackle blocks his man.

Left tackle Nate Solder blocked the defensive end to the inside, as did tight end Michael Hoomanawanui, leaving the left side wide open. Blount ran five yards before he was contacted by a Lions defender, but he ran another 18 yards after the contact thanks to the head of steam he was able to build before hitting the hole.

The running game is much more effective than it was early in the season, and over the past seven games, they averaged 0.39 yards per carry more than they were in the first four games of the season. Brady is also playing much better than he was at the start of the season, but much of that credit can also go to the improved play up front; Brady has been pressured on 28.7 percent of his dropbacks, the seventh-lowest percentage in the league out of 39 qualifying quarterbacks.

Despite all this success, the Patriots still feel they have a long way to go before they hit their peak.

'I'm sure there's always things we can get better at,' Brady said on WEEI's The Dennis & Callahan Morning Show. I thought we did a lot of good things offensively [Sunday], but I think we could have been even better. You've just got to go out there every week trying to improve and stay sharp and improve things that have shown up over the course of the season and we haven't done as well consistently.'

One area where the Patriots must improve is in the deep passing game. Things are not nearly as bad as they were at the beginning of the season in that regard; Brady started off an ice cold 1-for-16 on passes that traveled 20 yards or more through the air. At this point in the season, he is 12-for-44 on those throws, so since that dreadful start, he is 11-for-28 when throwing deep.

Other than that, everything else feels like a nitpick. The offense has a great foundation of weapons in the passing game in Gronkowski, Edelman and LaFell, but could maybe use to work one more threat into the mix.

That player could be tight end Tim Wright, who has shown flashes of the talent that made him coveted enough that the Patriots would trade their best offensive lineman for him. Those flashes burned bright on Sunday; Wright has caught 23 passes this season, with six touchdowns, two of them against the Lions. Continue to get him involved and the Patriots offense could be even more difficult to stop.

That's hard to imagine. Brady seems to think the offense must improve, but it's hard to point to areas that are lacking.

Every offense has strengths and weaknesses. The strength of the Patriots offense is that it can attack an opponents weaknesses. If the Patriots keep playing the way they've played over the past two months, that formula will be hard to stop.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained via news release and all stats obtained via Pro Football Focus (subscription required).