Tom Brady and the offense still looking for a breakout performance

FOXBORO – You could call the Patriots cautiously optimistic when it comes to the state of their offense.

We’ve seen some good and some bad from the unit over the first five weeks of the NFL season. Following a rough two-game losing streak, where the offense scored 30 total points, it looked like the Tom Brady-led group turned things around with back-to-back 38-point efforts.

The two wins, over Miami and Indianapolis, were encouraging, but still frustrating for [...]

FOXBORO – You could call the Patriots cautiously optimistic when it comes to the state of their offense.

We’ve seen some good and some bad from the unit over the first five weeks of the NFL season. Following a rough two-game losing streak, where the offense scored 30 total points, it looked like the Tom Brady-led group turned things around with back-to-back 38-point efforts.

The two wins, over Miami and Indianapolis, were encouraging, but still frustrating for Brady. He sees the potential in this group, with some help from Julian Edelman, and hopes to put together a full 60-minute game soon. With the Kansas City Chiefs coming to town this weekend, the timing is right.

“I thought the other night we should have put 52 [points] out there, at least. Maybe more,” Brady told WEEI’s Kirk & Callahan Show on Monday. “When we play a team like Kansas City, we have to take advantage of every scoring opportunity because we know they are.”

Without Edelman, Brady had a rough start to this season and it’s been seen in the stat sheet. In the first three contests, Brady threw for 644 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. His 644 passing yards through three games has only been worse three times in his career - 2014 (632), 2003 (559) and 2001 (214, where he only started two games).

Even after a solid output over the past two weeks, Brady still isn't in the NFL's top 10 for passing yards, passes completed or passer rating. He’s currently tied for third in passing touchdowns (12) and is surprisingly tied for fifth in interceptions (six).  By comparison, Brady led the NFL in passing yards last year and finished third in passing touchdowns and passer rating. He threw eight total interceptions last season.

The turnovers need to stop and Brady had some bad luck last week with two bouncing off his target’s hands directly to Dolphins players.

“There’s really no area that I would say we’ve done exactly the way we want it done,” said McDaniels. “So, in every area of our game, we have to try to continue to improve – run game, pass game, taking care of the football, third down, red zone, short-yardage, two-minute, you name it. There’s work to be done, so we’re going to try to do a good job of zeroing in on our preparation and having good practices this week while we get ready for a tremendous opponent in the Chiefs.”

There are a few reasons to be optimistic and a big one was seen last Thursday with Edelman’s return.

Over the first four games, the Patriots had some success, offensively, when playing with three receiver sets. When the team had Phillip Dorsett, Chris Hogan and Cordarrelle Patterson on the field at the same time, the offense had 15 first downs in 54 plays. By comparison, Edelman changed the game. Last Thursday, when Edelman was on the field with Dorsett and Hogan, the offense had 10 first downs in 19 plays. Add in Josh Gordon and it’s clear that Brady’s working with better players.

The Chiefs currently lead the NFL in scoring, averaging 35 points per game. Meanwhile, the Patriots are tied for ninth with 26.6 points per game. Brady & Co. are currently trending upward. If there’s a time to have a breakout performance, it’s Sunday.

“I think when you have great players, and Julian is a great player and he’s been that way for a long time, that is how you move the ball," Brady said. "He hasn’t been in there for a while and our offense has changed a little bit because he hasn’t, but it was great to have him back.

"I think we’re still figuring out what we’re good at. 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.”