Tight end Rob Gronkowski hasn't scored a touchdown since the team's season opener on Sept. 9.
FOXBORO – It was another game in the life of Rob Gronkowski in the fall of 2018.
Once again, the Patriots tight end didn’t set foot in the end zone with the football in his hands.
On this night, Monday’s 25-6 win over Buffalo at New Era Field, Gronkowski’s problem was a microcosm of his team’s.
The Patriots were 1-for-3 in red-zone efficiency, twice settling for field goals by Stephen Gostkowski, who kicked four in the game, including two from 25 yards that were the result of drives that reached the Bills 4 and 7-yard lines.
“We didn’t play as cleanly or as well as we would’ve liked, especially once we got into the fringe or the red area last night,” Patriots offensive coordinator-quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels said Tuesday.
That fact wasn’t lost on the team’s five-time Pro Bowl tight end.
“We’ve got to put some touchdowns up,” Gronkowski told reporters in Orchard Park, N.Y., after the game. “We can’t just come away with field goals all day. It just comes down to execution, getting open, getting more open so Tom (Brady) has more room to throw the ball, but just got to execute better down there, for sure.”
Although there was one for the highlight reel, Gronkowski had an unusually quiet night in his latest homecoming, coming away with just three receptions in eight targets for 43 yards while looking very much like a guy playing injured (he’s suffering from ankle and back ailments). And the game continued a drought for Gronkowski, who hasn’t scored a touchdown since he combined with Brady for a 21-yard TD, the Patriots’ first score of the year, in their 27-20 season-opening victory over Houston at Gillette Stadium on Sept. 9.
Since then, Gronkowski has gone oh-for-six in the touchdown department in the games he’s played, missing one, the Patriots’ 38-31 win over Chicago at Soldier Field on Oct. 21 after his latest back ailment flared up on Friday of that week and was added to his preexisting ankle injury on the team’s injury report.
A pass-catching monster in the red zone in the past, according to Pro Football Reference Gronkowski has been targeted only twice in that area of the field this year and has yet to make a reception.
Halfway through the Patriots’ season, Gronkowski has appeared in seven games, catching 29 passes for 448 yards and just the one touchdown, which would project to 58 receptions for 896 yards and two TDs for the season. By comparison, Gronkowski appeared in 14 games last year, catching 69 passes for 1,084 yards and eight touchdowns.
As for the Patriots’ red-zone woes on the whole, wide receiver Julian Edelman acknowledged them as well but also pointed out a positive on the offensive side of the ball that contributed to the team’s fifth straight win for a 6-2 record that gives them a two-game lead over Miami (with the Pats also holding the head-to-head tiebreaker advantage over the Dolphins) in the AFC East.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t do that well in the red area. Actually, we were terrible,” said Edelman, who had nine catches for 104 yards in the game. “But we took care of the ball, we didn’t turn it over (for the first time in a game all year), which was good against a defense that gets the ball out. Buffalo’s been good at that this year, so to do that, that was a plus.”