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Volume CXXXII, Number 9 |
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Patriots still lacking Super Bowl form
ERIK SPRAGUE
COLUMNIST
The New England Patriots achieved arguably the biggest comeback in franchise history last Sunday. The Patriots trailed the Chicago Bears, 27-6, with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter, when they went on a 30-3 run to end the game to squeak out a much-needed 33-30 road victory at Memorial Stadium in Champlain, Illinois.
In the Patriots' 38-7 victory over the Buffalo Bills the prior Sunday, they finally resembled the team that had won the Super Bowl just ten months earlier. They had a balanced attack of passing and running the football; they got back to having quarterback Tom Brady throw the short screen passes that were so effective last year and using running back Antowain Smith to run the ball hard up the middle in order to punish the Bills' defense while churning out three and four yards on first down.
This balance resulted in the Patriots controlling the clock and keeping the Bills, Bledsoe, and their second-leading passing attack in the NFL off the field, as well as tiring a Bills defense that had spent a significant amount of time on the field by the end of the game.
Many in the media, especially those from New England, are using the Chicago game as further evidence that the Patriots are back to their Super Bowl form from last year. While the Patriots offense did indeed look unstoppable against a weak Bears defense (not including the play of linebacker Brian Urlacher) during the final minutes of the third quarter and throughout the fourth quarter as well, the Patriots did not look like the same team that won the Super Bowl.
First off, during last year's streak, when they ran off six straight victories to end the regular season, they very rarely got behind in a game, let alone behind by 21 points like they did on Sunday.
It is also difficult to overlook the fact that for almost three fourths of the football game, both the Patriots' offense and defense looked stagnant and got pushed around by a Bears team that looked like a tougher and hungrier squad-even though the Bears have only one win on the season and are all but out of the playoff picture.
Moreover, what is with the Patriots' play calling? Last year, one of the keys to the Patriots' success was their balance on offense. Offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss threw at opposing defenses a mixture of runs and passes, and varied the downs on which the Patriots would run and pass.
Many times opponents looked to be at the mercy of the Patriots' highly efficient, balanced, and unpredictable offensive game plan. Conversely, this year Weiss has all of sudden gotten rid of any previous disposition towards a balanced offense. The Patriots on average pass the ball more than they run it by a 2:1 ratio.
The majority opinion of the media is that the Patriots have been passing this season to such a greater extent than last season because their running attack is nonexistent. And, the media likes to place the blame for the Patriots' inefficient running game on the shoulders of Antowoin Smith, who they claim has lost a step, which is, according to them, evidenced by the fact that he failed the condition test in preseason.
However, although statistics can lie, I don't think they do in the case of Antowain, whose 4.3 yards-per-carry stacks up favorably with some of the elite running backs in the NFL. For instance, Ricky Williams averages 4.1 yards per carry, a slightly smaller margin than Antowain, and Corey Dillon gains 4.3 yards per carry, the same as Antowain. Williams and Dillon are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, in the NFL as far as rushing yards gained.
However, Antowain is tied for seventeeth with the aging Emmitt Smith. The reason is that Williams and Dillon each have received the ball about fifty times more than Antowain, which is a considerable margin considering the season is only half-way over.
Granted, there is no guarantee that Antowain would keep his same efficient yards-per-carry average if his number of carries per game increased. Moreover, as his critics quickly point out, a portion of Antwoain's yards gained have come at the end of games when the score was already decided-whether it be in a Patriots' victory or loss. That may be.
Yet this is a common occurrence for all backs, whose job it is to protect large leads, and who, when their team is trailing by a significant amount, sometimes benefit from gaining easy yards against prevent defenses.
The point is that the Patriots are a different team than last season's; they have become a passing team and, for whatever reason, have opted to only give Antowain the ball sparingly.
They have looked impressive in their last two victories, but they are not playing as well as last year, and they have yet to beat a powerhouse team like Green Bay, Denver, or Miami. Oakland on the road will be a big test this weekend. And, they might even be able to win it by solely relying on quarterback Tom Brady's arm.
But eventually, if they fail to give Antowain the ball more, the lack of a legitimate running game to compliment Brady will end up costing them against the better teams in the league. The key to getting back to the Super Bowl might not be as simple as giving the ball more to Antowain Smith, but the road to the Super Bowl definitely goes through #32.