We can draw up any stats we want but Tom Brady’s strength is not throwing the ball deep and that’s okay. The Patriots have realized this over the years and built a team around him to play to his strengths – reading the defense, throwing the ball quickly to receivers who can get open quickly and pick up YAC.
There’s many folks out there who think that until Brady magically turns into Joe Flacco, launching deep balls off of play action every set of downs, that the Pats offense is doomed.
There’s no question, teams need to be able to challenge all areas of the field, and I think the Pats still hope that Dobson can help do that, but not in that Flacco/Ravens offense style.
I think back to the Packers’ Lombardi power sweep. It was their bread and butter. Everyone knew it was what they would hang their hat on, but they still couldn’t stop it.
I don’t think the Pats offense is all that different. When executed by all 11 men on offense it’s nearly impossible to stop. When there are breakdowns – in protection, in receivers not running the right route, in Brady rushing his reads – it looks like crap.
But things can change quickly in the NFL and just because execution was a mess one week doesn’t mean it will be like that all season. Get Dobson up to speed, get Gronk back closer to his old self, open some more space for Edelman and get the OL blocking better and I think everyone will be surprised how big a leap this offense will take from what we’ve seen in the first month of the season.