Josh McDaniels’ offense has consistently made it difficult for opponents to know if the Patriots will run or pass out of the backfield formation. Of 144 plays run from the setup, the Patriots have run the ball on 84 and used play-action on another 30. That means they have run the ball a fairly balanced 58 percent of the time but have run or sold the run on 79 percent of such formations. That makes it difficult for opponents to diagnose the play call. Their passing game has been even harder to identify, since they used play action on 30 of 60 dropbacks out of the backfield formation. That’s a 50-50 balance, which means opposing defenses needed to prepare equally for either possible outcome on such plays and would have had no statistical advantage in their corner.