Patriot Nation and NFL Fans: Does Anyone Remember What a Rushing Offense Is?

Patriot fans and NFL fans of all teams. Has anyone noticed that running the football still works? Not just in a " wow we just passed on 18 of the last 20 plays and look at how many yards we can gain on our sneaky run play" sort of way. 

No I'm talking about what Rex Ryan talks about (no, not "I'm destined to win the Super Bowl") . I'm talking "ground and pound". I'm talking about actually committing to consistently and effectively running the football. 

The biggest problem with passing all the time is that it works. That may sounds ludicrous but, in the end, it's true. Running your offense via the pass all the time is like having 80 degree weather every day. It looks good, it feels good and, in general, it is good. Good until the temperature drops unexpectedly to 40 degrees and you're woefully unprepared to deal with it. 

That's what the New England Patriots offense is these days. There's another word for that, and it's "soft". Yep, it's true.

The Pats are soft.

They're soft on not just one, but both sides of the line of scrimmage. They can neither run the ball or rush the passer with any sort of reliable consistency. The five sacks recorded on Ben Roethlisberger yesterday are nice until you realize two of them came on the Steelers final drive when burning the clock far outweighed the importance of advancing the ball, and the other three came in the midst of a day in which the Steelers QB attempted 50 passes.

If you sack the Quarterback just three times in 50 pass attempts, and he completes passes on 36 of those attempts, then there's a major problem. It means that only 11 times yesterday Ben Roethlisberger dropped back to pass the football, threw a pass and had it land incomplete. In other words your defense is soft. It's soft up front, it's soft in the backfield and the linebackers? Well if they were better, or healthier, that would help, but it wouldn't solve the problem. 

The Patriots can cut as many defensive backs as they'd like. Brandon Merriweather and Leigh Botten are the most recent departures, but until the unit on the field actually starts to perform, cutting players won't help.

What's most maddening about this? If the Patriots could run the football, then they could keep their defense off the field. Instead, the Patriots, fueled by the temptation of forty point outbursts and the deep ball, insist on constantly passing the ball. This accomplishes several things. It provides glorious offensive outbursts like we saw in several games already this season. It also provides ample opportunity for turnovers that can lead to losses ( Buffalo game), as well as ample opportunity for a good and disciplined defensive football team ( Pittsburgh) to simply tee-off on the offense and smother them.

It's not just the Patriots though. It's the whole league. The entire league has gone passing crazy. Are Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady the greatest quarterbacks of all-time? Perhaps?  

Both of them are exceptionally accurate passers with innate abilities to read defenses and make adjustments. They're also playing in an era in which they get to pass the ball all the time. Quarterbacks used to feel lucky if they had just one above-average tight end to pass the ball to (Patriot fans remember Ben Coates?) Tom Brady has two guys, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, who would start on almost every NFL team. Four and five wide out sets are now fairly common on most teams. An empty backfield is barely noteworthy these days.

I don't feel old, but I do when I watch the NFL on Sunday and notice that, on the day, there's only one or two headline worthy rushing performances. Generally, this season, it's Adrian Peterson and LeShaun McCoy, Fred Jackson or Maurice Jones-Drew. Amazingly enough, there are actually a fair amount of very talented running backs in the NFL right now.

You wouldn't know it, though, because they don't get the carries and, even when they do, in many cases, it's not really via a pounding running game that exploits a defensive line focused on getting to the quarterback. It's generally in a more gimmicky fashion.

If the Patriots are looking for a reason as to why their own defense is so mediocre, they need only look to their own offense.

The Patriots made a conscious decision two seasons ago when they shipped pass rushing defensive lineman Richard Seymour out of town. The team couldn't afford to resign and retain both Seymour and Vince Wilfork, so they chose to extend Wilfork's contract. Belichick valued Wilfork's ability to neutralize the run over Seymour's pass rushing skills.

The problem is that most teams aren't running, they're passing. So Wilfork, who may just be one of the best run stopping defensive linemen in NFL history, is now known more for being the 300-pound guy with two interceptions.

Meanwhile, the Patriots continue to run the ball with very limited effectiveness, pass the ball with maddening frequency and yield results that are not bad, but not encouraging. The Patriots stand at 5-2 and are tied atop the AFC East. With that being the case, there's not too many reasons for Patriot fans to feel confident in this team's ability to make a deep playoff run or a Super Bowl run.

The Patriots are like basketball teams that rely on three point shots and fast breaks. They can put up amazing numbers, be highly entertaining and run opponents off the court or field. They're also woefully vulnerable to the element of controlling the pace of the game. In basketball, that's done by rebounding and having an experienced point guard who can slow down the game and make the opposition look rushed, disorganized and, ultimately, ineffective.

Does that sound familiar Patriot fans?

Yesterday, with the Pittsburgh Steelers missing one of their two best pass rushers in James Harrison, they were still able to get to Tom Brady with a disturbing amount of regularity. It was the LaMarr Woodley show, as the linebacker sacked Brady twice and hit him three times.

How could one guy do so much damage? Well it probably helps that he knew that Brady was going to be passing on most plays.

The Patriots had 50 offensive plays yesterday and only 12 of them were rushing plays. That's only 24 percent. For the season, the Patriots rank 18th overall in the league in rushing yards, and they run the ball 39 percent of the time. The other 61 percent are passes. The Patriots rank 24th in the league in rushing attempts, which places them ahead of only eight teams. The combined records of those teams? 22-34. That's not encouraging.

In the aftermath of the Patriot's loss yesterday, many fans are blaming Brady. Coach Belichick didn't fault the effort, but did call the execution into question.

"It just wasn't our best effort today.  I'm not questioning the effort, it wasn't very good execution.  We just couldn't get it done."

It may be increasingly difficult to execute in the opponent knows what you're going to do. Defensively, we already know what the Patriots won't do. They're not going to get consistent pressure on the defense, they're not going to be able to stay with opposing tight ends and receivers in coverage if the quarterback has tons of time, and then, they're going to get beat by the pass. They're also going to get desperate to get to the Quarterback, and that's when they're vulnerable to the run as well. 

All of this leads to just one place. Deep down, Patriot fans know that the current team isn't going to be playing football in late or even mid-January, and that's the most troubling thing of all..