Patriots vs. Jets: How Wes Welker and New England Can Beat New York in the Air

The past three weeks or so have been out of the ordinary for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ offense as their offensive attack has been held in check. Over the course of the last three games, New England has gone 1-2, with back-to-back losses against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants while averaging an uncharacteristic 19.0 points per game.  

New England’s last convincing win that had a lot of offensive firepower was the team’s Week 5 victory over their division rivals, the New York Jets—the team that they happen to be facing this weekend on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

So what did the Patriots do so differently offensively against the Jets to score 30 points compared to their struggles over the past three games? They ran the ball—in fact, they ran the ball right down New York’s throat and gave them a taste of their own medicine.

In New England’s 30-21 victory over the Jets, the team ran for a total of 152 yards on 35 carries while averaging 4.3 yards per carry. As New England ran the ball 35 times, Brady was only needed to throw the ball 33 times as he completed 72.7 percent of his passes for 321 yards and one score.

With New England running the ball to perfection and Brady simply being himself, the team’s offense is virtually unstoppable as it opens up a key part of New England’s playbook: the play-action.

New England’s play-action worked like a charm against the Jets last month, especially on arguably the most memorable play of the game in which Wes Welker caught a 73-yard bomb set up by play-action with Brady and BenJarvus Green-Ellis.

Prior to the snap, New England comes out in a two split formation with a tight end and a wing along with Green-Ellis as the tailback. Simply by making pre-snap reads, it appears that New York is a zone defense, as safety Eric Smith is rolled over to the split, tight end and wing’s side with Darrelle Revis giving Welker a cushion. Brady and Welker read the defense to perfection.

At the snap of the ball, Brady and Green-Ellis do a phenomenal job at selling the play-action, as they had such great success at running the ball throughout the game. It’s clear that it freezes Revis and Smith, as they bite on the play-action. Meanwhile, Welker does what he does best: He gets open by finding the seam in-between the zones and kicks it into sixth gear.

Essentially by selling the play-action, it froze Revis enough to not react to Welker’s route as well as Smith was stuck in cement and unable to provide help over the top. Brady and Welker connect on the perfectly played play-action with a deep pitch-and-catch.

So what does this mean? New England needs to play a balanced offensive game; it’s crucial to get the running game established as it will pay dividends in the pass game.

Many believe that Brady is the NFL’s best play-action quarterback as he sells the handoff so well.  Offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien needs to understand that this weekend against the Jets. New England needs to get the ground game going and then attack New York’s pass defense vertically that is setup with the play-action.

If New England is going to end their two-game losing streak this Sunday night, it’s going to have to be with a balanced offensive attack. 

For more articles like this, check out PatriotsPlus.net.