Matt Patricia downplays Vance Joseph interaction, explains Patriots' screen-heavy attack vs. Cardinals
BOSTON -- The Patriots won in Arizona on Monday night, just as they had to do in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. That was the good news.
The bad news was that despite the victory, the offense still left a lot to be desired.
Mac Jones threw for 235 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. The team went 3-for-11 on third down. The offense committed five penalties and burned a timeout just two plays into the second half. Coming out of Week 14, the Patriots still rank 24th in yards, 28th in third down offense, and dead last in red zone offense -- despite scoring on two of four red zone trips on Monday night.
Though Jones was able to fire off some intermediate and deep passes in Monday's win over the Cardinals, he also threw 12 passes near or behind the line of scrimmage. The short passing game didn't generate too much success, and offensive play caller Matt Patricia was asked Tuesday morning why the team relied so much on screen passes.
"It just kind of depends on what you categorize as a screen pass. You know, are they the ones where the offensive line is getting out and there's full blocking? Is it to the backs? Is it to the tight ends? Is it to the wide receivers? You know, what's the situation that those plays are coming up? We have some good guys that can do good things when they get the ball in their hands, certainly, out in space," Patricia answered. "So if we have that opportunity, we're going to try to take advantage of it. And I think you saw that last week with Marcus [Jones]. ... A lot of that stuff is just in-game, whether it's adjustments or looks or different calls that we actually have called at that point. But yeah, just trying to take advantage of what we can get."
Patricia acknowledged that the pre-snap penalties are making life more difficult for his offense.
"We've gotta execute better in those situations," he said. "Really, we just can't have it. It just hurts us on the drive a lot."
Patricia's rapport with his quarterback was also a focus of the Monday night broadcast, as Jones appeared to have at least one moment of frustration directed at Patricia. While Jones has clearly displayed some outbursts on the field, Patricia said that's part of the game.
"I mean, this is a super passionate game, right? We love this game. We put a lot into it, we work really hard, we care, we're trying to win. So I love all that," Patricia said. "All of it is just, you care. You know, you really care. And Mac and I are, I know he wants to win and he's doing everything he can just like we all are. And so that stuff's great. I mean, there's never -- I don't really look at it from that standpoint. I think everyone's out there just trying to do everything they can to win."
After the game, an interaction between Patricia and Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph also caught the eye of many viewers, after Joseph somewhat accidentally insulted Patricia's offense by saying it looked "like a defensive guy is calling offense." Joseph wasn't taking shots and was speaking more matter-of-factly than anything else, but such a comment obviously doesn't go unnoticed in the NFL.
On Tuesday, Patricia was asked about his postgame conversation with Joseph, and Patricia said there wasn't a whole lot to it.
"I've known Vance a long time," Patricia said. "Very competitive guy, and he's been in the league a long time. So, Vance is great. Was just coming up to make sure, you know, I knew everything was great. And, you know, it was -- I think all that kind of maybe got pushed out of perspective a little bit. So, all good. Nothing."
And with the Patriots firmly in the playoff mix for the foreseeable future, the questions from critics and broadcasters and fans alike are sure to continue. But in typical Patriots fashion, Patricia said he's pretty good at tuning out any outside noise.
"I think we do a pretty good job here kind of training ourselves to kind of -- we stay in our own little bubble for the most part and try to ignore as much of that as we can," Patricia said. "And, you know, we understand what we're trying to do. We're trying to just do everything we can to get better each week. That's our focus. Our focus has got to be inside the building, just trying to do everything we can to do a little bit better. So, we really try to you know, I don't really pay attention to too much of it if I can."
