The New England Patriots have a lot of work to do after losing to the Las Vegas Raiders, 20-13, in Week 1. Most of the improvements need to come from the offense, which completely vanished for the majority of the second half on Sunday.

While Drake Maye needs to be better and more consistent, it would have been a big help to the second-year quarterback if he had a run game to work with on Sunday. He had no such support against the Raiders.

New England's ground attack was supposed to be one of the stronger aspects of the team's offense. Rhamondre Stevenson was set for a bounce-back season as the team's bell cow, rookie TreVeyon Henderson was drafted to be an explosive change-of-pace back, and Antonio Gibson can catch passes out of the backfield on third downs. 

Though the offense as a whole disappeared after halftime, the New England run game never even got off the ground. The Patriots managed just 60 rushing yards on 18 carries, a measly 3.3 yards per attempt average. The team's longest rush was of 14 yards, which Henderson ripped off in the second quarter.

Henderson was the team's leading rusher with 27 yards on his five carries. Stevenson had just 15 yards on his seven carries for a 2.1 yards per carry average, and four of his runs went for two or fewer yards. (Two of them went for zero yards.) Gibson picked up three yards on his lone rush attempt to start the fourth quarter.

Maye scrambled for 11 yards on his four attempts, but it was basically a wash with the four sacks he took that cost the Patriots 11 yards. 

Where did Patriots run game go in Week 1?

With the soggy conditions in Foxboro throughout the game Sunday, a strong run game could have done wonders for the Patriots. New head coach Mike Vrabel wants a balanced offensive attack in New England, but the Patriots ran the ball only 18 times to 46 pass attempts.

The Patriots being down by two scores late in the game made the run-pass split a lot more lopsided, but the team essentially abandoned the run in the second half. To make matters worse, the screen game was not at all effective for the Patriots on Sunday. With the run game and the screen game both ineffective, there was no chance for Maye and the Patriots to run play action. 

Where did the potentially vaunted New England run offense go on Sunday? While the Patriots offensive line did a decent job in pass protection, it struggled mightily to open up roles for the team's running backs. Downfield blocking was also an issue, which let Raiders defenders get to New England's ball carries before they had a chance to shift into the next gear.

On Monday, Vrabel wouldn't pin the struggles solely on the team's running backs during his press conference at Gillette Stadium.

"I think to have a successful offensive play, it takes really everybody. It takes the play caller, getting the play in efficiently. It takes us being able to identify the players that we need to block, the ones that we're not going to be able to block ... and then the backs have to run where they're not," said Vrabel. "It's not just the players that we have that we're handing the ball to, it's everybody.

"We have a lot of confidence in the running backs, but also, we have to be able to have a great execution in any scheme, whether that's a zone scheme, gap scheme," continued Vrabel. "So again, the bottom line is we have to run the ball better and we have to run it more efficiently because then I think that all opens up some more of the stuff that we're doing, can do and want to be able to do so that it's not just a drop-back passing game."

Veteran right tackle Morgan Moses expressed the same confidence in the team's running backs as Vrabel, and said Monday the offense will benefit from more reps in practice this week.

"The game went the way it did, but we have a three-headed monster back there," he said of the team's stable of backs. "You want to get the ball to your best players and we'll do that going forward."

The Patriots will have a good opportunity to establish their ground attack in Week 2, when they pay a visit the 0-1 Dolphins. Miami was trounced, 33-8, by Indianapolis on Sunday, which saw the Colts run for 156 yards in the victory.