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I’m going to do a deep dive into this, to illustrate what I’m referring to better. Everything is about situations.I think we're saying similar things. The Patriots stay with their strengths (as do most NFL teams) the preponderance of their play calling and then will "take shots" based on looks/tendencies they see the defense do over the course of a game. A lot of folks here call that "too conservative" because they're not throwing it 15-20 yards in a 3rd of plays.
They're not a vertical offense nor should they be, but calling for "dink and dunk" as a solution against a 8-9 man box likewise doesn't make much sense.
There's middle ground of using play action throws and middle third routes especially early in the game (first couple series as a tendency breaker or as you say in nonobvious passing downs) which could loosen that short third of the field up for both running and passing, but it's likewise riskier (Buffalo is good in the secondary even with White out) and does absolutely rely on good decision making by the QB.