Patriots Offense Struggling Under Coordinator Ernie Zampese

Call him “Ernie V” now. “V” stands for “vanilla”.

Oh, he’ll debate that issue with you. But what is happening on the field these days is beyond debate.

The Patriots possess one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and one of the best receiving tandems in the league. Yet the Patriots’ offense has scored only 65 points in their last four contests after scoring 61 points in their first two. Naturally, all finger pointing will be deflected towards Ernie Zampese, the offensive coordinator.

Zampese, now in his second year as Patriot OC, came to town with glittering credentials. Perhaps at the top of his resume was his work in San Diego. With Dan Fouts at the helm of “Air Coryell”, the Chargers ran silly over NFL opponents during that time period. And if the Chargers’ opposing defenses hadn’t run silly over them, the Chargers would have had some Lombardi Trophies adorning their offices.

In Drew Bledsoe, Zampese has a better quarterback than Fouts. In Terry Glenn, Shawn Jefferson and Ben Coates, they are at least equal to or a tad under the Chargers’ trio of Charlie Joiner, Wes Chandler and Kellen Winslow.

The Chargers had a better running game than the Patriots do now. But Chuck Muncie, though a good back, was no Terrell Davis or Emmitt Smith. Muncie would be an upgrade over Terry Allen and Kevin Faulk, but perhaps not over Robert Edwards.

But with the pitcher and catchers they have, the Patriots should be a weekly blitzkrieg with Zampese calling the shots. Scoring 16 points against the Giants, 19 against a weak Cleveland team, 14 against Kansas City and 16 offensive points against Miami doesn’t exactly rival Herrmann Goering’s Luftwaffe.

Why don’t they?

One major gripe concerning Zampese upon his exit from Dallas was how predictable he became in playcalling. This is an offshoot from the derisive term “vanilla offense”, except that the term “vanilla” is usually found in preseason games. When “vanilla” is used in the regular season, changes are usually in the offing. And those changes usually start at the top.

And so, Zampese is hearing the vanilla catcalls once again here in New England. Is this correct? If so, is it justified?

Two moments helped Larry Kennan, the previous Patriot OC, get fired. One was the disastrous sequence of pass calls against Green Bay on 2nd-and-goal at the one. The other was the flat pass that Bledsoe threw to Kevin Henry. Kennan was let go after the season.

In both cases, Kennan did what he did because of a situation that still exists this year, and even worse: the Patriots have absolutely no running game. Kennan did not have confidence in anyone to punch it in from the one against the Pack. Against Pittsburgh, any run would have forced the Steelers to use their final timeout, and get the ball back with 90 yards to go, no timeouts and not enough time to get into the end zone. But even that was not enough to dissuade Kennan from calling the attempted flat pass that hit Henry instead of Dave Meggett.

So, the question comes back to Zampese. Is the Patriot offense vanilla? It may be. Is it justified? Let’s find out.

Okay, you’re the defensive coordinator. You know that the Patriots have no running game. You also know that they have average to mediocre personnel on their offensive line. Suffice it to say that you’re not going to stuff all three linebackers plus a strong safety up close in the box to try and contain Allen or Faulk.

Of course not. You’ll rush four, maybe five if you send in the middle linebacker. Your outside linebackers will catch the tight end or a running back coming out of the backfield. You’ll keep all four secondary men back, tightly blanketing the two or three wideouts. This is pretty much how Miami stopped New England on Sunday.

Now, back to Ernie. You know this is coming. You also know that the defense will send in at least five men on each play, and sometimes a sixth. Your line can’t run block anyway, and their pass blocking has grown tired little by little with each passing week.

You see how creative you are with your game plan.

Play-action? Who in their right mind will bite on a Patriot run?

Draw? They still require some run-blocking.

Pump fakes? Bledsoe has barely enough time to take a three-step drop.

Deep posts? Glenn is double-covered, and Bledsoe overthrows all others who can’t run as fast as Terry.

Reverses? No one with near enough speed to block.

Get the idea?

Each week, Zampese is pretty much left with only one option: hot read. That’s pretty much all the Patriots can run. When the defense blitzes, look for the hot read. Defenses blitz the Patriots on most every play because they have no reason not to. Fortunately, Bledsoe is really good at the quick slants and quick dump-offs.

Remember when 3rd-and-2 was a running down all the time? Hah. Can’t you just hear the boos at the Fox if Zampese ever called a run on 3rd-and-2? After Allen or Faulk were stuffed for no gain, of course.

Zampese is vanilla out of necessity, not out of design. The Patriots do what they do because they have no choice.

If Edwards pulls the miracle of miracles and comes back some day, that will help. Edwards was a much more powerful runner than either Allen or Faulk, who could make something out of the nothing the offensive line creates. But counting on Edwards to play again is like waiting for the proverbial “check in the mail”.

The Patriots should hang on to Zampese. He is not their problem. Never was, never will be. Everything he does and doesn’t do stems from the fact that the Patriots can’t block for beans.

Don’t the Patriots look a wee foolish for letting Paul Boudreau go?

The fact that Damon Denson, Ed Ellis, Scott Rehberg and Jason Anderson are all dud draft picks has killed the Patriots. The first three were supposed to be the building blocks of the offensive line deep into the Pete Carroll Era. Instead, they have turned out to be blocks of Play-Doh.

Only Damien Woody has turned out to be a decent line pick, with the jury still out on Derrick Fletcher (remember him?). Of the veterans, Dave Wohlabaugh was the anchor, but wound up in Cleveland along with Rehberg. Todd Rucci consistently gets good grades, but he was left unprotected (and unclaimed) in the expansion draft. Both Bruce Armstrong and Zefross Moss are age liabilities. Max Lane is a man who plays two positions and is not real good at either. Heath Irwin shows no consistency whatsoever in his play, never mind his propensity to forget the snap count.

This is Zampese’s problem. Not his play calling.

On Draft Day 2000, the Patriots should trade for picks they can use on the offensive line. Invite John Hannah into the War Room for help. I’d even invite Brian Holloway, Dr. Bill Lenkaitis, Pete Brock, and perhaps Leon Gray if they can find him. Those guys knew how to block, and they used to wear Patriot uniforms. Let them run the draft this year. We’ve already seen what Bobby Grier’s taste in linemen are.

So, when you sit down and watch the game this Sunday against a suddenly-winning Denver team, keep this in mind before you refer to Zampese as “Ernie V”. Ernie really doesn’t have much else he can do until someone gets him some blockers.

Bledsoe hopes those blockers come sooner than next year. There’s still a lot of this year left. And a lot of Alfred Williams, Maa Tanuvasa and Tractor Traylor this Sunday. Maura Bledsoe might need lots of Ben-Gay for her hubby Sunday night.

About Bob George

Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139

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