One thing that’s been interesting to follow has been Dan Orlovsky’s breakdown of the spacing in New England’s offense, with Orlovsky pointing out an interesting fact as it pertains to some of the issues that have made things challenging for Mac Jones in recent weeks.
Orlovsky pointed out that when the quarterback gets to the back of his drop, oftentimes, players haven’t even turned their heads yet, forcing Jones to hold the ball slightly longer than he wants and given the issues on the offensive line, it’s at times caused some problems.
The next argument has obviously centered around the success Bailey Zappe had during his outings, with many believing that things weren’t all that different. Zappe has been terrific during his time filling in, with Matt Patricia calling things a little differently while focusing in on Zappe’s strengths based on how things shaped up on film.
Below are snapshots of each quarterback in their respective last performances, with snapshots from both when they reached the end of their respective drops on non-run plays. The player circled is the player each quarterback ultimately targeted on the play, which essentially gives a little more context to what each one has had to deal with and how things looked when they reached the end of their dropback prior to when they threw the football.
Given that this has become such a hot-button topic, I’m also going to leave out any additional commentary for the sake of allowing people to simply get an overall view of the offense as a whole for both players.
These are in chronological order in terms of how they came up in the game, so they’re not direct comparisons of each play. Just an overall picture from the two games of each quarterback to hopefully at least shine some light on things, especially the spacing issues that do stand out a little more after looking at things. Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal and Evan Lazar of Patriots.com have done a good job of getting into the X’s and O’s in recent weeks, so I would recommend checking both of those guys out for a deeper look.
For the sake of copyright, these are only screenshots from the All-22, not video or animated images and you can click on each image to view the larger version. Still, this should at least provide some context to this discussion as we head into the end of the club’s bye week.
| MAC JONES vs INDY (Left) | BAILEY ZAPPE vs DET (Right) |
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| Incomplete: Rhamondre Stevenson | Complete, Hunter Henry |
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| Incomplete: Kendrick Bourne | Complete, Rhamondre Stevenson. |
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| Protection breaks down, Mac Steps Up, Sack. | Incomplete, Hunter Henry |
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| Complete – J.J. Taylor. | Complete, Jakobi Meyers |
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| Pocket Collapses, sack. | Complete, Jakobi Meyers |
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| Complete, Kendrick Bourne. | Complete, Jakobi Meyers |
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| Complete, Jonnu Smith. | Flushed to his right, runs for a short gain and then out of bounds |
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| Complete, Jakobi Meyers. | Defenders break through, sacked |
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| Incomplete, Rhamondre Stevenson. | Incomplete, Nelson Agholor (off his hands – INT) |
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| Complete, Hunter Henry. | Flushed to his right, complete Jakobi Meyers – comes back across as Zappe scrambles |
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| Complete, Hunter Henry. | Complete, Hunter Henry. |
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| Incomplete, Rhamondre Stevenson. | Incomplete, DeVante Parker (Flag on the Play) |
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| Complete, Rhamondre Stevenson (TD). | Fakes to the right, completes Screen to Rhamondre Stevenson |
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| Complete, Rhamondre Stevenson. | Flushed to his right, complete to Rhamondre Stevenson. |
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| Incomplete, Tyquan Thornton. | Incomplete, Jakobi Meyers |
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| Jones flushed left, slides and takes the sack. | Incomplete, DeVante Parker (Flag on the Play) |
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| Complete, Jakobi Meyers. | Complete, Hunter Henry |
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| Jones Flushed right, incomplete Kendrick Bourne (came back toward Jones at the sideline). | Complete, Rhamondre Stevenson |
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| Jones Flushed left, complete, Jonnu Smith. | Complete, Kendrick Bourne |
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| Complete, Jakobi Meyers. | Complete, Tyquan Thornton (Faked a block and came back for the reception) |
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| Complete, Jakobi Meyers. | Complete, Tyquan Thornton. |
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| Incomplete, Tyquan Thornton. | Complete, Hunter Henry |
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| Incomplete, Rhamondre Stevenson. | Complete, Jakobi Meyers. |
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| Defender breaks through, thrown away. | Complete, Hunter Henry (TD). |
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| Incomplete, Jakobi Meyers. | Incomplete, Tyquan Thornton |
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| Complete, Hunter Henry. | Complete, Jakobi Meyers |
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| Complete, Rhamondre Stevenson. | |
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| Complete, Jakobi Meyers. | |
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| Jones ran, stopped short of the goal line. | |
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| Complete, Hunter Henry. | |
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| Complete, Kendrick Bourne. | |
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| Complete, Jonnu Smith. | |
Feel free to leave your thoughts on what you see on these plays, and whether or not you found this interesting.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
