5 THINGS THE PATRIOTS WILL NEED TO DO BETTER THAN THEY DID LAST WEEK

This weekend the Patriots play their second game of the season on the road.  If they plan on returning home 1-1 they will need to do several things better than they did last Sunday. 

1.  Give the Defense a Rest-Last week the Patriots defense spent almost the entire second half on the field.  If you watched the game or looked at the drives you will see that they did a pretty decent job defensively.  Unfortunately, they got little time to relax on the sideline because the offense couldn't stay on the field.  This in turn made it a lot harder for the defense to continuously stop Knowshon Moreno.

2.  Do the Little Things- In the past I've often thought that Brady overdid the acting on plays.  No, I'm not talking about exaggerating when he gets hit.  In my opinion Brady has always gone overboard with pretending he still has the ball when the opposing team knows he has handed it off.  While this is sometimes amusing, it definitely makes him and his offense more successful.  Last week Brady was doing the little things during the first half and the offense looked pretty good as usual.  Come the second half it was completely a different story. While the offensive line may have had some trouble, it was exacerbated by players like Beady and Ridley going through the motions halfass.

3.  Flawless Special Teams- Having punts blocked and offsides on kickoffs is just unacceptable. They also need to do a better job tackling if the Vikings attempt to make a return.

4.  Better Play Calling- Although the run was working we went away from it long before we needed to. We also had one series where it looked like we had no plan and were almost caught off guard when the defense got us the ball back. If they don't already, the Patriots should have a set series of plays to go to when there is a turnover. Assuming Gronk is still used in a limited role, he can't be targeted every time he's on the field. Last Sunday he played 38 of 86 offensive snaps. Of those plays he was targeted 11 times for 4 completions.

5.  Avoid the Untimely Penalty- While penalties are never good, they hurt a lot worse when they are 15 yarders that give the opponent a first down. Defensively they need to do a better job of taking down the quarterback without drawing a flag.

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