Kendrick Bourne frustrated at Patriots’ inability to move ball, give Mac Jones time

FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots are frustrated on offense. That was clear during the team’s 24-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills. It was clearer when the game was over.

The 10 points scored was clearly a step in the wrong direction after the offense scored 26 points a week prior in Minnesota. The group was also bad on third down, converting just 3-of-12 (25%) on that pivotal down.

In the Patriots locker room, Kendrick Bourne gave an honest assessment of the Patriots issues. The receiver used the word “frustrating” multiple times and said the group was too predictable on third down and the pass protection wasn’t good enough.

“Yeah, man, we need to scheme up better. We need to know what they’re doing. We need to know what they wanna do on third down. We’re kind of sporadic,” Bourne said. “They call this, and we call that, and it falls right into what they want. We need to have it where they’re falling into what we want and things like that.”

The Patriots gained just 242 total yards. Mac Jones threw for 195 yards with 48 of those coming from cornerback Marcus Jones’ 48-yard touchdown reception. The Patriots targets averaged just 8.9 yards per catch on Thursday. No one other than Marcus Jones hit the 40-yard receiving mark.

As good as the Bills defense is, Bourne noted that Buffalo was playing without two of their best players – Von Miller and Micah Hyde. He thought the Patriots offense wasn’t being aggressive enough.

“No Von Miller, we gotta take advantage of that. No Micah Hyde, things like that. We have to take advantage of those things,” Bourne said. “They’re playing a different scheme. They’re more soft in what they’re doing, so they’re more conservative. We’ve gotta take advantage and not just have 5-yard throws and moving slow. We need to be able to attack and put pressure on the defense.”

Part of the reason why Jones was throwing shorter passes was due to the pass protection. Trent Brown was sick while starting tackle Isaiah Wynn (foot) and top backup tackle Yodny Cajuste (calf) were out. The Patriots quarterback was only sacked once, but the pocket collapsed quickly on Thursday.

“We’ve got to get the ball downfield. Mac needs more time. He’s obviously running around. It’s hard to get the ball downfield when you can’t really have time to throw,” Bourne said. “No knock to the line, it’s just what we need to work on. The receivers can’t do nothing if the ball can’t get downfield, if we can’t throw it past five yards, it’s going to be a long game.

“Shout out to the Bills, they did a great job controlling the clock, keeping us off the field, keeping us cold and stagnant. It was a great game plan they had. We have to be able to get the ball downfield. We have plays, We can’t get to them. We’re calling them. They’re just not working, so we’re throwing 5-yard routes and that’s what we catch so it looks one way. Hopefully we can get Mac more time so he can make the plays.”

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