Matt Patricia not taking any victory laps just yet with Patriots offense

BOSTON -- The New England Patriots are coming off a complete and thorough victory over the Detroit Lions, one which featured rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe making his first NFL start much sooner than the organization anticipated. The offense was effective (364 yards, 19 points), the defense was dominant, and the Patriots rolled to a 29-0 victory.

Such a win likely has various members of the coaching staff feeling pretty good. Yet when given the opportunity to claim some vindication or take a victory lap of sorts on Tuesday morning in a Zoom session with the media, offensive line coach/unofficial play caller Matt Patricia passed on that offer.

"You know, I pretty much just -- you know me, I try to approach every day just to do the best I can at the job that I'm asked to do," Patricia said with a smile. " So, I don't really pay attention to too much of the other stuff, other than making sure that I'm doing everything I can to help those guys prepare. And certainly, it's been fun, like I said during the summer, flipping back to offense and kind of get back into the game-planning mode now that we're into the season, which is a little bit different than maybe training camp, where we're trying to teach a bunch of fundamentals and kind of install everything as we go. So the game plan part is fun. That's been a lot of interesting things that we've had to adapt to and change and adjust to, and certainly in-game also. I'd say there's been a lot of in-game adjustments that we've had to make based on the teams that we've seen early in the season. So all of that's been great. It's been fun. You know, the guys are great. They're working really hard."

Considering he had never called offensive plays and had not been an NFL offensive coach outside of low-level assistant positions in 2004 and 2005, Patricia naturally faced quite a bit of doubt from outsiders when the signs were pointing to him being the chief play caller in the wake of Josh McDaniels leaving New England for Las Vegas. 

While Patricia wasn't much in the mood for publicly tooting his own horn, he said that he hopes he's gotten better at the job as time has gone on.

"I think that's a great question. I think it's fair. I think hopefully, I am better," Patricia said. "You know, hopefully I have improved and hopefully I'll continue to improve in those roles, just like we do as coaches, every year and certainly when we do different jobs every year from that standpoint, too. So, hopefully. That's where it's trending and hopefully it's gotten better. And you know, that's my goal, every day, to try to get better. Absolutely."

Of course, despite winning with a rookie quarterback, now is no time to celebrate. The Patriots still rank 17th in the NFL in yards and 19th in points (two of their 11 touchdowns were scored by the defense, too), while also ranking 21st in third-down conversions and tied for 28th in red-zone offense. The loss of Mac Jones after three weeks certainly factors in to some of that, but the offense with Jones under center had plenty of struggles prior to the injury.

While the results have been mixed overall, the team has averaged more than 26 points per game over the last three weeks, after scoring 17 total points in the first two games combined. The coaching staff -- billed as a "collaborative effort" -- would seemingly believe that some solid progress is being made.

"Well, I think the collaboration, again, that's the key word for it," said quarterbacks coach Joe Judge. "From the very beginning of kind of getting together as a staff, we talked very openly about everybody having input and everyone working together and being on the same page. And one thing that's important as a coaching staff is, you know, everybody has very strong beliefs and thoughts in what they think is right, and you're gonna have a lot of very passionate discussions. You're gonna have a lot of late nights going through the best way of doing things. The important thing is when you walk out of the staff meetings and you get in front of players, everyone's on the same page. And as a staff that's been very good with us working together, that we all share each other's point of view, and we listen to each other, and when it comes time to make the final decision, you know, from Coach [Bill Belichick] on down, making sure that we're on the same page. And, you know, look, if we're all operating with the same focus, we'll be OK."

While the quarterback situation remains unsettled, the positivity should be able to ride for at least another week, as the Patriots are heading to Cleveland to face the Browns, who rank 19th in yards allowed and 25th in scoring defense, while ranking near the bottom of the league in run defense. Even with Damien Harris expected to miss time, Rhamondre Stevenson should be capable of carrying the offensive load, thus making everything easier for everyone else. After that -- even though this requires forecasting quite a bit in a short time -- the Patriots will be hosting the Bears and their league-worst passing offense on Monday Night Football.

If all goes to plan, the 2-3 Patriots could soon be the 4-3 Patriots, setting up for their first meeting of the year against the suddenly viable Jets. At that point, it still won't be time for the coaching staff to preen or peacock in any public settings, but the opportunity for some moderate offensive progress to continue is certainly there for the coaching staff and the players to try to seize.