What To Watch For in Patriots-Eagles: Bill O'Brien will be put to the test early

BOSTON -- You may have heard it reported on the news once or twice over the past several months, but the Patriots have hired a new offensive coordinator.

Well, technically it's an old offensive coordinator, but regardless: Bill O'Brien is back in New England, facing the task of fixing a Matt Patricia/Joe Judge-coached offense that was an utter catastrophe last season.

On the one hand, it's an easy job. Even if O'Brien spent his entire workday spinning in an office chair and trying to stick pencils into the drop ceiling, he'd likely still be able to improve upon last year's offense. It was that bad.

On the other hand, football is a grueling business, and nobody really sticks around in the game if they're not wholly obsessed with maximizing every potential gain every single day. In O'Brien's case, that means he won't be satisfied if the Patriots' offense only gets a little better. He wants -- and needs -- this thing to be a lot better.

And if O'Brien had been handed a full deck to start the year, there wouldn't be much doubt about his ability to do it. The issue is ... the Patriots aren't exactly starting the year at 100 percent. And that leads us to the first item in What To Watch For in Sunday's season opener between the Patriots and Eagles.

How Bill O'Brien Addresses A Known Issue

When Mike Onwenu and Cole Strange appeared on the practice field after the preseason ended, some deep breaths were let out around New England. It might have been a premature celebration.

When the first injury report of the year was released on Wednesday, both Strange (knee) and Onwenu (ankle) were on it, listed as limited participants. Complicating matters was the presence of Trent Brown on that injury report, likewise listed as limited, though he was dealing with an illness. (Brown was back to being a full participant on Thursday.)

Ideally, a football team will enter Week 1 at its healthiest point of the year. Having three of five offensive line starters listed on the first injury report is a bit of an issue.

But -- but! -- it's not exactly new. The offensive line has been banged up from the start of training camp. Calvin Anderson missed the whole summer due to an illness and just got back to practicing last week. Onwenu had a lengthy recovery from ankle surgery, a recovery process that remains ongoing. Strange got hurt on the first day of full pads. Brown has been in and out. Riley Reiff didn't look too good at right tackle before moving to right guard ... and getting hurt in the final preseason game. Outside of David Andrews, it's been a bit of a revolving door on the O-line.

So the question is ... how does O'Brien handle this? He's certainly had plenty of time to ponder that question.

The coach knows his situation, so he's not going to enter Week 1 looking to run the offense that he'd be running if his five starting O-linemen were at full health. Working with whatever group is out there (and that group may well include rookies Atonio Mafi and Sidy Sow, as well as the uber-inexperienced Tyrone Wheatley Jr. and Vederian Lowe), and going against a famously ferocious pass rush, O'Brien is going to have to adapt.

This is less about the specific players on the O-line and more about scheme. Can some creative run designs move the ball? Can the quick-passing game move the chains? Will misdirection/trickery help out as needed? That's where we'll see just how good O'Brien can be for this offense.

Jalen Hurts 

Bill Belichick doesn't care much for individual, regular-season awards. Or at least, we can assume that to be the case. Yet the coach gushed about Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, noting that the quarterback finished second in MVP voting last year.

Whatever Belichick's goal might have been in publicly pointing out Hurts' MVP voting tally, the point is that slowing down the fourth-year quarterback in some way will be necessary if the Patriots want to compete in this game.

Last year, when Hurts threw for more than 330 yards, the Eagles won by an average of 19 points. When he posted a passer rating better than 100, they won by an average of 16 points. 

Really, though, the Eagles did a lot of winning when Hurts played. He was 14-1 as a starter, and the lone loss came in a game where Hurts played fairly well: 17-for-26 for 175 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, along with six rushes for 28 yards and a touchdown. The Eagles had four turnovers that day.

The challenge, then, for the Belichicks Bill, Steve and Brian along with Jerod Mayo, Mike Pellegrino and DeMarcus Covington is concocting some way to prevent Hurts from killing them -- either through the air or on the ground.

It won't be easy, but if the Patriots can attack some tendencies and potentially capitalize on the loss of Shane Steichen from Philly's coaching staff, it could be done. If it doesn't ... this one won't be close. The Patriots likely aren't equipped to stay afloat in a 60-minute shootout.

Rookie Nerves

An NFL debut is a big deal, in case you didn't know. And there will be a lot of Patriots making their debuts on Sunday.

Christian Gonzalez will start at cornerback. Keion White and Marte Mapu will get a nice chunk of snaps on defense. The aforementioned Atonio Mafi and/or Sidy Sow could be called upon on the O-line. Either Demario Douglas or Kayshon Boutte (or maybe even both) will get some touches on offense. And on special teams, Chad Ryland will be making kicks, and Bryce Baringer will be handling punting (and holding) duties.

That's a lot of rookies, with Gonzalez and Ryland sitting in particularly bright spotlights on islands of their own. Avoiding rookie mistakes will be necessary for the Patriots in this one.

Turnovers

When the 2022 Eagles won the turnover battle, they went 12-0. That's good. Real good.

Including the playoffs, the Eagles played 20 games last year. When they won the turnover battle, they went 14-0. That's a decent record. Very solid.

When they lost the turnover battle, they went 3-3. Not quite as impressive. And when they were even in turnovers with their opponent, they were 1-1.

Applying some simple logic to that scenario, the Eagles were legitimately unbeatable when they forced more turnovers than they committed. When they coughed up the football more than the opponent or even an equal number of times as the opponent, they were a .500 team.

Some of that is circumstantial, sure, and a lot of pressure will be on Mac Jones, Rhamondre Stevenson, Ezekiel Elliott and the Patriots' pass-catchers to hold on to the ball. But this Patriots defense did rank second in the NFL with 19 interceptions last year, just one fewer than league leaders Pittsburgh and San Francisco. And this Patriots defense did rank tied for fourth in fumble recoveries last year, combining for 30 total takeaways -- second-most in the NFL.

If Jonathan Jones (three forced fumbles last year) or Kyle Dugger could wreak some havoc in the secondary, or if Matthew Judon or Deatrich Wise (each with two forced fumbles last year) can record a strip-sack or two, the whole shape of the game could be changed, and the mighty Eagles -- who are no doubt a force -- could be neutralized to a degree that could open the door for the Patriots to pull off the upset.

That's a lot of ifs and maybes, but for the Patriots to beat a team that's much more talented on paper, some of those possibilities will have to become a reality.