BY NICK ST. DENIS
The New England Patriots ran the ball relatively well in a 13-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday, averaging 4.6 yards per rush.
For three and a half quarters, they were never down by more than three points. Still, circumstances dictated New England go to the air attack, as quarterback Tom Brady dropped back to pass 42 times and handed off the ball on just 18 occassions.
Ideally, Patriots offensive coordinator would prefer a much more balanced ratio.
"We had had two two-minute situations there in the second quarter and then a few situations certainly towards the end of the game where we’re in much more of a pass mode," McDaniels said Tuesday, via Patriots.com. "But our intention is never to really get out of whack in terms of run/pass ratio on any of those things, and certainly that’s something that I will always try to maintain a good balance on."
"If I ever get out of balance, I definitely want to try to bring it back to as close to 50/50 or somewhere near there as I can."
The Patriots of old would prefer to travel via air over ground, but their once-stellar pass attack has, by their standards, been subpar this year with a beat up receiving corps. New England is gaining just 6.2 yards per pass play, ranked fourth-worst in the NFL. It picked up just 4.4 yards a pass Sunday.
McDaniels, however, won't back off from taking shots downfield on first down, something that the Patriots struggled with Sunday.
"You’ve got to be aggressive. I mean, you can’t just continue to dink and dunk the ball and try to protect second down every series of the game," he said. "You have to be aggressive and make them defend the entire length of the field, and hopefully that’s something that we can do and do better as we go forward."
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