Jacoby Brissett barely looks wide receivers’ way in loss to Seahawks
FOXBORO – The Patriots have played two entire games of football, plus some overtime, and their wide receivers have yet to combine for 100 total receiving yards.
Patriots wide receivers Ja’Lynn Polk, K.J. Osborn, DeMario Douglas, Tyquan Thornton and Javon Baker combined for just three catches on five targets for 19 yards and a touchdown in Sunday’s 23-20 overtime loss to the Seahawks. And that was after it seemed like things couldn’t get worse for the position group when they combined for just eight catches on 13 targets for 66 yards in the Week 1 win over the Bengals.
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“I think obviously we would like more in our passing game,” quarterback Jacoby Brissett said after Sunday’s loss. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting a lot of those guys involved in the game plan and throughout the game. I take responsibility for that.”
Brissett said the Seahawks “did a good job” of playing two high safeties when he was trying to take shots downfield. He didn’t wind up attempting a single deep pass.
Tight end Hunter Henry dominated looks from Brissett in Sunday’s loss, catching eight passes on 12 targets for 109 of the QB’s 149 passing yards.
Slot receiver DeMario Douglas, who was expected to be the focal point of the passing game after a strong training camp, wasn’t even targeted. He declined to speak to reporters after the game.
“Yeah, we have to get him going,” head coach Jerod Mayo said. “We have to scheme up some things for him. He’s one of our most explosive players, and that’s on us as coaches to put it together.”
Rookie wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk caught his first career touchdown early in the game with 5:00 left in the first quarter. He was only targeted twice more after that catch and finished with two catches on three targets for 12 yards. That was after Mayo said pregame on 98.5 that Polk would play more in Week 2 and that he was excited to see what the rookie could do.
“Each team is going to try to attack us different ways,” Mayo said after Sunday’s loss. “We definitely have to start to get the ball down the field. We’ve got to start pushing the ball down the field to get that shell defense, and we’ve got to be able to run. We’ve got to be able to pass. We’ve got to be able to ping-pong between the two. It’s something that we need to work on. That’s what I would say.”
The Patriots’ wide receiver corps was expected to be better this season with the addition of Osborn, a veteran free-agent pickup, and rookies Polk and Baker. There is some hope that Kendrick Bourne could improve the unit when he returns off of PUP, but he’s not eligible to play until after Week 4.
Osborn, who caught just one pass on two targets for 7 yards, acknowledged some frustration.
“At the end of the day, you don’t want to point the finger and blame nobody,” Osborn said. “But as a receiver, of course, you want to catch the ball. But the run game was going and at the end of the day, we gotta do what we gotta do to win.”
The Patriots combined for 185 rushing yards on 36 attempts with a rushing touchdown from Rhamondre Stevenson, who carried the ball 21 times for 81 yards. Backup Antonio Gibson led the team with 96 rushing yards on 11 attempts.
Osborn didn’t believe the Seahawks were doing anything special to stop the Patriots’ wide receivers.
“I wouldn’t really say it was tougher for us to be productive because of what they were doing,” he said. “I think the run game was going. It wasn’t like they were getting a bunch of PBUs or anything like that. I think we played a really good game. It was just four or five plays that flipped the outcome of the game.”
Osborn is right that the Patriots could have won Sunday’s game even without productive performances from their wide receivers. But there were times when Brissett couldn’t put the game away when he needed to make plays with his arm. Of course, constant pressure from an offensive line that’s still unsettled didn’t help matters, as well.