New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was back to his usual self following their preseason defeat to the New York Giants. 

This is set to be a very interesting year for the New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick. This will be the third season that the franchise and head coach will be without Tom Brady, but things are certainly looking up in that department with Mac Jones under centre. 

Their first year without Brady was certainly a poor one as they went 7-9, but they appear to be moving in the right direction by bouncing back and going 10-7, enough for a playoff berth. But whilst play Jones might be looking promising, there are areas around him that need addressing, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

Wide receiver for instance is an area that the Patriots have something of an alarming situation going on, as their options aren’t exactly the greatest in the league, with their leading receiver last year, that being Jakobi Meyers, only managing to pull in 866 yards in the regular season, and the rest of their options don’t exactly inspire confidence.

But at least they have people who can do the job, which is something you can’t say when it comes to the offensive coordinator, because the Patriots don’t have one. 

Too many chefs spoiling the broth

There has been some confusion when it comes to who will be calling the team’s plays, not just in the preseason, but heading into the regular season as well, with reports a few months ago claiming that Matt Patricia (offensive line coach, but who has primarily worked on the defensive side of the ball), Joe Judge (quarterbacks coach who was predominantly a special teams coach with the Patriots) and Belichick himself will be calling plays.

The Patriots played their first preseason game last night against the New York Giants, but it seems as if the urgency of actually playing games didn’t help Belichick make a decision, as both Patricia and Judge shared duties in their 23-21 defeat.

But according to Belichick, this was all part of the ‘process’ as he addressed the media after the game.

What’s he said?

In his usual, very matter-of-fact and unenthusiastic manner, Belichick refused to give anything away that might give people a hint as to what the offense is going to look like moving forward, and that people shouldn’t worry about it as much as they perhaps are right now:

Given Belichick’s track record in the NFL, he does get a little bit of wiggle room when it comes to the question of ‘does he know what he’s doing?’, but even so, this is a rather worrying place for the Patriots to be in right now heading into the season if they want to get back to the dynasty levels that they were for most of the 2000s.