The NFL’s new offensive coordinators: How did each fare in Week 1?

September 16, 2022

Buffalo Bills (OC: Ken Dorsey)

Week 1: Won 31-10; 413 yards of offense (292 passing, 121 rushing), four turnovers

“Helluva start there, Ken!” — Josh Allen, probably.

Allen looked outstanding, even with two picks, in Dorsey’s debut as the Bills’ new OC. The long-established rapport between the two is clearly paying dividends already, because Allen was locked in against the Rams and showed terrific timing with just about all of his targets — especially Stefon Diggs (that back-shoulder throw from Allen against Jalen Ramsey was ridiculous). He threw for 297 yards with a yards-per-attempt average at 9.6, and he only had to run five times.

He’s exactly where he needs to be as a passer right now, and he’s not in situations where his body has to take a pounding so early in this season.

We’re back! The first Bills All-22 review is live! Included:

-How they overwhelmingly flipped their tendencies on D vs Rams
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-The Bills’ secret standout

Plus full player grades, rankings & much more. All @TheAthletic https://t.co/eHneljrz2a

— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) September 14, 2022

Where the Bills’ offense needs to be: Right here. Keep Allen’s body as fresh as you can as long as you can and let him win games with his arm — Buffalo has the ability to put a buffer around Allen most weeks. There were some protection issues in this one, but the O-line also spent opening night dealing with Aaron Donald.

September 16, 2022

And here's the *Patriots excerpt. :becky:

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... New England Patriots (Play callers: Matt Patricia and Joe Judge)

Week 1: Lost 20-7; 271 yards of offense (193 passing, 78 rushing), three turnovers

Officially, the Patriots do not have an offensive coordinator — Patricia and Judge split play-calling duties throughout the spring and summer.

This looked reminiscent of the Lions’ offenses under Matt Patricia from 2018-20, when Patricia posted a 13-29-1 record and had Matthew Stafford as his quarterback. He doesn’t have Stafford in New England. And while the Patriots do have a better offensive line and a more consistent power-run threat than those Lions, the Patricia/Judge style of offense — with second-year quarterback Mac Jones — presents razor-thin error margins on every single snap. And it absolutely showed Sunday.

In the debut performance for what was supposed to be a revamped offense, the Patriots ran the least early-down play action of any NFL team and didn’t run a single RPO. https://t.co/n1SJ9soTiR

— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) September 13, 2022

Jones’ first interception came when he took a chance in the end zone, despite having an open underneath crosser. In this offense, he’ll need to check that ball down or this team won’t survive. The mistakes can’t be erased the way Patricia and Judge cut the game, which is to grind clock, set up the pass through the run and play off the defense. There also were pass-protection issues, making this Week 1 loss an even bigger mess.

Where the Patriots’ offense needs to be: For this experiment to work, Patricia and Judge must be more creative and coach out all the sloppiness. This team can’t have misses, it can’t take penalties and it has to be better in pass pro. ...