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Alex Van Pelt calls out Patriots’ ‘horse crap’ pre-snap penalties
"That was the most disappointed I’ve been since the preseason. As I told the group, we took a step backwards."
Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt did not mince words on Wednesday when asked about his team’s execution on offense Sunday afternoon.
Little went New England’s way during the team’s 34-15 loss to the Dolphins, with the Patriots only generating 269 total yards of offense.
But for Van Pelt, the most discouraging aspect of New England’s lopsided defeat revolved around the team’s undisciplined play. New England was whistled for 13 penalties on Sunday — 10 of which were accepted by Miami for 75 total yards.
While some penalties can be called at the discretion of the officials (pass interference, for example), New England was knocked for six pre-snap penalties — an ugly indictment of the team’s own lack of poise at the line of scrimmage.
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“There’s no question it’s horse crap,” Van Pelt said on Wednesday. “One of our main objectives of the game was operations. That was a huge one, that’s pre-snap. We talked about not going backwards on first down, or second down. But we went backwards. We were digging ourselves out of a hole, especially in the first quarter.”
Those pre-snap penalties snuffed out any semblance of momentum New England generated in the first quarter. Vederian Lowe and Demontrey Jacobs were whistled for three false starts within the first 15 minutes of Sunday’s game.
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That wave of infractions led to New England posting zero points off of a 12-play, 80-yard march into the red zone.
A flag against Lowe led to a 2nd-and-16 that New England did convert on, but another hold against Jacobs pushed the Patriots to another 2nd-and-16 further down the field. That forced New England into a longer-field goal attempt — one that Joey Slye eventually missed from 45 yards out.
New England has to tighten up several areas in their offensive execution, be it poor pass protection or Drake Maye’s growing pains when it comes to turnovers.
But if the Patriots continue to make life harder on themselves with self-inflicted penalties, an offense already lacking in talent will remain stuck in neutral.
“That’s just an area of locking in,” Van Pelt said. “We work all the cadences in practice. And to be quite honest, I showed those guys yesterday, we had false starts by those guys in practice last week. I reiterated to these guys how important practice is because it carries over into the game in good ways and bad ways.
“I showed them both examples of that. So focus on practice, focus on doing it right during the week, and it generally carries over into the week. But that was the most disappointed I’ve been since the preseason. As I told the group, we took a step backwards. We had taken a couple steps forward. Now we have to find a way to get moving forward again this week.”
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