From Mike Reiss: reasons for Patriots goal line struggles
November 25, 2025
From Mike Reiss: reasons for Patriots goal line struggles
31 comments
Not competitive at all on 3rd and 1. Need to work on that play badly. I remember Brady always shooting under the pile. Drake always goes over and gets stuffed.
I get all that, but on the goal line, you need to punch it in. No excuses.
Westover just isn’t a run blocking FB. He was getting blown up on those run plays. But the playcalling was also brutal on that series. It was clear to everyone watching that up the middle wasnt happening but they kept trying.
Brady was one of the best ever at QB sneaks, maybe he can mentor Drake.
Yep. I saw people bitching about Mondre but Westover repeatedly hit the wrong gap
Crazy thought, why don’t we line up in goal line, and have our fast as fuck RB who had 5 rushing TDs last few games just run it in off a toss?
If we didn’t have so many injuries, I thought for sure this was going to be the Tonga TD play. Ya know, the same play we used to run with Brady and Vrabel.
God willing, we’re healthy for the playoffs because I *NEED* to see that Tonga TD.
Respectfully, I find this analysis weak and unconvincing. The blocking blew on all of their run attempts.
Really good assessment from Reiss. I think Westover has been sneaky awful for this team and upgrading FB is a very doable thing in the offseason.
These situations show how much growth the team still needs to be a real title contender. It is also a relief to know it is now down to situational football and not down to lack of player or coach talent.
Lowe is now the starting LT, but can’t run block from the TE position. The end of the season is going to be a rough ride. Hope Campbell is back in peak form for the playoffs or there will be an early exit.
No-one wants to talk about stoopid play calls ha?
Does anyone think with Maye it’s a protective issue? He’s had a couple concussion scares already. I could understand him maybe being sheepish diving up the middle.
I think at some point this week I’m going to watch every available clip of Tom Brady running the QB sneak.
Rolling him out is the way to go on these I think. At least once.
Yeah that was pretty brutal watch. I actually thought the penalty to back us up would help us more (which it almost did) but then we ended up back on the 1 yd line again lol. Definitely have to score in those situations
Careful, Reiss. You tried to give some blame to Maye, that’s not allowed here. You aren’t allowed to be reasonable.
McDaniel used to be more creative when rushing it up the middle didn’t work.
He’s not wrong about some of these but I do think they need better talent offensively. That’s not something they can fix until the offseason though. Players have to execute better in the red zone.
How about not giving your best overall runner even a chance? The guy who got you to the 1 yard line. I don’t get why they won’t even try to use Hendo when Mondre is available.
I really feel like McDaniels does better when he doesn’t have a ton of options. He tries to outsmart everyone and ends up outsmarting himself.
The simple answer is diversify play calling in short yardage situations. We’ve got the QB to do it. If we start letting him throw, or roll out, or RPO in short yardage teams won’t be able to load up to stop the run to the A gap everyone knows is coming.
A lot of people continue to comment things like: Stevenson is “much more consistent” and “gets the short, tough yards we need”. Or “Henderson can’t run up the middle or grind out the tough yards.”
Not only is Henderson of course extremely explosive, but he’s been doing better than rhamondre in every situation, including the tough stuff.
Rhamondre continues to be ineffective everywhere other than pass blocking.
Henderson: 29 first downs on 118 carries
Rhamondre: 13 first downs on 89 carries
Henderson inside the 10 yard line: 12 carries; 37 yards; 3.1 ypc and 3 TDs
Rhamondre inside the 10 yard line: 14 carries; 18 yards; 1.3 ypc and 3 TDs
Grinding out first downs and inside of 10 yards where it becomes much tougher to run, it appears so far this season Henderson has been much better. So not only is he much more explosive and can take it to the house any given touch, he also appears to be doing the dirty work better too.
We need Henderson to be a massive part of our redzone and inside the 5/10 yard line packages. Whatever the play call may be for him, inside, outside, through the air…he needs to be heavily involved. Evidenced by his 3 redzone touchdowns vs the Jets.
I thought they should’ve given Pop Douglas a jet sweep or something. Make the secondary guys make the tackle. If Pop can’t make one guy miss and pick up one yard, he shouldn’t be out there.
when our glorious 2-way player Khyiris Tonga returns, our offense will be saved
I think the one thing missing from Reiss’s analysis is that our entire interior OL gets immediately collapsed on basically every short yardage situation. Like, yes, Maye is awful at QB sneaks, but it would be nice if our line could get any kind of push at all to help him out.
“..Vederian Lowe, who is god awful.”
They need to be throwing to Henderson some.
He can catch, why not put him in a Kevin Faulk type scheme for some plays? Delayed screens, wheels etc
It’s the last one. The eagles have built an entire franchise around the qb sneak. It’s frankly unacceptable to not be able to run it at the nfl level. I would have them running it every single day in practice.
I miss James Devlin
10-2 in a rebuilding season…can Boston fans be happy…or is joy against NE principles?
If we ultimately come up short in the playoffs it will be for two reasons.
1. Giving up first drive scores to opposing teams and having to start coming back.
2. Poor red zone efficiency.
Those are two of the most important things to clean up
31 comments
Not competitive at all on 3rd and 1. Need to work on that play badly. I remember Brady always shooting under the pile. Drake always goes over and gets stuffed.
I get all that, but on the goal line, you need to punch it in. No excuses.
Westover just isn’t a run blocking FB. He was getting blown up on those run plays. But the playcalling was also brutal on that series. It was clear to everyone watching that up the middle wasnt happening but they kept trying.
Brady was one of the best ever at QB sneaks, maybe he can mentor Drake.
Yep. I saw people bitching about Mondre but Westover repeatedly hit the wrong gap
Crazy thought, why don’t we line up in goal line, and have our fast as fuck RB who had 5 rushing TDs last few games just run it in off a toss?
If we didn’t have so many injuries, I thought for sure this was going to be the Tonga TD play. Ya know, the same play we used to run with Brady and Vrabel.
God willing, we’re healthy for the playoffs because I *NEED* to see that Tonga TD.
Respectfully, I find this analysis weak and unconvincing. The blocking blew on all of their run attempts.
Really good assessment from Reiss. I think Westover has been sneaky awful for this team and upgrading FB is a very doable thing in the offseason.
These situations show how much growth the team still needs to be a real title contender. It is also a relief to know it is now down to situational football and not down to lack of player or coach talent.
Lowe is now the starting LT, but can’t run block from the TE position. The end of the season is going to be a rough ride. Hope Campbell is back in peak form for the playoffs or there will be an early exit.
No-one wants to talk about stoopid play calls ha?
Does anyone think with Maye it’s a protective issue? He’s had a couple concussion scares already. I could understand him maybe being sheepish diving up the middle.
I think at some point this week I’m going to watch every available clip of Tom Brady running the QB sneak.
Rolling him out is the way to go on these I think. At least once.
Yeah that was pretty brutal watch. I actually thought the penalty to back us up would help us more (which it almost did) but then we ended up back on the 1 yd line again lol. Definitely have to score in those situations
Careful, Reiss. You tried to give some blame to Maye, that’s not allowed here. You aren’t allowed to be reasonable.
McDaniel used to be more creative when rushing it up the middle didn’t work.
He’s not wrong about some of these but I do think they need better talent offensively. That’s not something they can fix until the offseason though. Players have to execute better in the red zone.
How about not giving your best overall runner even a chance? The guy who got you to the 1 yard line. I don’t get why they won’t even try to use Hendo when Mondre is available.
I really feel like McDaniels does better when he doesn’t have a ton of options. He tries to outsmart everyone and ends up outsmarting himself.
The simple answer is diversify play calling in short yardage situations. We’ve got the QB to do it. If we start letting him throw, or roll out, or RPO in short yardage teams won’t be able to load up to stop the run to the A gap everyone knows is coming.
A lot of people continue to comment things like: Stevenson is “much more consistent” and “gets the short, tough yards we need”. Or “Henderson can’t run up the middle or grind out the tough yards.”
Not only is Henderson of course extremely explosive, but he’s been doing better than rhamondre in every situation, including the tough stuff.
Rhamondre continues to be ineffective everywhere other than pass blocking.
Henderson: 29 first downs on 118 carries
Rhamondre: 13 first downs on 89 carries
Henderson inside the 10 yard line: 12 carries; 37 yards; 3.1 ypc and 3 TDs
Rhamondre inside the 10 yard line: 14 carries; 18 yards; 1.3 ypc and 3 TDs
Grinding out first downs and inside of 10 yards where it becomes much tougher to run, it appears so far this season Henderson has been much better. So not only is he much more explosive and can take it to the house any given touch, he also appears to be doing the dirty work better too.
We need Henderson to be a massive part of our redzone and inside the 5/10 yard line packages. Whatever the play call may be for him, inside, outside, through the air…he needs to be heavily involved. Evidenced by his 3 redzone touchdowns vs the Jets.
I thought they should’ve given Pop Douglas a jet sweep or something. Make the secondary guys make the tackle. If Pop can’t make one guy miss and pick up one yard, he shouldn’t be out there.
when our glorious 2-way player Khyiris Tonga returns, our offense will be saved
I think the one thing missing from Reiss’s analysis is that our entire interior OL gets immediately collapsed on basically every short yardage situation. Like, yes, Maye is awful at QB sneaks, but it would be nice if our line could get any kind of push at all to help him out.
“..Vederian Lowe, who is god awful.”
They need to be throwing to Henderson some.
He can catch, why not put him in a Kevin Faulk type scheme for some plays? Delayed screens, wheels etc
It’s the last one. The eagles have built an entire franchise around the qb sneak. It’s frankly unacceptable to not be able to run it at the nfl level. I would have them running it every single day in practice.
I miss James Devlin
10-2 in a rebuilding season…can Boston fans be happy…or is joy against NE principles?
If we ultimately come up short in the playoffs it will be for two reasons.
1. Giving up first drive scores to opposing teams and having to start coming back.
2. Poor red zone efficiency.
Those are two of the most important things to clean up