Coordinators team up

Focus on current jobs

PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK

It’s that time of year again. Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels are again expected to be hot commodities when teams begin to fill head coaching vacancies. But yesterday neither would entertain the topic.

“Yeah, there’s nothing really there to even discuss,” Patricia said as his team prepared to face the New York Jets in the regular-season finale. “Right now, it’s all about the Jets.”

McDaniels gave a similar answer.

“We’ll just see what happens, as always,” McDaniels said. “It’s happened in the past, and that’s something that will take care of itself once the season is over. I’m really focused and excited about our preparation for the Jets.”

Both Patricia and McDaniels have interviewed with other organizations in the past, and McDaniels held the head job with the Denver Broncos from 2009-10. The NFL’s career development advisory panel listed Patricia and McDaniels as recommended assistants for head coaching positions, so they are sure to be in the mix for jobs again.

So far, only the New York Giants job is vacant after Ben McAdoo was fired. But there will no doubt be a handful of other openings after this coming Sunday, with “Black Monday” after the regular-season finales likely to open up several more.

There is no secret as to why both McDaniels and Patricia will be in high demand. McDaniels leads an offense that is ranked third in the league in points scored (432), and perennially has one of the most potent attacks in football. In addition to his work with Tom Brady, he groomed fellow quarterbacks Jimmy Garoppolo (San Francisco 49ers) and Jacoby Brissett (Indianapolis Colts), both of whom are starting elsewhere.

Patricia also has solid credentials, as his defense, despite a rash of key injuries, is seventh in the league in points allowed (290). A year ago, the Pats had the top group in the league with 250.

Picks pile up

The rare sight of Brady throwing an interception has not been as rare lately. Brady has thrown a pick in each of the past five games, including two in the 27-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 11. In the second quarter of Sunday’s 3716 win against Buffalo, Brady fired a pass over the middle that Bills safety Jordan Poyer swiped and returned 19 yards for a touchdown.

Although Brady still is performing at an extremely high level with 30 touchdown passes and a league-best 4,387 yards, it is at least of some concern that his recent decision-making has resulted in turnovers. But, according to McDaniels, the mistakes aren’t merely limited to Brady.

“It can go from protection breakdowns to route technique to coverage reads to ultimately the final decision, and our focus is just strictly going to be on trying to see if we can’t prepare our guys and really execute a little cleaner in all areas so that we can eliminate the opportunity for the defense to touch the ball,” McDaniels said. “It shows up as a quarterback statistic.

“I think of it more as a team statistic.”

Defense sees red

Patricia’s defenses, especially during the past two seasons, have stiffened in the red zone despite a healthy amount of yards allowed.

Case in point: The Patriots have given up the fourth-most yards in the league this year (5,609) but remain stingy in the aforementioned points stat. In Sunday’s win, the Pats did not allow a single touchdown in four Bills trips into the red zone. Buffalo’s only touchdown came on the Poyer interception.

“The biggest mindset we’ve got to have at that point (in the red zone) is just to kind of move on to the next play and make sure we focus on the situation that has come up,” Patricia said. “However the ball got there, it got there, and we’ve got to go out and perform that next play to the highest level of our ability. That’s one of the biggest keys for us is that if we can make sure that we’re dialed in on that particular play, that particular situation, you don’t let a bad play or something maybe previously that happened distract you or interrupt you from focusing on the situation that is now currently at hand. That’s when you can lead to another bad play.”