The jury is already out on Matt Patricia being a failed offensive play-caller for the New England Patriots, but you’re kidding yourself if you think he’d let the opinions of outsiders get to him.
You’d have better luck catching him without a pencil behind his ear than seeing him wilt from unwanted criticism.
But the criticism has been scathing in a year where there’s been significant offensive regression for the Patriots. Mac Jones went from the future face of the franchise under Josh McDaniels to nearly losing his job to fourth-round rookie draft pick Bailey Zappe.
Even Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph publicly noted that the team looked like a “defensive guy was calling the offense” with all of the running plays, screens and short passes. Basically, there’s nothing there that really scares a defense.
For Patricia, however, all of the criticisms and even calls for him to be ousted as the offensive play-caller in New England is like water off a duck’s back.
“I think we do a pretty good job here of training ourselves to just — we stay in our own little bubble for the most part and try to ignore as much of that as we can,” said Patricia, via NESN’s Dakota Randall. “We understand what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to just do everything we can to get better each week. That’s our focus. The focus has gotta be inside the building just trying to do everything we can to do a little bit better. So, I don’t really pay attention to it, if I can.”
The Patriots are notorious for blocking the outside noise and moving on with a business as usual mentality. Granted, that could change if the team wilts down the stretch and misses the playoffs this season.
The calls for change could become unbearable at that point to where the imaginary bubble can no longer protect Patricia.
