Despite another relatively ugly effort, the Patriots ground out a victory Sunday against the Chargers to extend their winning streak to four games. Leading the charge to the Pats 6-2 record is the offense, which leads the NFL in total yards, and while they continued to struggle in the red zone on Sunday, they still rank 7th in the NFL in points per game.
While this success is certainly not surprising, there was some concern about the passing game after the loss of Brady’s safety blanket, Julian Edelman. However, thanks to the best variety of distribution we have seen in the Brady era, the passing game has been able to combat the loss of Edelman, and even prosper through it, reaching territory that few Brady-led offenses have ever reached.
Thus far in 2017, the Patriots have five players with have 31 catches or more, compared to the first eight weeks of the 2016 season, in which they had just three. In 2017, James White leads the way with 43 catches, followed by Rob Gronkowski (34), Chris Hogan (33), Brandin Cooks (33), and Danny Amendola (31). These five are all on pace to reach at least 670 yards this season, with Cooks leading the way at 1,126 yards and Gronkowski in second with 1,018 yards.
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