Patriots find success out of new offensive formation in victory over Jets

The New England Patriots totaled 297 total yards of offense against the top-ranked New York Jets defense on Sunday. A large part of that was due to a new-look formation.

With Mac Jones under center, New England’s tight ends Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry flanked a running back in the back field to form what is commonly known as the “full house” formation.

“Just a different look that we can throw out,” Hunter Henry said postgame. “You know as an offense you’re always trying to throw out different things and give defenses different looks.”

The new look caught the Jets off guard, as New England struck their longest pass - a 26-yarder to Jonnu Smith - and rush play - a 30-yard scamper from Damien Harris - out of that formation.

“It’s just a different look,” Henry said. “Also set up a big time explosive, play-action to Jonnu today, so just trying to mix some looks up and set up some plays. We had some success out of it.”

Coming off the bye, the formation was perhaps a new wrinkle the offense installed with the extra time, and something they can keep in their bag moving forward.

“It’s a lot of things that we try to put in and that we been doing and flirting with,” Jonnu Smith told Pats Pulpit postgame. “We pick what we feel is — whatever it may be that Sunday — that we can go in our bag, and dig in our bag, and pull out whatever we feel is going to get us the win. So that was the plan this week.”

While the new look helped the Patriots move the ball, the offensive issues continued down near the red area. The Patriots managed just three offensive points on Sunday, as negative plays and penalties continued to haunt them.

“We’re moving the ball, so we just got to start figuring out some drives - figure it out in the red zone,” Henry said. “It’s super frustrating. It’s not good enough on our side of the ball. We’re just not bringing it... It’s the same script, so we got to fix it.”

With a short week on deck, the Patriots’ offense will continue the search for how to put more points up on the board, and perhaps the “full house” formation they debuted on Sunday can continue to help.

“It got it done, we got in the win column so I’m sure it did something,” Smith said. “Just try to present the defense different looks and give them headaches.”