All is not well in New England right now. The Patriots are coming off back-to-back blowout losses and have some serious issues along their offensive line.
Guards Cole Strange and Mike Onwenu have been banged up all year. Right tackle Vederian Lowe has struggled mightily since the team traded for him. Trent Brown has been inconsistent.
On Tuesday, had their biweekly chance to talk to Patriots assistants. With most folks sitting in to talk to Bill O’Brien, I basically had a one-on-one interview with Patriots offensive line coach Adrian Klemm to talk about the issues the team has had at the position.
Klemm then proceeded to give what I can only describe as a prototypical Bill Belichick-style interview. He answered every question amicably, but used the same phrases over and over to respond to the questions without saying anything.
At one point, he chuckled at his response to a question about injuries to Strange and Onwenu, a particularly on-brand response.
Here’s a rundown of what Klemm had to say on Tuesday. Note all the bolded phrases. It’s not hard to pick up on the pattern here:
Q: What’s the attitude in the locker room after the last couple of weeks?
Klemm: “Just got to work on it. That’s something that’s always been demanded by coach Belichick and just is gonna keep on being the same. The message hasn’t changed. Just got to tighten things up, get better all the way around.”
Q: OK, so how’s it been dealing with all the injuries?
Klemm: “It’s been challenging but it’s just the nature of the business. Sometimes you go through runs like this. We don’t make excuses for it and not looking to see comfort, just looking to get better. Those guys that are playing, we have certain expectations for and just going to be demanding of that every day.”
Q: Got it. Well, you’ve got rookies playing a lot of playing time. How have they been faring?
Klemm: “They’re just trying to get better each and every day. They still have a ways to go, but they’re just they’re working on it and they’re up for the challenge to be the best that they can be.”
Q: Mike Onwenu and Cole Strange are still out. What’s their outlook?
Klemm: “Just taking it day-by-day. They’re just working hard to be as healthy as they can be and to play to the best of their capabilities. Just working to get better each day.”
Vederian Lowe has been sort of thrown to the wolves at right tackle. How has he been adjusting?
Klemm: “He’s learning on the run and he’s trying to do all the things that are asked of him and he’s just trying to get better each week and just taking it day-by-day and trying to build on each week to get better.”
Q: All right, but outside of just day-by-day adjustments, are there any bigger-picture issues the unit can address?
Klemm: “We have a ways to go up front and we really are – I know that’s the company line – but we really are taking it day-by-day, whoever’s in there, being demanding of them, and they’re trying to give their all and I’m trying to do my job in terms of teaching them prepared for each game.”
Q: How’s it been working with Bill O’Brien?
Klemm: “It’s been awesome. I enjoy working with him and I’ve learned a lot. He’s an experienced guy that’s obviously been an NFL head coach, head coach at a blue-blood college program. There’s a lot to be learned. Every day’s been good for me and beneficial for me.”
Q: How’s it been with Mac Jones working together with this unit?
Klemm: “He’s been great. He’s been very supportive and he’s a leader. The guys enjoy playing for him. He understands we’re trying to get better every day. He’s doing the same thing. So everything goes hand-in-hand and we’re just trying to coach and everybody’s trying the best they can. We’ve just got to be better.”
Meanwhile, Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien did add some more insight to the situation surrounding the offensive line. Here’s what he had to say when asked, ‘What does the O-line need to do better?”
“At the end of the day, it comes down to communication and the technical aspect of it, anticipation sometimes, awareness,” O’Brien said. “There’s things that we can do better to help them from a scheme standpoint. We just had a good meeting. We went over a lot of different things, fundamentals, that we can do better, some schematic things that we can really improve on to help them. Hopefully that’ll start to show this week. It needs to start to show this week.”
Darn, I probably should have used that question when talking to Klemm.
Oh well. It is what it is and we’re on to Las Vegas.
