TUCSON, Ariz. -- Earlier this week, we took a deep dive into some of the numbers on the Patriots offense. How have things looked when they've used shotgun formations? How have things looked when they've been under center?
The data, courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, was fairly staggering. The Patriots have gone with shotgun looks on over 70 percent of their plays in the last four weeks since their bye week, yet there's an argument to be made that the Patriots are a much more efficient offense when they place quarterback Mac Jones under center.
Asked if the reliance on the shotgun lately was something he preferred, Jones said no.
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"As I always say, I played in the wing-T in high school, so I was under center in every situation," he explained. "In college, it was the opposite. So I’ve done both. Then obviously in the NFL, done both. Like both. Don’t have a preference. I think either one is good. It’s all about executing the plays."
If it wasn't his preference, then why has there been so much shotgun called lately?
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"I’m not sure," he said. "You’d have to ask the coaches. I know there’s specific things, but you’d have to ask them about it."
So we did. Bill Belichick was asked on Friday why leaning on shotgun looks was the best approach for his offense in the last month.
"A lot of those decisions are just [part of the] game plan," Belichick said. "Those types of questions of, 'This happened the last couple of weeks...' If you shuffled the schedule around, it would turn out differently.
"I think we're comfortable under center, shotgun. There's a variety of things we can do from either of those locations. Try to do what we think is best."
Is it about the offensive line?
The Patriots have used a variety of combinations up front this season, and lately they've had a hard time protecting against edge rushers as Isaiah Wynn and Yodny Cajuste have missed time with injury and Trent Brown has dealt with an illness that caused him to lose more than 10 pounds.
Would playing out of the shotgun help protect that group, Belichick was asked?
"[Under center] is about as quick as you can get it," Belichick replied. "If you want to get it out quickly, it's in his hands in a tenth of a second...
"But, again, those kinds of things, if you take any two or three games at the end of the year and group them together and say, 'Oh, this guy got a lot of targets in this game. This guy blitzed a lot in that game. We played a lot of odd front in these other couple games. If you group them together, then it looks like that's a big trend, I would say it's more likely the way the games happened to fall."