Patriots HC Reveals Offensive Game Plan vs. Panthers

The New England Patriots are preparing for the tough task at hand when they take on the Carolina Panthers, who scored a shutout in their last game to pick up win No. 1 of the season.

Now, the Panthers and Patriots are looking for their second victory of the season as their schedules collide for Week 4. Despite the offense struggling in the Pats' latest loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team isn't making too many changes on that side of the ball.

"We have different packages. I don't know what the first package is, but if you're asking me if Rhamondre [Stevenson] is on some sort of discipline, no. The discipline is we need our best players to play in a game and do their job and take care of football. And we all have to do that," Vrabel said.

"Drake [Maye] had an interception and a fumble, we're not going to play Josh [Joshua Dobbs] right now. We have to fix those things, the people around them have to be better and I'm confident that we will. I'm not going to talk about the alternative. I'll go down that road later, but those are things that we have to get fixed, but we also have to do good things with the football, make people miss, make yards and catch it and block when they blitz. So, we're confident that those guys can do that."

New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson walks to the practice fields at Gillette Stadium. | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Stevenson certainly earned attention for all the wrong reasons after fumbling twice against the Steelers, leading to more carries for rookie second-round pick TreVeyon Henderson. However, it is still early in the season for the Pats, so they are keeping Stevenson as the lead back.

While Stevenson is getting the bulk of the carries, that doesn't mean Henderson will be shelved. He should also get some looks to prove himself worthy of more opportunities in the offense.

As for Maye, he is someone the Pats need to continue building around. He will make mistakes, but those are necessary towards becoming the franchise quarterback the Patriots are counting on him to be.

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