FOXBOROUGH - There is nothing like the deep pass play. That moment that catches a defense by surprise. The point when a player speeds into the end zone but has to wait for his teammates to catch up before he can celebrate. The deep ball forces defenses to stay honest and prepare for one more element of a team’s attack.
Lost in all of the talk of the Patriots’ offense needing to improve its timing and consistency is how the big pass play has eluded it this season.
The longest completions by Tom Brady have been a 36-yard improvised throw to tight end Chris Baker for a touchdown against Atlanta and a 36-yarder to Randy Moss in the 20-17 overtime loss against Denver last week.
A deep pass to Moss sailed over his head in the end zone in that same game; the Patriots’ big playmaker has just one touchdown this season. Moss’s only other “catch’’ of the Denver game was his first career interception at the end of the first half.
The Patriots join the Panthers, Browns, and Jaguars as the only teams in the NFL not to have at least one completion of more than 40 yards this season. Last season the Patriots had eight passes for more than 40 yards; they had 15 in 2007 and eight in 2006.
The chances have been there this season, but coach Bill Belichick said the strikes have to be calculated and timing can be critical.
“I don’t want to throw the ball down the field in double and triple coverage just to say we threw it downfield in a double coverage,’’ Belichick said. “But when our opportunities are there, we have to hit them, otherwise they are just foul balls. If you hit them out of the park and they’re foul, it doesn’t matter, it’s not different than a swing and a miss.
“When we get our opportunities to hit those, then we get the right pattern against the right coverage, and get it protected, those are the ones you want to make the defense play and we haven’t really been able to do that this year.
“We hit some intermediate throws and those are good ‘chunk’ passes - believe me those are good , too - but you’d like to have a couple of home run balls, and make them think about those and that will open up some other things. But we just haven’t been able to do that this year for one reason or another. Hopefully, they’ll come.’’
Earlier in the week, Brady said the execution of longer passes has been good in practice but that has not translated to the same results on game day.
