The Patriots, despite ranking third in the NFL in points, have been rather pedestrian on offense in second halves of games. They have scored only 94 of their 290 points after halftime, with only 39 of those coming in the third quarter in the first 10 games. Five times they have not scored at all in the third, and three of those games turned into the team's only three losses. Bill Belichick long has emphasized heavily the importance of making a statement offensively on the first drive of the second half, which makes the team's struggles all the more baffling. In talking to our sources, there really is no common theme in the struggles; certainly, letting up is not in the Patriots' lexicon. But one theory is that Bill O'Brien, the team's new play-caller, still hasn't quite adopted Belichick's cutthroat mentality about building leads. Yet Belichick clearly has the authority to overrule any O'Brien call. Chalk this up to being a bit of a statistical anomaly and a lack of execution coming out of halftime.

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