Sunday’s matchup between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs featured an abysmal performance by the home team’s offense, something that has become a bit of a trend in recent weeks. On their home turf at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots only managed to put up 16 points as they lost to the Chiefs 23-16.

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Offensive struggles have been a trend for the Patriots as of late: quarterback Tom Brady has been especially vocal about the lack of success of the New England offense.

“I mean, I think we’re just trying to figure out what works,” Brady said Sunday of the offense’s struggles in the second half of the season. “So, I think you have an idea and then you see how the game unfolds and then you’ve got to make some adjustments. So, we tried to make some adjustments there in the second half. They threw a lot of different defenses at us, some we handled pretty good, others we didn’t. It was a good game by them.”

After the Patriots’ first score, they went seven straight possessions without putting any points up on the board.

While the Pats’ offense has struggled mightily as of late, they have also shown the ability to put up large numbers at other points this season. However, heading into the playoffs, they will likely be hoping to up their production in a big way.

The Kansas City offense, while only posting 23 points of their own, really took hold of the game in the second quarter when they rattled off 17 straight points. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes finished with 283 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception, while Brady finished with 169, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception.

Many were quick to attribute the Patriots’ loss to poor officiating, especially in the third quarter when New England was “robbed” of an apparent touchdown. Devin McCourty forced a Travis Kelce fumble which was scooped up by Stephon Gilmore, however, the play was blown dead before he could reach the endzone.

“We hear a lot of stuff, what’s supposed to happen,” McCourty said, referencing the hope that officials will let plays develop before blowing them dead. “Once you get out there in the game, you hope it’s like that. But it wasn’t this time. In games, that’s going to come up. Calls you think should go your way don’t go your way. You’ve just got to play through it.”

The Patriots will look to get back on track next Sunday as they travel to Cincinnati to take on the 1-12 Bengals.

After a career with the New England Patriots in which he put up monstrous numbers at various points, former tight end Rob Gronkowski joined the team at Fox Sports as an analyst. Since then, he has not commented negatively very often on his former team.

Over the weekend, however, the retired player offered a few thoughts about one negative aspect of playing for the Patriots.

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During the Patriots’ game, Gronkowski was asked about quarterback Tom Brady’s frustration with the team’s offense this year. Gronkowski — who recently announced he will host a pre-Super Bowl beach party in Miami in February — went into depth, elaborating not just on this season’s frustrations but also what he saw of Brady when they played together.

“You know it’s crazy, they’re 9-1. He’s so frustrated, too,” Gronkowski said of Brady and the Pats. “It’s like, ‘Yo, you guys are 9-1.’ That’s the one part I don’t miss about being there. Hands down. I’m not going to lie. I don’t miss that.”

“They win a game last week vs. Philly — we lost to them in the Super Bowl two years ago — they should be happy,” Gronkowski continued. “Instead, you’re sitting there Sunday night like, ‘What did I do wrong?’ No, that’s not the feeling you should have. You should be pumped about the win. Yea, you might not have put up the offensive numbers that you want to put up, but you won the game, enjoy it. Go out the next week, and build off of it.”

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During an interview on WEEI this week, Brady did not rebut any of Gronk’s statements. Instead, the quarterback offered an appreciation that Gronkowski was always there to lighten the mood in the locker room.

“I think everyone deals with things differently and I think that was part of having a guy like Gronk in the locker room that was so great was he approached it like he does,” Brady said. “He always looks at the bright spots in everything. When you have great attitudes like that, it is good to have. He was a great player for us for a long time.”

Brady continued: “We have different challenges that we face and for me personally, I don’t have one emotion after every game. There’s probably five or 10. The moment you catch me is how I will feel at a particular time and sometimes it takes time to digest things and deal with things. Hopefully we can process those by the time the preparation for the next week starts.”

While Brady — and potentially others — might feel as though there is room for improvement for the Patriots’ offense (as there always is for any team), he cannot deny his team’s hot start at 10-1. The Patriots will look to jumpstart their offense and build off of their stellar defensive play in the coming week as they head into some tough contests.

Their next game will be Monday, Dec. 2 in Houston against the 7-4 Texans. 

After the Dallas Cowboys’ 12-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday — the team’s first loss of the year — Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was quick to pin the loss on himself and the rest of the offense.

“Our defense played their (butt) off,” Elliot told reporters following the loss. “They kept us in the game. They gave us a chance and we just didn’t hold up on the offensive end. We can’t let our guys down like that.”

Elliott managed a measly 35 yards on 18 carries on Sunday and even coughed up a fumble right before halftime.

“I just coughed it up,” he said. “They just took it from me. It’s not acceptable … I just can’t let the team down like that.”

The Cowboys’ offense managed just 257 total yards and featured a season-low passer rating from QB Dak Prescott.

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The Saints’ offense, on the other hand, was not much more successful, as New Orleans failed to score even one touchdown in the victory. The Cowboys’ defense has stood out on this young campaign and they certainly held down a Saints offense with multiple different weapons.

“The only positive is the defense played their tails off,” Elliott said. “Offensively, we just didn’t do our jobs.”

Though the Cowboys suffered their first loss of the year to drop to 3-1, they remain atop the NFC East thanks to their stalwart defense.

The Saints’ defense also deserves praise for shutting down a Dallas offense featuring Elliott and Prescott, who had looked promising up to this point in the season. Getting shut down by the Saints in primetime has certainly increased criticism of the previously undefeated Cowboys.

Conversely, Prescott explained that the team is taking the loss in stride and moving on:

“There’s no confidence lost with this loss,” Prescott said. “I can promise you that. There’s a lot of things we’ll take from this and learn from.”

The Cowboys’ offense will have to prove itself heading into Week five, especially if the defense continues to shut down opposing offenses.

Jerry Reese has stated what he hopes to see out of the New York Giants’ offense next season, and the general manager says the team’s tackles, particularly Ereck Flowers and Bobby Hart, will have to improve substantially.

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Flowers, the ninth overall pick out of Miami in the 2015 NFL Draft, and Hart, a seventh-round pick out of Florida State from that same year, both struggled last season, but Reese appears to remain confident the third-year offensive tackles can make the leap for the 2017 season this fall.

“It’s almost kind of developmental, some ups and downs as young players but we expect these guys to make a significant jump this season, because they’ve been in the league already,” Reese said Monday on WFAN, via the New York Post. “Those guys could have been in this draft class.”

Earlier this offseason, the only offensive player the Giants signed as a free agent was backup tackle D.J. Fluker, a former Chargers star.

However, Big Blue also added another offensive tackle to their roster during the sixth round of last weekend’s draft: University of Pittsburgh’s four-year starter Adam Bisnowaty, a left tackle who was selected as the 200th overall pick.

Reese then signed two more plays from the undrafted free-agent pool: USC tackle Chad Wheeler and guard Jessamen Dunker. 

The Giants gave Wheeler a $20,000 signing bonus.

“I think probably the reason he didn’t get drafted, there were some off-field issues people were concerned with,’’ Reese said. “To get him as a free agent, we feel if he has a chance, if he has his head on right.’’

Those off-field issues included an altercation Wheeler had with Los Angeles Police in December 2015. Police responded to a call regarding a man punching walls and windows at his apartment complex, potentially under the influence. Wheeler was not arrested, although he was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

As for Bisnowaty, Reese complimented the tackle for a being a strong player, and even called him “a David Diehl-type of guy,’’ comparing the Pittsburgh tackle to the 2003 fifth-round draft selection who eventually became a starter for ten years at several positions on the offensive line.

“He’s tough, he’s big, he’s gonna bring the same intensity every day, you know what you’re gonna get every day from this guy,’’ Reese said of Bisnowaty. “I just saw guys in this past [veteran] free agent group make millions of dollars with the same skill-set.’’

Reese added he will continue to oversee the waiver wire and potentially pursue a trade for additional offensive line help.

Giants coach Ben McAdoo confirmed on WFAN that Paul Perkins will be the starting running back next season, a decision that does not come as much of a surprise.

“We feel Paul Perkins is gonna grow,” McAdoo said. “He didn’t even have an offseason last year.”

The Giants waived quarterback Keith Wenning from Ball State and running back George Winn from Cincinnati after drafting players at those positions last week. New York also got Mississippi tight end Evan Engram in the first round (No. 23). of this year’s draft on Friday.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 3: Bobby Hart #68 of the New York Giants and teammate Odell Beckham #13 talk while walking off the field after the first half of the game against the Minnesota Vikings on October 3, 2016 at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)