FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Stats never tell the entire story, but sometimes numbers say a whole lot.

Over the first half of this NFL season, the Patriots led the league is scoring with 250 points, averaging 31.3 points per game. The team was 8-0. However, after the midway point, the team isn’t nearly as efficient.

Since Week 9, the Patriots rank 30 of 32 NFL teams in scoring with 88 points. Over the last five games, this offense is averaging 17.6 points per game. In that span, the Pats are 2-3.

The Patriots have three more games in the regular season before the NFL playoffs begin. That’s three games to fix their issues and try to get on track before football truly starts to matter. The offensive players on this team remain confident, but understand that improvements need to start now.

“It’s a play here, a play there. A block here, a catch, a throw. It’s a call. It’s a little of everything,” said tight end Ben Watson. “One of the things the coaches have made sure to tell us is ‘look, this is not all on one person. This is a team sport.’ There’s 11 of us on offense on the field, but collectively there’s twice that many. Then we have coaches and practice. It’s not one thing, but when you look at the film, you say, ‘man, we’re really close here, but this just wasn’t good enough.’ That’s kind of where we are.”

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The only two teams that have scored less since Week 9 are the Jacksonville Jaguars (11.4 points per game) and the Patriots opponent this weekend, the Cincinnati Bengals (14.8 points per game). The Bengals also have a defense that’s allowing 25 points per game, which is 23rd in the NFL.

If there’s a perfect time to beat up on a 1-12 Cincinnati team, this weekend is it. A strong performance on Sunday could give this inconsistent offense a confidence boost heading into a Week 16 matchup with the Buffalo Bills and their No. 2 ranked NFL defense, allowing 16.3 points per game.

At this point, players inside Gillette Stadium understand what they need to do. The offense has been disappointing in this recent stretch scoring 20, 17, 13, 22 and 16 points. At this point, offensive players are tired of talking about their underwhelming performances.

“I think everybody sees light at the end of the tunnel,” said James White. “We still have our opportunity to play our best football, which we haven’t done yet. And you just want to go out there and do that, honestly. Tired of coming in and saying we can be better, do better… Everybody just wants to go out there and fly around from the first play to the last play and come into that locker room and say we actually did our jobs to the best we could on that day.”

It’s tough to pinpoint the Patriots problems in just one area. The team needs to run the ball better and help from Sony Michel (who’s averaging 3.5 yards per carry compared to 4.5 a year before) would go along way. Last week, Tom Brady didn’t have enough time to throw so the pass protection needs to be better.

Outside of Julian Edelman and White, the Patriots could also use more consistent pass catchers. Rookies N’Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers have made common first-year player mistakes, but the Patriots could use a boost from either. Mohamed Sanu has been dealing with an ankle injury, but even Brady admitted his week he wants to get the veteran receiver more involved.

Add in the lack of production from the tight ends and you start to get the picture – the Patriots need everyone to step up on offense. With the trade deadline long passed, the Pats know outside reinforces aren’t coming. They need to figure this out internally.

“We’ve got some guys who can step up and make plays,” Sanu said. “I don’t care what’s going on outside, we know what’s in here.”

“We have no choice. This is what we have. This is what we’ve had all year,” Watson added. “It comes down to execution as always. We know this is what we’ve got. We think we have enough. We think we can play much better.”

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