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The Patriots were 6-2 entering their bye three weeks ago, but the players and coaches knew that there was room for improvement.
The coaches specifically talked about improving the red-zone offense, improving the short-yardage running game, cutting down on big plays, and cutting down on penalties.
Let’s see how they did in their subsequent two games, blowout victories over the Broncos and Raiders on the road:
■ Red-zone offense: They were converting just 50 percent into touchdowns entering the bye, but over the last two games are at 67 percent (6 of 9). They started the Broncos 1 for 3, but converted five of their last six red-zone trips into touchdowns, including both situations against the Raiders.
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■ Short-yardage rushing: When the Patriots reached first and goal at the 2 against the Broncos, they had a 1-yard run, an incompletion, and a sack. Against the Raiders, James White converted a third-and-1, and the Patriots went 1 for 1 in goal-to-go situations. But on first and goal from the 2, White was stuffed for minus-2. So, not there yet.
■ Penalties: After eight games, the Patriots had 27 penalties on offense, 17 on defense, and 15 on special teams. Against the Broncos, the Patriots had just one penalty for 5 yards against (plus one declined). Against the Raiders, they had two penalties for 10 yards. None of the penalties were against the offense, and only one was called on the special teams, running into the kicker by Kyle Van Noy against the Raiders.
■ Eliminating big plays: The Broncos’ longest play was 38 yards. The Raiders’ longest play was 26 yards, and they had just three passes more than 20.
■ Second-half scoring: The Patriots outscored the Broncos, 16-8, in the second half and the Raiders, 14-7, for a total of 30-15.
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■ Pass defense: Denver’s Brock Osweiler passed for just 221 yards on 33 attempts. Derek Carr threw for just 237 yards on 49 passes. In the fourth quarter, when everyone in the building knew Carr was going to throw, he was just 11 for 21 yards for 104 yards.
All in all, it appears that the Patriots spent their bye week, and their week in Colorado, wisely.
Other observations after re-watching the game film from the 33-8 win over the Raiders:
When the Patriots had the ball . . .
■ Two aspects of the offense jumped out — Dion Lewis’s ability to gain extra yards and the great (and sometimes dominant) play of the offensive line.
Bill Belichick talked Tuesday about how Lewis is “short but not a little guy,” and once again Lewis showed an impressive ability to get more yards on a play than he should.
First there was his 15-yard touchdown catch, in which he slipped past Cory James and split Karl Joseph and Reggie Nelson for the touchdown, even though it looked like he would be corralled around the 4-yard line.
Then there was Lewis’s 20-yard run late in the first half that sparked the last-second field goal drive. Lewis had great blocking at the first level, but then gained an extra 12 yards after contact.
Lewis later had a 5-yard gain when he should’ve been stopped at the line of scrimmage.
And the offensive line, playing without Marcus Cannon and David Andrews, opened huge holes for Lewis in the third quarter.
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Lewis had runs of 11, 10, and 12 yards when the Patriots were already leading, 24-0, and everyone in the building knew they were going to run.
The pass protection was equally strong, with the Raiders only mustering one sack and four QB hits on 38 dropbacks. Khalil Mack had the one sack (against Cam Fleming), but it was really Treyvon Hester beating Shaq Mason to create the sack for Mack. LaAdrian Waddle had another great game at right tackle, and on Danny Amendola’s touchdown catch, Waddle had Mack 1-on-1 and washed him out of the play to give Tom Brady plenty of space to set and throw.
Center Ted Karras played all 60 snaps in his second career start, and pitched a shutout — no pressures, hits, sacks, or run stuffs.
■ The running back distribution was interesting. Lewis is clearly the lead running back and played 26 snaps. Rex Burkhead was second with 19, and White was third with only 17 snaps.
White had five carries for 13 yards, but was targeted just once in the passing game, and was held catchless for the first time since Week 9 of 2015. Of course, knowing the Patriots, this will change next week. But for now, Lewis and Burkhead are the two dominant running backs, even with Burkhead’s fumble.
■ The Patriots used the no-huddle offense to set up their first touchdown (Lewis), their second touchdown (Amendola), and to set up their 64-yard touchdown to Brandin Cooks, as the Raiders were often disorganized at the snap. The Patriots stopped using the no-huddle once they went up 24-0, of course.
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■ The Patriots were also able to create favorable matchups with their two tight ends. The Raiders countered with their 4-3 base defense, and when the Patriots split Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett out wide, it forced pass rusher Bruce Irvin to cover the slot receiver.
Amendola caught several passes over the middle with Irvin or NaVorro Bowman in coverage, and the Patriots were also able to draw Irvin out of the box and into space, which isn’t his specialty.
■ The Patriots tried the same play to Amendola that worked for the 2-point conversion in the Super Bowl. This time, Amendola got stuffed at the line of scrimmage.
■ Try, try again. On third and 5 in the second quarter, Brady chucked one deep to Cooks that fell incomplete, missing Amendola streaking open over the middle. But on the Patriots’ very next play (on the next series), Brady went right back to the deep ball to Cooks, and hit him between defenders for 52 yards. The Patriots were in a three-tight end set and the Raiders brought all 11 defenders within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
Cooks beat T.J. Carrie off the line of scrimmage and split Nelson for the big catch.
■ Cooks in 2016 against the Raiders: six catches, 143 yards, two touchdowns. Cooks in 2017 against the Raiders: six catches, 149 yards, one touchdown. Cooks beat Carrie for the 52-yarder, and Obi Melifonwu on the 64-yard touchdown, when the rookie was caught looking into the backfield and simply missed Cooks running right by him.
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Sean Smith had his ankles broken on a 16-yard comeback by Cooks, but Smith did better this time than he did last year against Cooks, when he gave up a 98-yard touchdown.
■ We counted just two Raiders blitzes all day, as they were content to sit back in coverage. Brady was able to sniff out whether the Raiders were in man or zone coverage (either Cover 2 or Cover 4), and considering he was 30-of-37 passing, he did a pretty good of knowing where to go with the ball.
■ Did the Raiders forget about the thin air at the end of the first half? With 11 seconds left, they gave the Patriots’ receivers a huge cushion, like they were preventing a touchdown or the Patriots from reaching the 35-yard line.
But the Patriots didn’t have time to shoot for the end zone, and only had to get to the 45 or so because of the altitude. Gronkowski had plenty of space to catch the ball at the 50 and slip upfield to the 44.
That was all Stephen Gostkowski needed to hit his 62-yard field goal, which looked like it could’ve been good from 70.
■ Joe Thuney sat out three garbage snaps at the end, leaving Shaq Mason as the only Patriot to have played all 724 snaps on offense this year.
■ The turf at Estadio Azteca looked a little slippery. Lewis took a scary hit when he slipped and fell on a 4-yard run. And Amari Cooper slipped on a hard cut on third down. Carr’s pass was way off, but it looked like he was throwing to the spot.
When the Raiders had the ball . . .
■ This was a man-to-man matchup game for the Patriots’ defensive backs, and they did a great job. Michael Crabtree caught just 6 of 11 passes for 51 yards, mostly against Stephon Gilmore and Johnson Bademosi. Cooper caught only 3 of 7 passes for 28 yards as he was matched up on Malcolm Butler. Seth Roberts caught 5-of-9 passes for 36 yards against Jonathan Jones. And Jared Cook, who had eight catches for 126 yards in a dominant performance against Miami the prior week, caught just 2 of 5 passes for 36 yards. Great job by Patrick Chung, perhaps the most unheralded player on the team.
■ Not only did Butler have excellent coverage for most of the day (though he was beaten decisively by Cooper on an in-out cut for a touchdown), but he had some great tackles, as well. On third and 19 in the second quarter, Butler’s pursuit and tackle of Cooper at the 43 kept the Raiders just out of field goal range (though they still should’ve kicked it). And Butler violently threw Cooper to the ground after one 13-yard catch.
■ Earlier in the season, we saw the Patriots play a lot of zone coverage or have their cornerbacks stick to one side throughout the game. But Sunday, we saw Gilmore trailing Crabtree all over the field, even if it meant playing in the slot.
■ The Patriots did well against the Raiders’ bunch formations, spacing themselves out at different levels before the snap to avoid contact, and handing off the assignments well (one play saw Gilmore covering Cook and Chung covering Crabtree, both seamlessly).
And Jones had a great game in the slot. He twice didn’t bite on a stop-and-go double move, and he was seemingly always around the ball. Jones caused the pass breakup that led to Duron Harmon’s interception, and recovered Roberts’s fumble. The Raiders were driving inside the Patriots’ 10 and could have made the score 14-7 at halftime. Instead, it was 17-0.
■ Harmon showed terrific range on his interception. He was on the left hash when Carr threw the ball, and caught it all the way over on the right sideline.
■ The Patriots played a soft front for much of the game, with two deep safeties and only six in the box.
Marshawn Lynch had a nice game, rushing 11 times for 67 yards, but it appeared that the Patriots were more than content to let Lynch handle the ball.
■ Interesting to see Matt Patricia basically use the fourth quarter to practice his various blitzes. Patricia sent about a dozen blitzes at Carr in the fourth quarter, many of which involved a cornerback blitzing from the edge and Trey Flowers and Van Noy dropping off into coverage. Butler, Jones, and Chung each went after Carr.
■ Some underrated plays: Deatrich Wise rushing the quarterback, looping all the way around Carr and hustling 10 yards upfield to make the tackle on Lynch.
Gilmore had a great tackle in run support on a 1-yard gain by DeAndre Washington. And Ricky Jean Francois had a heck of a run stuff, shedding the right guard and tackling Washington with one arm.
■ Classic Patriots, benefiting from a negative situation. Van Noy was called for running into the kicker, the Raiders decided to go for it on fourth and 1, and the Patriots made the stuff and got much better field position. Credit Lawrence Guy for manhandling the right guard.
Special teams
■ Gostkowski apparently wanted nothing to do with Cordarrelle Patterson, as Gostkowski boomed six of his seven kickoffs for touchbacks. The only other game he consistently kicked touchbacks was against Tampa Bay.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin.