If there's one thing we know about the Patriots' offense, it's that Tom Brady has several weapons on any given play.
But deciding which weapons to use on Sunday is a strategy that changes every week, every play.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien talked about utilizing their offensive weapons in a conference call on Monday following their 41-23 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
The topic came up because of Aaron Hernandez' big nine-catch, 129-yard game, while Rob Gronkowski finished with only four catches. Lately, those numbers had been the other way around.
Hernandez was Tom Brady's go-to target against the Broncos, but that was just something that developed as the game went on.
"I think it really comes back to the execution of our offense, as far as reading the defense and getting the ball to the right people," said Belichick.
"As much as you'd like to think that only one guy's going to get the ball, that's just not the way it works . . . If BenJarvus is open, then hopefully we'll throw it to BenJarvus. If Aaron is open, then hopefully we'll throw it to Aaron. If Chad Ochocinco's open, hopefully we'll throw it to Chad."
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"They did a lot of different things to Gronkowski," said O'Brien. "They hit him at the line of scrimmage, or they put two guys on him, or whatever it was. So, whenever that happens, that means that, there's only 11 players on the field. So you can't double everybody. And Aaron benefited from that, and the backs benefited from it. And that's a good thing. So we'll just have to keep seeing how teams are playing us, and get ready game-to-game, week-to-week."
O'Brien said his receivers are taught to run "multi-purpose routes" and are -- as cliche as it sounds -- a "game plan offense."
"If they take this part of the route away, then this other part of the route should be pretty good," said O'Brien. "And that's how we've coached the passing game since I've been here. Tom does a good job of recognizing coverage, both pre-snap and post-snap, and tries to throw it to the open guy, which is always the goal here. Just get it to the open guy, the guy that's got the best chance to make yards with the ball.
"We look at the defense that we're playing that week, and we say, 'OK, how can we put our players in position to do the things that they do best, every week?' And it's a very challenging deal, not only for the coaches, but for the players."