Welcome to the Friday Five!

Each week during the NFL regular season, I’ll drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.

Ready, set, football.

There’s an old saying among offensive coaches.

If you can’t block ’em, read ’em.

Meaning, if your offensive line can’t block an edge defender or defensive tackle well enough, don’t. Leave him deliberately unblocked on an option run, where the quarterback can either hand the ball off or keep himself based on his read of the defender. If the defender pursues the running back at the snap, the quarterback keeps the ball and runs the other way. If he freezes, the quarterbacks hands the ball off and let his running back burrow behind a double-team working the other side of the defense.

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