Much like the Saints' offense had struggled over the last 1/4 of the season. Maybe defenses figured something out to at least stop the onslaughts.
And perhaps due to injury/personnel/ineffectiveness or noticing the defenses catching on, the Patriots have turned back the clock offensively the last month or so.
I wonder if the Patriots, as is so often the case, are just on the leading edge of the next curve. Generally speaking, there's a Darwinian kind of effect on the NFL. Teams go big, so the way to beat them is to go small. Teams gear up to go small, so you go big. Rules changes can affect that of course. But think about it. Most colleges are going to this RPO spread attack out of the shotgun. So they are looking for personnel to play like that. That's filtering up to the NFL, and so most players that are entering the league are this way.
At first, it stood in stark contrast to how the game was played. But now it's very common. So one way to beat it is to find the market inefficiency. Players like...James Develin. Nobody wants a fullback anymore because nobody employs them in their RPO spread offense. But the Patriots are now playing a TON of old-school I-formation and are just pounding the crap out of teams who have assembled defensive personnel, and devise defensive strategies, around stopping RPO spread offenses. Lots of pass rushers, fast defensive players. But then the Pats come out with Trent Brown, Marcus Cannon, James Develin, and Rob Gronkowski, all among the very best run blockers in the league, and they add in three quality running backs, and they just beat the hell out of these defenses.
Throw in some play action, and the Patriots are running an offense straight out of, dare we say, something like 2001. Something that modern defenses aren't that well-equipped to stop.
Their last three games: 38, 41, 37 points (38.7 avg), 375, 498, 524 total yards (465.7 avg). It's working.