As Bill O’Brien stood in one of the large rooms inside the Patriots’ media work area on Tuesday morning, he was asked to give a ‘state of the offense’ from his perspective.

After all, upon coming back, O’Brien was supposed to be the one that saved everything after last year’s debacle with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. Well, six weeks in, the offense is somehow worse than it was a year ago. So, where does he think things are at right now?

“I think there were some things that were better, obviously not good enough,” he said referencing the Las Vegas game. “We just got done meeting with the offense and one of the things we talked about is, there’s a very small margin for error in the National Football League. We have to…we talk about coaching better, one of the things we need to harp on the details a little bit more. They (players) have to take ownership of the details. We have to start these games better. It’s not good to start the game with two penalties. It’s ridiculous. That falls on me, that falls on them.

“I know I say it every week, ‘we’re in it together,’ but there’s a small margin for error and we’ve got to get better. We have a chance to turn this thing around, but we all have to buy into it and wrap our brains around the fact that we have to pay attention – coaches and players – to the details better and get this thing done. So, that’s what our mindset is right now.”

With the quarterback situation seemingly in a constant state of flux these days, O’Brien also touched on how reps are divided between Jones, Zappe, Grier and now, seemingly Malik Cunningham.

“The reps, they are limited in a way, but we have a lot of reps here,” he said. “We have post practice things, we have ways to get three, four quarterbacks reps. We do that on a weekly basis. We’ll do that today, tomorrow and for the rest of the time that we’re here. These guys get a lot of reps, so I don’t think it’s as big of an issue as how we’re going to use these guys in a game plan, whatever that game plan might be.”

O’Brien was also asked about different ways to solve the slow start problem, including maybe taking the ball after winning the coin toss instead of deferring, as has been the norm here during the duration of Bill Belichick’s tenure.

“We talk about that every week,” O’Brien said emphatically. “There’s so many different factors that go into that. That’s a discussion every single week. One of the reasons why you do that is you can possibly double up on a possession end of the half  and then to start the second half, that’s one of the reasons why you usually do it, but, yeah, we talk about those things usually every week.”

With Buffalo chiming to town, it’s tough to imagine things are going to look much better. But, it’s not for a lack of effort on O’Brien’s part. O’Brien has enjoyed his time being back home and wants this to turn around as much as anyone. The only problem is, the talent he has to work with just might not be capable of doing much more.

“If anybody knows anything about me, I’m doing good,” he added. “I’m doing alright. We’ve got a great group of guys in there. I love coaching them. I love coaching here. I’m from here, everybody understands that. I take a lot of pride in this organization. I love working for Bill and working for the Krafts. Look, nobody likes to lose, but like I said, if you know anything about me and my family, you’ll know that this is something that…this is a great opportunity for us to turn something around and try to get it going in the right direction.”