FOXBOROUGH- The New England Patriots’ offense has had all sorts of problems this season, especially in recent weeks.

In Week 8 against the New York Jets, the Patriots’ offense stalled out a few times after the defense made a turnover, kicking five field goals and scoring just one touchdown in a 22-17 win. A week later against the Indianapolis Colts, the Patriots ran into similar issues as the offense managed one touchdown and stalled out four other times before kicking a field goal, totaling only 203 yards.

While the Jets’ and Colts’ defenses are among the best in the league, the Patriots' offense didn’t make life easier on themselves. Following Sunday’s 26-3 win over the Colts, multiple offensive  players in the Patriots locker room reportedly were heard discussing about how Colts linebacker Shaquille Leonard was calling their plays prior to the snap.

Bill Belichick not only confirmed that on Tuesday, but acknowledged it was a problem against the Jets with linebacker C.J. Mosley doing the same.

“We definitely want to prevent that,” Belichick said. “Yeah, I thought that there were two or three plays for sure that Leonard really got a big jump on and stopped us, basically, on those plays. Mosley got a couple of those a couple weeks ago in the Jets game. Mosley almost looked like he heard the play in the huddle he was on it so fast, and Leonard had a couple like that, too. So whether that’s something we were giving away or just something that he anticipated based on whatever the keys were that he might have picked up, we certainly want to try to prevent that. But I thought definitely Leonard for sure did it, and I thought Mosley had a couple plays like that, as well.

“But that’s what good defensive players do,” Belichick continued. “They anticipate things, and they are able to sometimes get a read on what they think that’s going to happen. They’re not always right, but sometimes they are, and they can certainly make you look bad offensively.”

Even though the Patriots’ offense has struggled for much of the season under a reconfigured scheme led by Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, there could be another cause as to why Leonard and Mosely knew the Patriots’ plays pre-snap.

Center and captain David Andrews has missed the last two games due to a concussion, leaving veteran journeyman and backup James Ferentz to handle duties at center. With Andrews out, the Patriots haven’t had good play along the offensive line. Mac Jones was sacked a career-high six times against the Jets and was sacked four more times on Sunday against the Colts. New England also had 24 plays that went for negative yards over the last two games. Rookie left guard Cole Strange was benched in each of those games, too.

While Belichick acknowledged that Leonard and Mosley are special talents at linebacker, he also admitted that tipping their plays is an issue the Patriots need to correct.

“As an offense, you always want to be balanced and try not to give things away to the point where you don’t have something complementary that goes with them,” Belichick said. “That’s kind of the game within the game there. Obviously, if a player or a team is stopping one thing, and you have something complementary to go to, then you can offset that.

“We certainly had that situation come up as well, too, where we were able to take advantage of whether it was a player thinking he knew what the play was or the defense trying to play a certain play but not defend another play. You have to kind of strike that balance. That’s what it looked like to me, too.”

The Patriots will have some extra time to fix their issues on offense. They’re on a bye this week before they host the Jets and Mosley in Week 11.