The 2011 Patriots were one of the better teams in the league when it came to finishing off drives -- they were fourth in the league when it came to red-zone touchdowns, clicking at a rate of 65.1 percent. But through three games in 2012, the red-zone numbers for the New England offense have dropped to 6-for-12, or 50 percent.

On Sunday night, the Patriots stalled out twice in the red zone, settling for field goals on drives in the first and fourth quarter. And while Stephen Gostkowski has converted all his field-goal opportunities when New England has been forced to kick from the red zone, for a team that’s lost two games by a total of three points, those stalled drives represent more than just missed opportunities -- it likely means the difference between 1-2 and 3-0.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Tuesday that offensive success in the red zone is a total team effort. 

“It starts with us,” Belichick said on a conference call with reporters. “It starts with coaching, making sure we have a good plan, making sure that we put our players in the best possible position to be productive and to be able to do their jobs, making sure that the plays that we run we practice, we know what to do, we can execute so if something different happens down there, which is always a problem because it all happens so fast.”

Then, there’s the matter of real estate. You have less room to operate inside the 20, so it becomes absolutely paramount that everyone is on the same page. If there are breakdowns, there’s really no room to hide.

“There’s so little space that you’re involved in,” Belichick said. “All the plays just happen much quicker than they do out in the field. Running game, the holes close quicker; passing game, there are smaller windows and less space to throw in and all that.”

Against the Ravens, the first red-zone misfire of the night happened in the first quarter. With the Patriots sitting on a first-and-10 at the Baltimore 20, New England ran the ball twice for one yard. On third-and-9, Brady and the Patriots went no-huddle, and out of the shotgun the quarterback tried to connect with Julian Edelman -- only to see the play get blown up by safety Ed Reed. That led to a 37-yard field goal from Gostkowski.

“I thought Reed made a great play on the post route to Julian,” Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Tuesday, looking back at the sequence. “That was a bang-bang play, and he’s a great player that made a great play on that particular snap and prevented us from scoring by separating the ball. 

The second happened on a drive that wrapped around the end of the third and start of the fourth quarter. New England had maneuvered the ball to the Baltimore 4-yard line, and had first-and-goal with 40 seconds left in the third. Ridley was stuffed for a four-yard loss, and that was followed by a no gain by Danny Woodhead. The Patriots got down to the 2-yard line after a third-down pass to Welker netted them six yards, but that was as far as they would get. Gostkowski banged home a 20-yard field goal that made the score 30-21 -- the last points of the night for the Patriots.

“The other one was when we ended up with the ball at the two after the third down completion, and I thought they made a couple of good plays in that series,” McDaniels said. “They pressured us down there on that particular series -- if I’m not mistaken -- and forced us into a third-and-goal at the [eight] or whatever it was. We had converted one of those earlier in the two-minute offense, and then unfortunately we didn’t get it in on that last one.

“When you get in the red zone you always want to score touchdowns -- that’s our goal,” McDaniels added. “We only go out there for one reason on offense and that’s to try to score seven points every time we possess the ball. Unfortunately we had a couple situations there where we didn’t. I think we were close in both cases.”

One of the reasons for the Patriots’ red-zone slippage through the first three games is that red-zone threat BenJarvus Green Ellis, who accounted for 24 rushing touchdowns the last two seasons, departed for Cincinnati as a free agent. The running back was a red-zone hammer for New England -- over the past three seasons, 18 of his 35 rushes inside the five-yard line end in touchdowns. Last year alone, he got the ball inside the five-yard line 39 times and had 11 touchdowns, a remarkable rate of 28 percent.

While rookie running back Brandon Bolden was able to score from the 2-yard line in the first quarter against the Ravens and Stevan Ridley had a 1-yard run in the opener against the Titans, to this point in the 2012 season, the running game in the red zone has been lacking.

Another reason is that Rob Gronkowski -- who emerged as one of the best red-zone threats in the game in 2011 because of his size and ridiculous catch radius -- has had a slightly slower start to the 2012 season. Through three games last season, he already had four red-zone touchdown receptions. This year, he has two, and was kept out of the end zone completely Sunday night by the Ravens.

“The red zone is always a tough place,” said McDaniels. “Things happen faster down there and there’s a mix of pressure and coverage that you have to be able to adjust to during the course of the play. We can improve in that area of the field as well.”