It’s always exciting when the Patriots unveil their fully operational defense in the first game of the season, but there wasn’t much surprise this year. The Pats continued to stick to their Cover-1 Man coverage that they’ve played extensively the last two seasons. There were occasional zone coverages and blitzes mixed in, but otherwise it was about lining up and forcing their receivers to beat our cornerbacks.
The real fun of the defense is in the front seven, where you have a collection of athletic pieces who can all rush the passer or drop into pass coverage on any given down. They’ll show a front like the one below, and then let the offense figure out who’s going where. On this particular play, Flowers, Collins and Hightower all drop, leaving a three man rush. Chris Long got the one-on-one and not only got the sack but drew a facemask.
So there you have it. Five guys on the LOS and the offense has to figure out how to block who’s coming after the snap. This is where the magic of this Patriots defense lies and when Rob Ninkovich returns and if Barkevious Mingo finds a defensive role, they’ll have another two pieces to play with like this.
The other fun things they can do are fake a coverage drop, then come on a delayed blitz, or just the opposite, start to come, then stop and drop. This allows the defense to stick to their conservative roots of mostly four- and three-man rushes, but makes the front so fluid it creates more opportunities for free rushers.
Here are some more observations about the defense after reviewing the All-22 film…
— Alan Branch and Malcom Brown don’t get a lot of hype (that will change soon with Brown) but both are beasts inside. Branch is just overwhelmingly physical, manhandling blockers and tossing them aside. Brown is more of a fire hydrant and he’s nearly impossible to move. One of the core pieces of Belichick’s defensive philosophy is having two-gappers up front. You can tell when you’ve got good two-gappers when they all remain square to the line of scrimmage. In the picture below, the Cardinals went to a heavy formation and the Patriots brought in Vincent Valentine and employed the old 3-4. Notice how well everyone stays square. You can see all their numbers. No one is getting turned and pushed down the line. This play went nowhere.
— The Patriots don’t blitz very often, but on one play they sent both Logan Ryan and Patrick Chung. Chung had an open lane and it helped force an incompletion. The slot corner blitz has long been a once-a-game favorite for Belichick, but they used it a little more in this game.
— I’ll be curious if Dont’a Hightower shows up on the injury report on Wednesday. I’ve been so excited to see him fully unleashed this season and the Pats used him extensively rushing the passer but he didn’t quite set the world on fire. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. He seemed to tweak his ankle early in the game and it looked like he was occasionally favoring it. Something to monitor. But he had a ton of pass rush reps and never seemed to quite make the impact I thought he would. He sure is strong but something was missing in this game.
— Logan Ryan had his ups and downs in this game. On the final drive he was victimized twice by Larry Fitzgerald on an out pattern. Ryan failed to get a jam in both instances. But he also had a nice play on the ball on a dig route in the third quarter, breaking up the pass to Fitzgerald with perfect positioning. Fitzgerald was often just too strong, deflecting Ryan’s jam without breaking stride. Ryan was sent on a slot blitz at least four times that I counted. He’s really developed into a useful player, but he’ll need to improve his consistency at the end of the game.
— The quick change was not the Patriots defense’s finest moments in this one, allowing scores off of both turnovers with a short field. Those are the hardest moments to manage and not ones the Pats are often put in.
— The potential weak spot in the Fluid Defensive Front was exploited in the fourth quarter with a short pass to Andre Ellington. Collins gets so consumed inside, also taking a false step off the play action, that he can’t recover and get to his coverage man — Ellington.
— Palmer was excellent with pressure in his face. Not every QB in the league will throw the same strikes in the face of oncoming free rushers like that.
— On Johnson’s 45-yard run it’s hard to see exactly how everyone whiffed. Sheard might’ve been held. But it was pure chaos at the point of attack with multiple Pats getting hands on Johnson but no one could bring him down. Valentine was the guy who really should’ve had him. He moved down the line well, just needed to finish the play.
— Lotta late communication and guys rushing to the right spot throughout the game. Don’t remember ever seeing the defense so frequently scrambling to get lined up. Again, this might be a weakness of the Fluid Defensive Front because everyone is moving all over the place throughout the game and it must get confusing at times.
— Would’ve loved more finish from the front seven on the last drive, but the defense as a whole seemed a bit gassed. Lack of jams, miscommunication, not getting off blocks. That’s all stuff that should improve as they get into game shape.
— Few player quick hits:
- Anthony Johnson didn’t look like the same disruptive presence he was in preseason. Seemed pretty average overall.
- Shea McClellin didn’t do much of anything. If it came down to pulling him or Trey Flowers when Ninkovich comes back I’d probably pull McClellin after this one.
- I continue to be impressed by Justin Coleman. He’s physical and making more and more plays on the ball. This is as good a trio of corners as we’ve had, not to mention Cyrus Jones and his internship.
- Chris Long is going to have a monster season. Jabaal Sheard too.
Belichick thought Chung would’ve blocked the kick had he hit it straight.
