Testimony for defense
Pats offer tangible evidence of improvements
The Falcons had been portrayed as the Patriots’ reality check, but it turned out that their defensive progress wasn’t a product of fog and mirrors after all.
That’s the most encouraging sign for the Patriots during a three-game winning streak in which they’ve allowed 12.7 points per clip, an unfathomable turnaround from yielding 32 points per game through Week 4. They had style points in their 23-7 victory against Atlanta, and the performance in an uberanticipated Super Bowl LI rematch on national television doubled as an advertisement to the rest of the league that they aren’t as vulnerable now as they had been in September.
The first two wins — 19-14 against the Buccaneers and 24-17 against the Jets — essentially had an asterisk due to the quality of the opponent and the Patriots’ own admittance that there were still some inexcusable breakdowns. For instance, they didn’t close well against the Bucs and were poor on third down against the Jets.
All the while, the breakdowns in zone coverage continued to expose the Pats to big plays, as they coughed up four gains of at least 20 yards to the Buccaneers and five to the Jets, which kept their season average at 5.2 20-yarders per game. Their 31 total was the second most in the NFL through Week 6. Far more promising, they allowed a season-low two 20-yard plays to the Falcons, and both occurred after the Patriots built a 17-0 lead.
There are reasons to believe the improved play has staying power. Their strides aren’t a result of a strippeddown, simple set of assignments, so it’s important that they’re playing well in the system that Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia want to employ over the long haul.
Against the Falcons, they continued to mix up their looks at the line and in the secondary. On their first third-down stop, the Patriots put five players on the line, sent three at Matt Ryan and dropped Trey Flowers and Kyle
Van Noy into coverage. It seemed to shake Ryan, whose incompletion to Mohamed
Sanu was wellcovered by Patrick Chung.
There was another key sequence that led to Matt Bryant’s missed field goal in the third quarter when Malcolm Butler, Devin McCourty and Chung perfectly executed their zone assignments against Austin Cooper and Julio Jones. Chung stuck with Hooper and Butler passed Jones off to McCourty, who stuck tightly with the Pro Bowler on an incompletion in the end zone.
These were the types of zone woes that were problematic earlier in the season.
A play later, on third-and-7, the Patriots rushed five and single-covered the Falcons’ five route runners aside from Jones, who was taken by Johnson Bademosi and Duron Harmon to Ryan’s left. Ryan instead looked right, where Butler had Taylor Gabriel and Jonathan Jones took Sanu. The latter was the Falcons’ most advantageous matchup, but Jones had strong coverage on the end-zone throw. So despite earlier claims that the Patriots simply should play man coverage on every play, this was an important swing that proved it pays to present multiple looks.
It was also a staple play from the best overall defensive performance of Jones’ career, as his other two targets resulted in a pass breakup and a fourth-down incompletion. And Bademosi was really good in his second start, allowing three completions on four targets for 31 yards with one breakup.
It’d be crazy to think Bademosi could Wally Pipp fellow corner Stephon Gilmore upon his return from a concussion, especially given Gilmore’s most recent performance against the Bucs. Bademosi undoubtedly has earned a rotational role when everyone is at full strength. Another positive, this development will force Gilmore to be on his game when he is back because Belichick has proven reinforcements at his disposal.
Bademosi gave up a 13yard pass to Sanu because he got too deep in his zone and got flat-out beat by Jones for 15 yards. No harm there. There was a nit-picky miscue in the third quarter when Jones caught a 16-yard pass against a zone, as Van Noy didn’t check Jones at the line and Bademosi too closely followed the short sideline route to leave Harmon vulnerable to Jones’ intermediate pattern, but that’s more of a learning situation for Bademosi.
The zone breakdowns were minimal overall. Van Noy sucked in on play action on an early 19-yarder to Sanu, and Jones had a couple of 14yard gains in the fourth quarter, one in which he weaved through traffic and another on a zone-beater route. Not ideal, but the Patriots can live with those.
It’d be unfair to point out the minor mistakes without acknowledging the subtle positives. Notably, Bademosi peeled off his man to help Chung bring down Sanu at the 1-yard line after a 9-yard catch in the fourth quarter when it was still 20-0. Without Bademosi’s hit, Sanu’s momentum might have carried him into the end zone. The Patriots followed with a goal-line stand with Butler’s third-down breakup in the end zone against Jones and Van Noy’s takedown of Gabriel’s end-around.
It was one of two sturdy plays Van Noy made on the edge for a run stuff. The Falcons tried to stress a susceptible area, but the Patriots were up to the challenge, though inconsistencies on the edge will remain a focus until they’re eliminated.
Those are the marks of good defenses. The Patriots stuck with their desired plan and didn’t panic, and they’ve improved in the areas where they knew they’d be tested. Tangible evidence has indicated the Patriots defense has come out of their September funk.