Jags ‘D’ an ultimate test
Pats offense must find ways to strike
FOXBORO — Facing two lockdown cornerbacks and an unrelenting pass rush, the Patriots turned to their bread-and-butter early in the AFC Championship Game last season.
The Pats wanted to get their talented trio of running backs in space.
Problem is, against the Jaguars, space vanishes immediately.
Their first red zone trip featured two quick throws to Dion Lewis. They went for minus-2 yards. In the third quarter, Tom Brady again looked for Lewis on a quick outlet to convert a third-and-4 near midfield. Jacksonville linebacker Telvin Smith closed rapidly and halted Lewis’ momentum, allowing Myles Jack to fly in from seven yards away and finish the play.
“That’s as much speed at linebacker probably as most any team in the league,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick yesterday.
Lewis caught seven passes that afternoon. One went for 20 yards, and it was on a trick play (wide receiver Danny Amendola threw the ball). The other six receptions netted 12 yards.
Much of the Pats offense is built on short, quick-hitting throws, oftentimes to the flat. Brady is at his best when distributing like a point guard, getting the ball to his playmakers almost instantly, giving them space to operate.
A week ago, that strategy, while expected, proved maddening for Houston’s typically dominant pass rush. The NFL Films crew captured footage of a sideline conversation between defensive end Angelo Blackson and nose tackle Brandon Dunn during which a dumbfounded Blackson remarked, “That ball’s coming out so quick. It’s like, you want to rush, but . . .”
“Just keep rushing,” Dunn encouraged.
This is the Patriots’ formula against most elite pass-rushing units, but as they saw in last year’s AFC Championship Game, it’s not so simple against the Jaguars.
Their speed in the middle of the field, particularly with Smith and Jack at linebacker, is “pretty special,” Belichick noted. “Jack is a strong player, Smith Sr. is fast. He covers a lot of ground, obviously.”
“Can’t run away from ’em,” said Pats receiver Phillip Dorsett, who posted a blistering 4.33 40-yard dash coming out of college. “That’s why they’re so great, because you can’t run away from them. So you’ve got to put in stuff to counter that.”
So what’s the counter when the Patriots travel to Jacksonville for Sunday’s AFC showdown with the league’s most complete defense?
Perhaps the Patriots will draw on their experience from the AFC title game, when late in the game they discovered a strategy that worked.
Trailing by 10 points in the fourth quarter, Brady largely avoided throwing into the flat and expecting yards after the catch. Instead, he turned his eyes down field. The Pats used a flea-flicker to set up a 31-yard connection to Dorsett. They picked up 36 yards on a pass interference flag drawn by Brandin Cooks against cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The offensive line gave Brady enough time to find Amendola on routes that needed to develop down field, including a 21-yard pickup on a third-and-18.
They did just enough to pull out the win.
Of course, Amendola and Cooks are no longer on the team. The composition of the Patriots offense has changed drastically, but the reliance on the short passing game, with an emphasis on yards after the catch, remains in place. Running backs were targeted 17 times in the seasonopening win over Houston. Wide receivers, conversely, were targeted 14 times.
If the Pats cannot dink and dunk their way down the field against the Jags, what exactly will they do? That’s why they’re paying offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels the big bucks.
And that’s why they have tight end Rob Gronkowski, the ultimate game-changer in the middle of the field. Gronkowski was knocked out of the AFC Championship Game against the Jags with a concussion. He’s undoubtedly a critical part of the game plan on Sunday.
And the excellent Jacksonville defense is mostly unchanged from a year ago.
“They pretty much led the league in every category last year,” Belichick said. “They’re all back and they’re all good and they have a lot of depth.”
The Patriots offense, still figuring itself out, gets one heck of a test in Week 2.