Defense gets wiser Catch your breath
Pats check familiar game plan
PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK
Colts coach Frank Reich got the best of Bill Belichick and the Patriots the last time they squared off.
The Pats weren’t going to let it happen again.
When the Eagles gashed the Pats defense for 538 yards and 41 points on their way to a Super Bowl victory in February, Reich was the offensive coordinator. With head coach Doug Pederson, they designed many of the concepts that gave the Patriots so much trouble.
An area of particular difficulty was covering running backs in the passing game. On Thursday night, Reich and the Colts tried to recreate some of that Super Bowl success with speedy rookie back Nyheim Hines, but the Pats were much better at limiting his yardage out of the backfield.
Hines did catch seven passes but for just 45 yards in the Pats’ 38-24 victory.
“I think there were a lot of plays in this game that were similar to the concepts that we saw in the Super Bowl from (Eagles back Corey) Clement. A lot of wheel routes, a similar type of game plan,” Belichick said yesterday. “Hines, who’s a very good player, I’m not taking anything away from him, I’m just saying his production last night wasn’t anything close to what Philadelphia had in the Super Bowl running those types of routes.”
Hines wasn’t wide open down field for the chunk plays Clement produced, and when he did catch the ball, the Pats were ready.
Much of the credit goes to safety Patrick Chung, who had 11 tackles. He also intercepted Andrew Luck’s pass intended for Hines in the second quarter to set up a Stephen Gostkowski field goal and a 24-3 halftime lead.
“Pat’s quick, he’s instinctive. He’s a smart player, a really good tackler. That’s a key part of that,” Belichick said. “I think when you look overall at Hines’ production, I mean, he caught seven balls with one interception. He certainly had a little bit of production. I’d say a lot of guys had more production than he did last night. I thought we did a reasonably good job on him.”
Second half struggles
After nearly shutting out the Dolphins in Week 4, the Patriots defense took a step back.
They kept Luck in check early, and the three turnovers they produced were critical factors in the victory. But in the second half, when the Colts started to air it out to get back in the game, the Pats’ ‘D’ was on its heels.
Luck led Indy on three scoring drives, capping off all three with touchdown passes. He threw for 249 yards in the second half, and the total could’ve been higher if not for a handful of drops.
Devin McCourty thought the Pats struggled once the Colts went into their hurry-up offense.
“We have just got to do a better job once the game turns into a two-minute type game at the end,” the safety said. “Pass plays, just being able to recognize routes and doing a better job.”
Linebackers coach Brian Flores, who calls the defensive signals, seemed to agree.
“Once the game changes like that, we have to be able to adjust better than we did. Hopefully, we learn from that,” Flores said yesterday. “It’s always a goal to be consistent all the way throughout the game, but I always tell our players there’s never been a perfect game played of football. Obviously, that was the case last night.”
After the Patriots handled the Colts to wrap up a whirlwind stretch of three games in 12 days, Belichick said it was time to take a deep breath and relax.
“There was no chance at all after (the Miami) game to have any kind of catch your breath,” he said. “You’re getting right off one treadmill and jumping onto another one, and it’s already going pretty fast.”
The Pats have a few extra days to sit back before they begin preparation for a huge matchup against the undefeated Chiefs.
“It definitely takes a couple days, I think, for everybody to kind of unwind and get your feet back under you and catch your breath,” Belichick said. “By that time, it’s Sunday and now you’re starting to get ready for Kansas City.”
Flores and the defense will spend the time getting up to speed on the Chiefs explosive offense.
“Well, (yesterday was) about, obviously, cleaning up the Colts,” he said, “but I’ve taken a quick look at those guys. So, I mean, they’re obviously a very good team, very good skill players — (Travis) Kelce, Tyreek Hill, (Patrick) Mahomes.”
Mahomes is off to a red-hot start, and Flores was impressed by the quarterback’s gamebreaking ability.
“One word (to describe Mahomes) would be dynamic,” Flores said.