A defensive masterpiece
How the Pats slowed the Chiefs as well as anyone
Beneath the rubble of Monday’s 26-10 loss in Kansas City, where Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham took turns collapsing the Patriots’ offense from within, Bill Belichick left behind a defensive masterpiece.
The Chiefs’ 19 offensive points were the second-fewest they’ve ever scored with Patrick Mahomes under center, trailing only a sad 13-point showing last year against Indianapolis. The Pats effectively silenced Mahomes until they surrendered an inevitable touchdown late in the third quarter, then kindly paid for another end-zone trip via penalties and a dropped interception in the fourth. Still, there’s an argument to be made the Patriots defended Kansas City better than the Colts did, which would make Monday’s performance one of the best ever versus a generational offense.
Here’s the case.
That night against Indy, Chiefs All-Pro wide receiver Tyreek Hill didn’t play, and Mahomes hurt his ankle late, which severely limited his ability to lead a comeback effort, let alone escape the pocket. Kansas
City also dropped four passes, the most Mahomes has ever suffered in a single game. Nevertheless, he threw for 321 yards, almost 100 more than he compiled Monday.
Mahomes’ 236 passing yards against the Pats finished as the fourth-fewest of his career among games he’s completed. More to the point, in each of their past four meetings, Belichick has allowed fewer points to Mahomes than he did the game before, perhaps the sign of a coach’s strengthening grip on an all-time talent.
On Monday, Belichick handicapped the Chiefs offense with a simple idea: dropping eight into coverage as often as possible.
The Pats deployed eight defenders in coverage on 44% of Mahomes’ dropbacks, a preposterous percentage. Last season, the Patriots dropped eight more than most NFL teams at a mere 16% clip. The Lions led the entire league at 27%.
On the opposite end of the pressure spectrum, the Pats blitzed Mahomes on just two dropbacks all game. Historically, Mahomes’ QB rating soars when he’s blitzed — gas defensive coordinators unwisely throw on the league’s hottest fire.
Belichick reserved his dropeight tactic mostly for high-leverage situations: third downs and red-zone snaps. Mahomes faced eight men in coverage on every third-down dropback, converting only 3-of-10 via a scramble, penalty and first-quarter completion to Hill.
When they dropped eight, the Patriots typically played man-toman coverage with two deep safeties and another defender patrolling the short middle. The Pats would occasionally invert that structure, calling for two defenders in short zone and one deep. All short zone defenders would hunt for crossing routes, looking to knock Chiefs pass-catchers off their timing — or their feet.
Through all that extra traffic, passing over the middle for Mahomes eventually became like trying to thread a needle in a haystack. He was routinely forced on the move and to the outside.
Overall, the Patriots played man coverage on 72% of all passing snaps. They dialed up enough zone to prevent Mahomes from getting comfortable pre-snap and disguised their coverages well. Most Pats defensive backs rotated positions, and all switched assignments often enough to keep any player or matchup from consistently tipping Kansas City off to their intentions.
Those rotations were a stark change from the Pats’ last visit to Arrowhead Stadium for the 2019 AFC Championship Game, when their game plan was built on a consistent double team of Hill and one-on-one excellence from Stephon Gilmore and J.C. Jackson. Gilmore bounced between Hill and Sammy Watkins on Monday, even taking No. 4 wideout Demarcus Robinson on a few passing snaps.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who drew Gilmore and Jackson two years ago, was confronted by several defensive backs. Safeties Joejuan Williams and Kyle Dugger saw him most. Both eventually surrendered big plays to Kelce — Williams on a 45-yard catch and Dugger an untimely thirddown pass interference penalty — that fueled Kansas City’s only touchdown drives.
Inevitably, the dam always breaks against the Chiefs.
However, there was another silent killer for Belichick, the most obvious risk in his plan: lack of pressure. The Pats’ pressure rate fell from 40% in the first half to below 20% after the break. Unbothered for most of the second half, Mahomes delivered enough strikes and escaped on one crucial third-down scramble to keep Kansas City ahead.
Like any other singular game plan, dropping eight consistently is no miracle cure against the Chiefs. Limiting Mahomes requires a talented, well-coached and versatile secondary, plus timely pressure to get him off the field. On that front, the Patriots absolutely delivered Monday night.
In early October, that type of performance should suffice, even in spite of the loss.
Because it means the Pats, once the league’s most-targeted themselves, might earn another shot at the reigning champs come January.