Patriots ‘D’ gets back to basics
Relative to its first four games, the Patriots defense issued an impressive response on Thursday night in the face of its self-made adversity.
It almost didn’t make sense in that context. If the Patriots couldn’t get it right after six months, how would they improve a unit that was surrendering 32 points per game in just four days?
Interestingly, Devin McCourty and Duron Harmon shared a nearly identical answer to that question. They were backed against the wall, and they were the only ones who were responsible for fixing the woes that had them ranked near the bottom of the league in almost every meaningful statistical category.
In a strange way, the 3330 loss to the Panthers on Sunday strengthened their chemistry, and their improvements in coverage against the Buccaneers on Thursday validated their work. They even held walkthroughs this week with numberless shirts as a way to force them to communicate better on defense. It’s a tactic that Bill Belichick has used in the past, but only during spring workouts. To an extent, they were practically starting over.
Yet, the game plan and the calls didn’t change. Sure, Stephon Gilmore followed Mike Evans and Malcolm Butler took DeSean Jackson, but these weren’t straight-up man-coverage assignments. The Patriots mixed in plenty of zone looks because that’s what they do.
If Belichick forced Ty Law, Asante Samuel, Aqib Talib, Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner to abide by his zone assignments, the defensive mastermind of seven Super Bowl victories wasn’t going to change the rules for Gilmore.
As simple as it sounds, the Patriots executed with more precision in the 19-14 victory, and the mistakes weren’t crippling. Jackson caught a 29-yard pass against a soft zone spot on third-and-15 before the Bucs’ fourth-quarter touchdown, and Evans had a 15-yarder against another broken zone earlier in the fourth.
In all, Jameis Winston completed five passes for 78 yards against soft or broken zone coverages. Winston also misfired on a couple easy passes and overthrew Jackson, who beat Butler deep on a third-quarter fly route that could have gone for a 68yard touchdown. While Alex Smith, Deshaun Watson and Cam Newton seemed to capitalize on 100 percent of the Patriots’ breakdowns earlier this season, the Patriots were finally the ones who caught a few breaks.
Gilmore, who had the abundant support of his teammates, allowed four catches on eight targets for 34 yards, which was his second best statistical performance of the season. Put Evans’ four catches in context, though. He caught a pair of 10-yarders in the first two drives when Gilmore gave him a cushion to presumably keep the big-play threat in front of him. Gilmore also noted after the game that Evans added a wrinkle to a couple of his routes, so it’s possible those were the plays that he referenced.
The other two catches were harmless — a 6-yarder on second-and-15 and an 8-yarder against a soft shell when the Pats led, 16-7, and surely worked to prevent the deep ball. Gilmore’s best work occurred on the first third-down stop of the game when he stayed under Evans’ crossing route and forced an incompletion on a high throw. Gilmore was also in coverage on a third-and-goal incompletion prior to one of Nick Folk’s two fourth-quarter shanks.
Butler’s numbers weren’t as strong, but the brunt of the damage came on his most egregious mistake. On thirdand-2 in the fourth quarter, Butler gave Jackson a 10-yard cushion at the line and backpedaled after the snap. Jackson ran a quick slant and turned upfield for 41 yards. For three quarters, Butler had only surrendered an 8-yard catch and had a pass breakup against Jackson on four targets.
Dont’a Hightower’s contributions also can’t be overlooked when assessing the defensive improvements. He split time between inside linebacker and the defensive edge, but he resumed his playcalling duties for the first time this season. The Patriots were hardly perfect with their gap control against the run, but the improvements were evident and the complexity of their pre-snap disguises was heightened a bit. They combined for two sacks, three quarterback hits and seven pressures for 12 disruptions on 48 drop-backs.
By forcing Winston to read the defense for that extra split second, it sometimes took away his preferred destination when he prepared to throw.
The Patriots were honest with themselves all week, acknowledging it really couldn’t get any worse after falling to the Panthers, and that it can obviously still get better after a superior showing against the Bucs. But weighing their strides over that four-day span, the Patriots have established the badly needed momentum for further improvements in the future.