Pats Had Gronk Backup Plan
Dwayne Allen Was Ready To Go
The Patriots, as they do with many injury situations, were preparing a contingency plan if Rob Gronkowski couldn’t play against the Bears before the tight end was officially ruled out Sunday morning with a back injury.
“We have to be prepared each week for backups to every position,” coach Bill Belichick said. “So, something could happen on the first play and somebody else could have to play for that player — you never know who that player is. For example, what happened with Sony [Michel] there in the [second] quarter, that could happen to anybody at any time, unfortunately. So, we have to be prepared for those things. At whatever point the die is cast and we know what it is, we go in that direction.
“But, in this case, it really went all the way up til Sunday morning before we were 100 percent sure, even though we knew it was a possibility before that.”
So, the Patriots were getting a game plan ready that didn’t involve Gronkowski, but they still knew how they’d use him if they were able to.
Part of the contingency plan was to use tight end Dwayne Allen more than usual, a season-high 55 snaps on offense.
Allen was the only member of that position group who was active, as Jacob Hollister was out with a hamstring injury.
Allen, as usual, was heavily involved in the blocking game. He wasn’t targeted for a pass, but was still in on offense for 85.9 percent of offensive plays.
“Yeah, Dwayne did a good job for us, as he always does,” Belichick said. “He had a couple of those situations that came up last year and he did a good job for us. He played in the kicking game, as well, so he had a pretty solid role, significant role in the game and did a nice job.”
Picking Off Praise
The Patriots’ two interceptions were a product of good ball skills by the defenders, cornerbacks Jonathan Jones and J.C. Jackson, something Belichick praised Monday.
“Sometimes you’re the beneficiary of just an offensive mistake, but in those two cases, I thought those were great examples of good defensive plays where we kind of took the ball away from them, as opposed to they just gave us a good opportunity for it,” Belichick said. “We were able to get it away from them, so that was good.”
Jones’ interception required great timing and recognition of what receiver Anthony Miller was doing to make his jump at the right time. Jackson’s pick required good hands, as he came up with a 50-50 ball against Josh Bellamy.
Waving Flag
Belichick said it “crossed his mind” to challenge the ruling of an incomplete catch on a pass intended for Julian Edelman on the first play of the Patriots’ second drive, since Edelman thought he caught the ball.
The coach ultimately decided not to, though, because the risk of losing a challenge outweighed the reward of what would have been an 8-yard catch on first down. The Patriots went three and out on the drive.
Off And Running
The Patriots coach offered this assessment of his team’s defense against Mitchell Trubisky’s scrambles: “Well, we didn’t do a very good job of rushing the passer — I mean, bad coaching, bad tackling, some bad playing, just not very good,” he said. “I mean, he ran well, he broke a couple tackles, but not very good by us in any area.”