Patriots defense adjusts, stars in crunchtime
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Patriots defensive players heard the barbs all season, the concerns that their unit would be the Patriots’ weak link and possibly the reason they wouldn’t be able to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
But despite finishing the regular season ranked 29th in total defense — the statistic that measures total yards allowed, not points — the Patriots defense closed out New England’s 24-20 AFC Championship Game win over the Jacksonville Jaguars by throttling the Jags in the second half.
“The game switched when we got into that fourth quarter, and I told the defense we had to play perfect,” safety Devin McCourty said. “We couldn’t give up third downs, we couldn’t give up the long six- or seven-minute drive. That would have ended us.”
The Patriots, admittedly out of sorts in the first half as they were gashed by Jacksonville quarterback Blake Bortles and the running back duo of Leonard Fournette and Corey Grant for two long touchdown drives, came up with big play after big play in the fourth quarter, allowing Tom Brady and the Patriots offense to mount yet another impressive postseason comeback.
New England held Jacksonville to two long field goals (54 and 43 yards) in the second half and forced the Jaguars to punt three times in the fourth quarter.
The Jaguars’ fourth and final possession was emblematic of the season for the Patriots defense.
Bortles hit receiver Dede Westbrook deep down the left sideline for a 29-yard gain as Westbrook made a good adjust- ment back to the ball to beat cornerback Stephon Gilmore. It was a chunk play, the type the Patriots have been susceptible to all season.
But how the defense responded was most important.
“It’s just everyone tightening up, forgetting whatever happened to get us there, ’cause it’s usually something bad that happened,” McCourty said.
Two plays later, linebacker Kyle Van Noy sacked Bortles for a 7-yard loss. That forced the Jaguars into needing to convert a third-and-19 (they got 4 yards) or a fourth-and-15 to keep their Super Bowl dreams alive. This time Gilmore made the play, breaking up Bortles’ final deep shot, again intended for Westbrook.
“It looked like he got in there and made a good play on the ball from where I stood,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He has good length, he reached with his arm, his right arm, and was able to bat the ball away.”
The Patriots defense that will play in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis in two weeks will be the less-heralded group in that matchup, just like it was in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against Jacksonville, which finished the regular season with the NFL’s top-ranked pass defense and No. 2 overall defense in both yards allowed and scoring.
It’s a group that lacks an elite pass rusher (Trey Flowers had a team-high 61⁄ sacks in the regular season) and has undergone changes since last year because of a season-ending injury to top linebacker Dont’a Hightower and is now preparing to lose coordinator Matt Patricia, who is expected to be named head coach of the Detroit Lions after the Super Bowl.
Yet it hardly seems to matter in January. A week after holding the Tennessee Titans to 14 points (and only one touchdown in the final three quarters), the Patriots were able to rely on their defense to close out the AFC title game.
“We know what type of guys we got. It’s just one of those things, y’all can hype everybody else and make their defense what it is, but we’re some dogs,” Flowers said. “We make it happen when it comes down to it.”