Obviously, the first game of the season was a historically dismal performance by the New England Patriots defense. However, in no way is the season doomed after only one loss and they have plenty of time to right the ship. The question now is: can they? With Drew Brees and the Saints up next, the pressure is on Belichick and Patricia to fix some flaws and fix them quick.
Without the benefit of film review, here are some thoughts on each of the position groups and snap counts provided via Mike Reiss: http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4805578/mike-gillislees-usage-shows-how-hes-patriots-top-option-as-power-rb
DEFENSIVE END
Trey Flowers – 69
Dont’a Hightower – 35
Cassius Marsh – 24
Deatrick Wise – 18
Trey Flowers is obviously the stud of the group. He is the only semblance of a pass rusher the Patriots have and he seems to be a pretty good one. With his 2 sacks last night, he has 11.5 sacks in his last 13 games. The big story with this unit is the presence of Dont'a Hightower at Rob Ninkovich's old defensive end spot. The reasoning for the move seems to one based on need rather than Belichick's typical "putting a player in the best position to succeed". To me, Hightower excels as a blitzer where he can time his blitz, win one on one matchups with RBs, or use leverage against weak OGs. The last guy I want him to match up against is an OT who is most likely to have the athleticism and power to neutralize Hightower's rush.
A positive step in solving the issues of the front 7 would be for someone to step up and allow the Patriots to move Hightower back to his usual job. As we saw last night, that guy is not going to be Cassius Marsh. Marsh seems more like your pin the ears back and rush the passer guy than an every down guy. That puts the pressure on Wise to develop quickly. The book on him out of Arkansas was that he was somewhat of a development guy, so it will be have to be seen whether he can develop quickly enough to help. Ninkovich on speed dial?
DEFENSIVE TACKLE
Malcom Brown – 49
Alan Branch – 42
Lawrence Guy – 26
Adam Butler – 21
Vincent Valentine – 0 (injured)
Interior line play is always tough to evaluate using television camera angles. The Patriots gap control scheme makes it even more difficult as you don't know what each player's responsibility was on a play. With that said, the Chiefs seemed to exploit a weakness in the interior with those shovel passes to Kelce that seemed to pick up 7-8 yards every time they ran it. I thought one bright spot was the play of Adam Butler. They seemed to keep it simple for him and only brought him in on obvious passing plays, but he was able to generate some pressure.
As expected, this position seems to be one of the strongest with a combination of talent and depth.
LINEBACKER
Kyle Van Noy – 69
Elandon Roberts – 9
David Harris – 2
Marquis Flowers – 0 (special teams)
Harvey Langhi – 0 (healthy scratch)
Shea McClellin – 0 (injured, IR)
Obviously from the snap counts, this was not a heavy use game for this group. The Patriots seemed to choose to match up with the Chiefs TEs and RBs with safeties rather than linebackers. However, that might have just been a product of the fact that the Patriots really only have one LB (Van Noy) who can do anything in coverage. Roberts and Harris are more known for their downhill play than coverage abilities.
Moving Hightower back to this group would provide an immediate upgrade, but would not solve the glaring need of a LB that can cover in space. One of Van Noy's biggest criticisms with the Lions was his lack of coverage ability, so when he is your best guy you are in trouble. Expect teams to continue to exploit this weakness until the Patriots find an internal option or bring one off the street.
CORNERBACK
Stephon Gilmore – 69
Malcolm Butler – 69
Eric Rowe – 37
Jonathan Jones – 3
Johnson Bandemosi – 0 (special teams)
This group seemed to perform well despite the ultimate result. Gilmore seemed to be given the Revis treatment where he was left on an island. Unclear if the big play to Hill was blown coverage by Gilmore or great play design where the safety was left covering 2 guys and picked the wrong one. I expect he will be matched up one on one with Michael Thomas next week. Butler's issues from the preseason seemed to carry over to the regular season where he can't seem to turn his head around quick enough. It has always seemed to me that Belichick has this view that Butler has a fatal flaw that keeps him from the upper echelon of CBs. Somewhat similar to Belichick's candid comment about Arrington being a streaky player.
This group should improve with reps and better communication in the defensive backfield.
SAFETY
Devin McCourty – 68
Duron Harmon – 63
Patrick Chung – 45
Jordan Richards – 42
Nate Ebner – 0 (special teams, injured)
Brandon King – 0 (special teams)
Is the Ron Burton Award the equivalent of immunity on the Patriots roster? Jordan Richards is awful and continued to be awful last night. In the first half, he was clearly the weak link the Chiefs chose to exploit. They seemed to do a good job of losing him pre-snap with motion across the alignment and then losing him after the snap by running crossing routes. He simply couldn't keep up. Unfortunately, either a LB is going to have to step up and prove they can cover, or Richards will need to be replaced with another safety. Given the fact the Patriots are currently carrying 2 safeties on the practice squad tells me they are aware of this weakness.
The problems with the usual 3 safeties (McCourty, Chung, and Harmon) appeared to be scheme based. Very poor game plan on the back end from Belichick and Patricia. With better planning this trifecta should improve.
Key Takeaways:
Without the benefit of film review, here are some thoughts on each of the position groups and snap counts provided via Mike Reiss: http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4805578/mike-gillislees-usage-shows-how-hes-patriots-top-option-as-power-rb
DEFENSIVE END
Trey Flowers – 69
Dont’a Hightower – 35
Cassius Marsh – 24
Deatrick Wise – 18
Trey Flowers is obviously the stud of the group. He is the only semblance of a pass rusher the Patriots have and he seems to be a pretty good one. With his 2 sacks last night, he has 11.5 sacks in his last 13 games. The big story with this unit is the presence of Dont'a Hightower at Rob Ninkovich's old defensive end spot. The reasoning for the move seems to one based on need rather than Belichick's typical "putting a player in the best position to succeed". To me, Hightower excels as a blitzer where he can time his blitz, win one on one matchups with RBs, or use leverage against weak OGs. The last guy I want him to match up against is an OT who is most likely to have the athleticism and power to neutralize Hightower's rush.
A positive step in solving the issues of the front 7 would be for someone to step up and allow the Patriots to move Hightower back to his usual job. As we saw last night, that guy is not going to be Cassius Marsh. Marsh seems more like your pin the ears back and rush the passer guy than an every down guy. That puts the pressure on Wise to develop quickly. The book on him out of Arkansas was that he was somewhat of a development guy, so it will be have to be seen whether he can develop quickly enough to help. Ninkovich on speed dial?
DEFENSIVE TACKLE
Malcom Brown – 49
Alan Branch – 42
Lawrence Guy – 26
Adam Butler – 21
Vincent Valentine – 0 (injured)
Interior line play is always tough to evaluate using television camera angles. The Patriots gap control scheme makes it even more difficult as you don't know what each player's responsibility was on a play. With that said, the Chiefs seemed to exploit a weakness in the interior with those shovel passes to Kelce that seemed to pick up 7-8 yards every time they ran it. I thought one bright spot was the play of Adam Butler. They seemed to keep it simple for him and only brought him in on obvious passing plays, but he was able to generate some pressure.
As expected, this position seems to be one of the strongest with a combination of talent and depth.
LINEBACKER
Kyle Van Noy – 69
Elandon Roberts – 9
David Harris – 2
Marquis Flowers – 0 (special teams)
Harvey Langhi – 0 (healthy scratch)
Shea McClellin – 0 (injured, IR)
Obviously from the snap counts, this was not a heavy use game for this group. The Patriots seemed to choose to match up with the Chiefs TEs and RBs with safeties rather than linebackers. However, that might have just been a product of the fact that the Patriots really only have one LB (Van Noy) who can do anything in coverage. Roberts and Harris are more known for their downhill play than coverage abilities.
Moving Hightower back to this group would provide an immediate upgrade, but would not solve the glaring need of a LB that can cover in space. One of Van Noy's biggest criticisms with the Lions was his lack of coverage ability, so when he is your best guy you are in trouble. Expect teams to continue to exploit this weakness until the Patriots find an internal option or bring one off the street.
CORNERBACK
Stephon Gilmore – 69
Malcolm Butler – 69
Eric Rowe – 37
Jonathan Jones – 3
Johnson Bandemosi – 0 (special teams)
This group seemed to perform well despite the ultimate result. Gilmore seemed to be given the Revis treatment where he was left on an island. Unclear if the big play to Hill was blown coverage by Gilmore or great play design where the safety was left covering 2 guys and picked the wrong one. I expect he will be matched up one on one with Michael Thomas next week. Butler's issues from the preseason seemed to carry over to the regular season where he can't seem to turn his head around quick enough. It has always seemed to me that Belichick has this view that Butler has a fatal flaw that keeps him from the upper echelon of CBs. Somewhat similar to Belichick's candid comment about Arrington being a streaky player.
This group should improve with reps and better communication in the defensive backfield.
SAFETY
Devin McCourty – 68
Duron Harmon – 63
Patrick Chung – 45
Jordan Richards – 42
Nate Ebner – 0 (special teams, injured)
Brandon King – 0 (special teams)
Is the Ron Burton Award the equivalent of immunity on the Patriots roster? Jordan Richards is awful and continued to be awful last night. In the first half, he was clearly the weak link the Chiefs chose to exploit. They seemed to do a good job of losing him pre-snap with motion across the alignment and then losing him after the snap by running crossing routes. He simply couldn't keep up. Unfortunately, either a LB is going to have to step up and prove they can cover, or Richards will need to be replaced with another safety. Given the fact the Patriots are currently carrying 2 safeties on the practice squad tells me they are aware of this weakness.
The problems with the usual 3 safeties (McCourty, Chung, and Harmon) appeared to be scheme based. Very poor game plan on the back end from Belichick and Patricia. With better planning this trifecta should improve.
Key Takeaways:
- Rob Ninkovich's retirement and injuries to Shea McClellin and Derek Rivers have had a trickle down effect of forcing too many players into jobs they aren't capable of doing.
- The lack of pass rush will allow teams to spread the field with RBs and TEs and force the Patriots into dime coverage to expose the lack of coverage ability at linebacker and at the end of the safety depth chart.
- Teams will likely continue to shift alignment pre-snap and run crossing routes to stress the Patriot's communication in the backfield.
- Someone steps up at the defensive end position allowing Hightower (assuming good health) to move back to his usual role. Putting Hightower in a better position to blitz will improve the pass rush and potentially punish teams that try to spread out their RBs and TEs.
- Patriots find outside the 53 man roster someone who can replace Richards (coverage LB or safety). As the Patriots have proved over and over again, you are only as strong as your weakest link.
- Added reps and games will result in better communication and give the coaches a better understanding of how to utilize all the new pieces.