The Patriots and Bill Belichick may not always have the league’s best defense in terms of yards, but they are always among the best in scoring defense. Their ability to limit points has always complimented their high scoring offense. The Patriots defense is always strong on 3rd down and in the red area. The Patriots as a team are always well prepared when it comes to situational football.
The Patriots, as well as the Lions who are coached by former Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, run a lot of man coverage on third downs. Belichick’s defense prefers subtle variance in his fronts and coverages, rather than full on chaos. The first example of this comes from last season against the Browns in Week 8. The Patriots show a man coverage look with a safety in the middle of the field. To the browns, it is clearly cover 1.
At the snap the Patriots rotate the boundary safety to a deep half, playing 2 man, or as Belichick calls it Cover 5.
A good way to beat 2 man is to run the slot receiver on an out pattern, since the corners play with inside leverage, due to having help outside and over top. The corner at the bottom of the screen, Stephon Gilmore, comes off of his man and undercuts the out route. It should’ve been a pick 6, but Gilmore couldn’t squeeze it. The Patriots have a check in this coverage that allows the outside corner, Gilmore, to trap an out route by #2. He is protected with safety help over the top. The Browns played right into Belichick’s hands.
The Patriots are known for taking away the opponent’s strength, which is usually a stud receiver. Against the Eagles in Week 10, they faced star tight end Zach Ertz. On third down, the Patriots ran their staple 1 Double Jersey # coverage. No matter where Ertz lines up, the Patriots will double him. Here he is flexed out as the single receiver in a 3×1 open set.
At the top of the screen, Ertz runs a dig route. The safety plays high and inside, with the corner playing low and outside on Ertz. The Patriots use their other safety to play over the top of the 3 receiver side, helping on any deep routes. This also allows the patriots underneath defenders to play aggressive man coverage, because they know they have help over the top.
Now let’s take a look at a lions example. When you play man coverage on third down, one popular way to attack it is to run crossing routes, in attempt to have receivers run away from the defender trying to cover them. The Lions/Patriots answer is to run 1 Cross, which is a coverage that uses a safety to drop down and cut the first crosser he sees. Usually it will be the boundary safety, because the routes will be coming from the field.
To take it a step further, teams know that this defensive scheme runs this coverage on third down, so they will run another receiver on a crossing route. Since the defender’s job is to cut the first crosser, the offense wants another crossing route ran against this coverage, because the patriots defender covering it will not have any help. The coverage’s answer to this? The defender covering the first crosser initially, will now become the new robber, or defender ready to cut a crossing route. it is a type of switch coverage that is aimed to bait teams into throwing a second crossing route, right into a lurking defender.
In studying the Lions 3rd down defense from 2019, they played a mix of Cover 1 and Cover 2. When they played Cover 2, they disguised it, waiting until after the snap to rotate. They ran a mixture of sim pressures, which I covered in previous posts. Against the Redskins in week 13, here is a great example of a cover 2 sim pressure. The Redskins motion and outside receiver in closer to the formation, trying to see if the lions are in man coverage.
The Lions rotate to Cover 2 Tampa, bringing the nickel and the mike linebacker. The safety sprinting to the middle of the field, is what makes this 2 Tampa and not just simply cover 2. The Mike comes unblocked up the middle for the sack. A successful sim pressure is when you have an unblocked defender and offensive lineman standing there blocking air. That is exactly what happened here.
I noticed in my study that the Lions ran sim pressures more often against young quarterbacks. Patricia wanted to confuse them and make them stand there and hold the ball or force them into bad decisions.
The Patriots defense works when you have a really strong secondary and are able to execute a rush plan tailored to each opposing quarterback. The Patriots excel at this, but the lions did not in 2019. The were not able to get to the quarterback rushing only 3 or 4, and suffered injuries in the secondary. Taking away what your opponent does best sounds cliche, but using 1 Cross or 1 Double jersey # will allow your defense to do just that.
Talkin Ball 