Pats Pulpit
It’s championship week for the New England Patriots as they get set to welcome the Buffalo Bills to town with a chance to clinch the AFC East. Off a bye week, the Patriots are healthier as they’ll additionally look to sweep the season series against Buffalo after defeating them 23-20 back in Week 5.
With that, let’s get into this week’s #PostPulpit Mailbag.
The biggest issue this team needs to clean up this year and beyond is the short running game. Would it look different with a healthy Antonio Gibson and/or Brock Lampe? Or does the O-Line deserve the blame? What’s the path to correcting this going forward? – slunkywontergreen
The Patriots run game enters the week 30th in rush EPA and have also been one of the worst rushing attacks in short yardage situations. That led to Josh McDaniels breaking out some wrinkles (six o-lineman, unbalanced lines, wildcat) against the Giants on Monday night to try and find answers.
I actually do think that Lampe’s absence is a sneaky one after landing on injured reserve in the summer. Jack Westover is a different type of fullback than Lampe which has led to using Khyiris Tonga in that role to generate more power. Where they are at now, I don’t think they are ever going to be a dominant rushing team this season. But, they have taken small steps in the right direction and should be able to find some more consistency with improved execution (while I wonder if more wrinkles such as getting Maye’s legs involved in key areas are coming).
This will be a good week to continue that trend, as the Bills run defense is among the league’s worst ranking 28th in rushing yards allowed per game and 29th in rushing yards per carry allowed.
With an opportunity to secure the AFC East at home, what’s the best way the defense can get after Allen to make him jumpy leading to some bad decisions? – Kingratt
I’m in favor of being on the aggressive side and bringing some pressure — especially with his lack of weapons on the outside. Some five or six man unconventional rushes to plug escape gaps and not allow Allen and his offensive line to get comfortable. The key word when rushing him this week, however, has been coordinated.
“Coordinated and relentless is probably the best way to phrase it,” Mike Vrabel said. “Because, again, you say, ‘Well, keep him in the pocket.’ And then guys are just standing there and they’re cautious, and we don’t want to coach that way. We want to make sure that we’re trying to remain aggressive, but certainly sound. When he does extend, then we’re going to need to plaster and have guys be able to come up and help us.”
New England only blitzed Allen eight times back in the Week 5 matchup. Bumping that number up could led to Allen getting jumpy and led to some of those bad decisions the Patriots defense can...
