Pats Pulpit
After losing their first game in 83 days, the New England Patriots will now look to bounce back in primetime against the Baltimore Ravens. Fighting for their playoff lives, Baltimore has turned things around defensively of late while Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry will certainly stress a struggling Patriots run defense.
With that, let’s get into this week’s #PostPulpit Mailbag.
Am I crazy or did the Patriots just not really try to push the ball downfield against the Bills? Were they afraid of something? – ghosthaus
To Buffalo’s credit, they ditched post-safety coverages in the first-half and leaned into two-high safety and man-to-man looks playing them on nearly 87% of Drake Maye’s drop backs in the second half — while also disguising coverage shells on nearly a quarter of those plays. Two-high structures are designed to take away the deep shots and instead force quarterbacks to take profits underneath.
With Maye and New England’s pass catchers struggling with post-snap recognition, the offense failed to find a rhythm. Buffalo’s coaching staff won the chess match.
What I couldn’t understand about the Bills game was why Diggs, Boutte and Douglas all had so few catches. Were those guys not getting open? – Peter from Brighton
Diggs specifically had a rough second half and did not seem to be seeing Buffalo’s coverage disguises very well — often running into leverage. With Buffalo playing mostly man-to-man, it was interesting that DeMario Douglas only played 10 total snaps as he’s typically their most consistent man beater. Perhaps that changes against Baltimore, a unit that ranks near the top of the league in man-to-man coverage rates.
How many mistakes from Bills games are fixable by Raven’s game? Or was that lack of talent being exposed? – sumeetw
On defense, it’s tough to see many of the mistakes being corrected as they’ve been plaguing the team all season. Stopping Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson on the ground will be no easy task for a declining run defense down Milton Williams and now likely Robert Spillane (ankle). Perhaps a league’s worst red zone defense (allowing TDs on 75% of opposition’s drives) could get a bump against a Ravens offense that ranks 31st in touchdown percentage.
Mistakes offensively and on special teams should be more fixable. Maye has been sharp against two-high safety defenses this season so the hope is the Buffalo performance was an outlier. New England’s kick coverage has also been strong this season, although former special teams coach John Harbaugh could have some tricks up his sleeve as well after watching how the Bills took advantage.
What went wrong on kick return coverage? Was it all Caleb Murphy’s fault? Is Chad Muma enough to fix it? Are Larry Izzo and Matt Chatham busy Sunday night?! – slunkywontergreen
To put it simple: they got schemed up. Buffalo did a nice job showing some new wrinkles that included basically running a power concept — where they doubled Anfernee Jennings and pulled a blocker to clean...
