Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots are on to the divisional round where they’ll welcome the Houston Texans to Gillette Stadium, where they’ll look to dethrone a top ranked defense and advance to the AFC Championship Game.
It’s been a busy week here on Pats Pulpit, with our focus on the conclusion of the wild card victory over the Los Angeles Chargers and the upcoming matchup against a Texans team that has won 10 straight games. For anything else not covered previously, let’s clean out the notebook. Welcome to this week’s edition of our Sunday Patriots Notes.
It’s been several offseasons of searching for a true No. 1 wide receiver for the New England Patriots. In late March, the Patriots finally found one, agreeing to a three year deal with up to $69 million with Stefon Diggs.
Diggs immediately provided New England’s offense with something it had been missing for years at the position, becoming the first Patriots receiver since 2019 to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark.
Opposing defenses took notice.
In a wild-card matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter made it a priority to take away the Patriots’ top pass catcher, often dropping defenders off the line of scrimmage to double or bracket the four-time Pro Bowler.
“Sometimes this shows up situationally,” wide receiver coach Todd Downing said. “Teams can study where you have a certain player or where he’s targeted a lot, and so you always have to be ready for those kind of adjustments.”
The result was Diggs being held to just two receptions on five targets for 19 yards. But the extra attention paid to the veteran created opportunities elsewhere, as New England’s other pass catchers did enough to walk out of Gillette Stadium with a 16-3 win and a spot in the divisional round.
“I think he’s lining up where he’s supposed to be in the big-picture puzzle, and if he runs his route the right way, it might mean that somebody else is open and they get the ball,” Downing said. “He knows that if that leads to us scoring points and winning, then we get to keep playing.”
As the Patriots will now get to keep playing, they’ll welcome the Houston Texans to Foxboro in the divisional round where Diggs could once again draw extra attention.
In Houston’s wild-card victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Texans’ top ranked defense was not shy of sending extra defenders towards top wide receiver D.K. Metcalf, particularly when he aligned inside — an area where Diggs has spent much of his time in the Patriots offense.
It would be no surprise to see a similar approach against Diggs this weekend, based off the blueprint Los Angeles used. New England’s supporting cast could then again make them pay elsewhere, but adjustments could also be made to ensure their top receiver makes his impact.
“You can handle that a lot of different ways. You can put different guys in that spot to run those...
