Pats Pulpit
The Las Vegas Raiders set the tone right from the beginning.
On their first play from scrimmage in Week 1, tight end Brock Bowers found a soft spot in the New England Patriots’ zone coverage and quarterback Geno Smith hit him for a gain of 23 yards. Just five plays later, Smith and wide receiver Tre Tucker gave the visitors the lead when they connected on a 26-yard touchdown.
The Raiders hitting big plays like these remained a constant throughout the day. And while explosives alone do not decide NFL games, they did help tip the scales in Las Vegas’ favor on Sunday.
“We gave up too many explosives,” said Patriots safety Jaylinn Hawkins after the contest. “That was the biggest thing, eliminating the X-plays. I tip my hat off to those boys, they did their thing, and we’ve just got to eliminate those X-plays.”
“I felt like for the most part we went out there and executed, we just had too many lapses with X-plays and not really making them earn it,” added outside linebacker Harold Landry.
When the final whistle was blown on the Patriots’ 20-13 defeat, their defense had surrendered nine plays of 20-plus yards. For comparison, their offense registered only three of them — all of them in the first 25 minutes of the game.
That difference in explosives ultimately contributed to New England’s demise in its first game under Mike Vrabel. Unsurprisingly, the new head coach sees room for improvement in that particular area.
“When you look at X-plays in general, offensively you scheme them up about 35 percent of the time, and about 65 percent of the time somebody makes a play,” he said during his postgame presser. “I would say that the same would go defensively. Sometimes we’re not in the best call and they scheme us up, and then other times somebody makes a play.”
To its credit, New England’s defense managed to make some plays on Sunday. Jaylinn Hawkins registered an interception, while the Harold Landry-led pass rush took Geno Smith down for four sacks.
However, the Raiders’ ability to keep hitting explosive plays in the passing game allowed them to successfully neutralize the Patriots. Besides Smith, the aforementioned Brock Bower was another player responsible for this: the second-year tight end, who was a focal point for the defense all week, was on the receiving end of three of those explosive plays, and finished with five total catches for 103 yards.
“We had a couple doubles on him,” explained Hawkins. “We had some plans where we were leaning him and stuff like that. He did his thing. He had a good game. He’s a good player.”
With the Patriots set to head to Miami in Week 2, the focus now becomes on how to limit the number of X-plays. For Hawkins, it all starts with the details.
“Just us and the details,” he added. “At the end of the day, no matter what call, no matter what we’re in, that’s on...
