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Here’s the scheme that may just swing the Pats-Rams matchup

ATLANTA — The Kansas City Chiefs’ 37-31 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game happened nearly two weeks ago, which has given Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce plenty of time to think about how he was held to just three catches and 23 yards and a touchdown in the loss.

New England, it turns out, often singled him up with cornerback J.C. Jackson, who was physical with him at the line of scrimmage, just like the rest of the Patriots’ corners were on the Chiefs’ targets.

And when asked this week about the Patriots’ overall adeptness at press coverage in that contest, Kelce offered up sincere – if grudging – respect for their ability to take their physicality to the limit.

“They’re not afraid to get a flag called on them,” Kelce told Yahoo Sports. “The mentality is, ‘We’re gonna make the refs throw these flags [until] we get caught.’ They’re out there holding, and it’s playoff football so they’re getting away with a lot of it.

“We knew it would come, but maybe not to that extent. I mean, they didn’t do it like that in the regular season, I can tell you that much.”

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But the truth is, what Kelce calls “holding” the Pats could simply call “good defense.” New England has been one of the league’s most committed press cover teams this season, and when you consider the other defenses that are adept at it – Chicago, Baltimore and Dallas, all of whom fielded top-seven defenses and made the playoffs – it’s not hard to see the correlation between press success and winning.

In other words, while offense-friendly rule changes have ushered in today’s pass-happy era of The New NFL, defenses can still combat them with physical play, especially if the corners are well-coached and the refs give a little leeway.

Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs has a pass broken up by Stephon Gilmore of the New England Patriots during the AFC championship game. (Getty Images)
Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs has a pass broken up by Stephon Gilmore of the New England Patriots during the AFC championship game. (Getty Images)

“The easiest and most effective way to slow down a high-powered passing attack is to disrupt the timing,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick told Yahoo Sports.

“So you can see it over and over again in that game against the Chiefs – Patrick [Mahomes] is ready to throw it and can’t, because either they’re just mauling Travis or they’re making Tyreek [Hill] take a wider release and rolling Devin McCourty over the top, or they’re making Sammy [Watkins] go, ‘Oh man, I’m not used to somebody standing in front of me.’ ”

The strategy, Riddick says, disrupted the Chiefs’ timing in the first half, when the Chiefs were shut out for the first time all season. And while Kansas City exploded for 31 points in the second half, much of that was due to Mahomes’ prodigious ability to make plays when things in the pocket broke down, a gift few quarterbacks can replicate.

Unfortunately for the Los Angeles Rams – the team facing the Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday – that includes their quarterback, Jared Goff, as most of Los Angeles’ chunk plays are concepts schemed up by their coach, Sean McVay.

And although the Rams have some schematic advantages in this game (which we’ll get to later), it’s clear New England’s commitment to playing press coverage could play a big role in the Super Bowl.

“The [Patriots] will try to do that,” Riddick told Yahoo Sports. “Because if you let [receivers] Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods get free releases, they’re gonna tear you a new ass – they just are.”

Why the Patriots’ press is so good

New England Patriots cornerback coach Josh Boyer is open about his belief that even in today’s wide-open NFL, press coverage is – in his words – “extremely viable.”

“This will be my 13th year with New England, and I’ve coached the corners for most of those, and I would say, yeah I think press coverage is alive and well,” Boyer told Yahoo Sports.

NFL Network analyst and former NFL receiver Nate Burleson concurs, even calling the Patriots’ press approach “old school.”

“We’re in an era of football where guys don’t hit and guys don’t grab,” Burleson explained. “The last team that was that was that aggressive at the line of scrimmage and played downhill and would thump you [in the secondary] was the [2014] Seattle Seahawks.”

And while the Patriots are apt to mix up coverages – and very well could Sunday, given Belichick’s proclivity to break tendencies – pressing is a core component of what the Patriots do, as Boyer teaches their corners to be patient at the line of scrimmage and use their hands effectively, all while staying within the rules.

“Which is definitely a difficult thing to do, because … when you’ve got a fast guy in front of you and he’s trying to get behind you and you’re standing right in front of him, I think the natural tendency is to grab him,” Boyer told Yahoo Sports. “But we can’t do that within the rules, so it’s all about hand placement and feet and hands all working together.”

But while the Patriots often show an old-school, Lester Hayes-like press style, they’re also just as likely to use a soft press where their corners back up a little bit at the snap and just try and mirror the receivers.

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“And that’s just as effective, too,” Riddick told Yahoo Sports. “Anything that makes a wide receiver change the course of his release, that’s disruption. The [Patriots] do it.”

And the reason their corners do it consistently while other teams try and fail, is because Belichick and his coaches demand it (or find other players who can).

“He doesn’t want guys who look like Mike Haynes one play, then look like a practice squad/camp body the next – he can’t stand that,” Riddick told Yahoo Sports. “He hates that like, with a passion. That’s why he’ll take a lesser-talented guy who will [be consistent]. Because that’s what gets you [to the Super Bowl].”

But while the Patriots’ corners figure to play a role in the game’s outcome with their press physicality, the Rams do have some things going in their favor Sunday, starting with the league’s third-best rush offense vs. the Patriots’ 11th-best rush defense.

Why the Rams could potentially handle it

The Rams’ offense is founded on outside zone running plays, and when their big, physical and aggressive offensive line can clear the way for Todd Gurley and C.J. Anderson to gain chunk yards on early downs, it allows McVay – who has devised one of the league’s best offenses despite using only two personnel groupings (three-wide and two tight ends) – to tap into his keen playcalling eye and stay a step ahead of the defense.

For instance, Riddick went on to explain, let’s say the Rams line up in the same three-wide formation and run inside zone on one play. Later on, they might then line up in the same formation and bring a receiver in jet motion – just to make you think they’re handing it off to Woods – only to run inside zone again. After that, they could run the same formation and actually hand it to Woods, or they could fake it to Woods, fake the inside zone and bring the receiver from the opposite side and toss it to him.

All of this deception from the same look creates hesitation in a defense, enough to create the creases the Rams’ playmakers need to scoot 50 yards in a flash, regardless of whether the personnel remains the same.

Rams head coach Sean McVay likes to use deception, like putting wide receiver Robert Woods in motion, to keep defenses guessing. (Getty Images)
Rams head coach Sean McVay likes to use deception, like putting wide receiver Robert Woods in motion, to keep defenses guessing. (Getty Images)

“In football we’re all looking at tendencies,” Burleson explained. “But what the Rams do is purposely give you tendencies so you can fall for it, which makes the play calling genius.”

McVay, 33, estimates he relies on tight formations – where receivers align close to the offensive line – about 85-90 percent of the time, he told Yahoo Sports. Since his receivers and tight ends are adept blockers, the Rams are the rare team that can play smash-mouth football out of three-wide sets, thus giving McVay more options to attack.

“Those reduced splits enable to you to marry your run and play-actions where guys are in a position to dig out support and make those run actions very similar,” McVay explained to Yahoo Sports. “Then you can run a lot of complements off it.”

Add when you factor in Goff’s recently-improved ability to make plays when things break down on passes, that means that even if the Patriots’ press-man scheme is effective Sunday against Woods and Cooks, he may still find a way to connect on some big plays and put up points, just like Mahomes did a few weeks ago.

“Goff made some plays in the Saints game that weren’t in rhythm and on time, and I think he’s showing he’s a little bit more than a rhythm/timing, open-window thrower – he’s better than that,” Riddick told Yahoo Sports. “He can hit the tight-window throws where you go, ‘Damn, that’s special.’ He can do it.”

But all of that will likely go for naught if the Rams can’t establish the run early, Riddick says. Teams that have shut down the Rams’ rushing attack – like the Bears, for instance – have given Los Angeles serious problems this season, because there’s nothing left to discourage them from beating up the receivers at the line of scrimmage in second- and third-and-long situations.

And if the press-minded Patriots can find a way to do that to the league’s fifth-ranked passing attack Sunday… well, as Kelce can attest, that could add up to a long day at the office, even in today’s offense-friendly NFL.

“Disruption will always exist in the NFL as a way to slow down, neutralize, shut down these offenses,” Riddick says. “You can shut them down if you have real good players, and you can neutralize them if you have adequate players.”

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