Patriots Week 11 film review: Secondary issues doom New England
After a big win over the Baltimore Ravens last week, the New England Patriots (4-6), teased their fans with a possible comeback run at the postseason, but after a 27-20 loss to the Houston Texans (3-7), that goal is now virtually unreachable.
Of course, if New England were to win its final six games, they’d be back in the mix, but who would trust them to do that? Not after falling to the lowly Texans, just a month and change after they lost to the Denver Broncos (4-6) at home, and were subsequently mauled by the then-healthy San Francisco 49ers (4-6) at Gillette Stadium the next week.
The worst part about Sunday’s loss was that New England’s secondary, arguably their best unit (with the offensive line) deserves a lot of the blame.
But Texans QB Deshaun Watson also deserves a ton of credit. His play was as absurdly good as his stat line suggests — 28 of 37, 347 passing yards, three total touchdowns (two pass, one rush).
Here are our observations of the Patriots defense versus the Texans after reviewing the film.
Most common formation: (Big) Nickel 2-4-5
DT/NT -- Byron Cowart DT/DE -- Lawrence Guy/Deatrich Wise Jr. EDGE (stand-up) -- John Simon EDGE (stand-up) -- Chase Winovich LB -- Ja’Whaun Bentley LB/SS -- Adrian Phillips SS/LB -- Kyle Dugger CB -- J.C. Jackson CB -- Stephon Gilmore CB (slot) -- Jonathan Jones S -- Devin McCourty
Interesting Wrinkle
The Patriots predominantly went back to their usual Nickel 2-4-5 with Adrian Phillips acting as a linebacker for Sunday’s contest, but they also bounced around to much different personnel at times, also heavily using three-man fronts (3-4, Big Nickel 3-3-5 used versus Ravens last week) and different Quarter looks (7 DBs). They also went with a heavy usage of zone coverage (particularly Cover 3), for the second straight week. Still, despite stuffing the run, nothing seemed to work versus Deshaun Watson.
Additional Analysis
— As we mentioned, the Patriots bounced around between different fronts, with Deatrich Wise Jr. (61 percent of defensive snaps), Byron Cowart (52 percent) and Lawrence Guy (52 percent) getting the most looks. In three man fronts, Cowart and Carl Davis (33 percent) getting took the most snaps at nose tackle, while newcomer Isaiah Mack (11 snaps,18 percent) also saw some time as a defensive tackle both in Nickel 2-4-5 looks and on third-down passing situations. — Despite not sacking Deshaun Watson once, the Patriots were able to get some pressure on the Texans phenom, with Chase Winovich and Josh Uche — who played 22 defensive snaps, mostly on obvious passing downs — hurrying Watson at times, and even Lawrence Guy and Byron Cowart pushing the pile in the interior on a few instances. Still, that never phased Watson, who other than Russell Wilson, is perhaps the best QB in the league at miraculously evading the rush to throw downfield strikes.
— As we mentioned before, the Patriots did well in defending the run, but struggled in all facets of pass defense, and some of their biggest issues were with Texans tight ends. Jordan Akins, Darren Fells and Pharaoh Brown were targeted 11 times, combining for nine catches for 134 yards. Houston used a mix of 11 and 12 personnel throughout the game, and with multiple tight ends, they switched between Watson under center and spreading the Patriots defense out. Kyle Dugger was often lined up on tight ends, and despite his solid day in the run game — where he continues to be a battering ram, making several key tackles — the rookie continues to struggle in man coverage versus tight ends. Additionally, Joejuan Williams, who played just six snaps, was victimized by Watson on a late-second quarter, 24-yard pass to Akins who ran a crossing pattern. And regardless of how Watson targeted his tight ends, when they caught the ball, they did a number on the Patriots’ secondary after the catch. New England’s tackling in the backend — save for Dugger and Adrian Phillips in the run game — was atrocious, with Stephon Gilmore in particular getting plowed over two or three times by Houston tight ends in his first game back since tweaking his knee. (Although, Gilmore wasn’t targeted once in the passing game, which is a good sign of his coverage skills). And of course, Watson over Devin McCourty for a touchdown late in the first half was probably the play of the game. This was a horrendous outing by New England’s secondary in general. Sure, Deshaun Watson is one of the five or six best quarterbacks in the league, but this was also just a pitiful performance from what is supposed to be the Patriots’ most solid group on defense, by a long shot. That was not the case on Sunday.
— We had the Patriots on zone coverage for 55 percent of Texans passing plays, with Cover 3 (45 percent) and Cover 1 (36 percent) being their overwhelmingly top options, which is nothing new, but neither seemed to work versus Watson, who was not only sharp on his reads, but so good at extending plays. — The most common man coverage assignments were J.C. Jackson covering WIll Fuller on 21 such occasions, Stephon Gilmore on former Patriot Brandin Cooks (18), Kyle Dugger on Texans tight ends (11), Jonathan Jones on Keke Coutee in the slot (10), and Adrian Phillips and Terrence Brooks combining for six snaps on Houston tight ends. We spoke of the Houston tight ends earlier, but Will Fuller and Brandin Cooks also combined for 10 catches for 165 yards.
