Week Four film breakdown: What went wrong (besides everything) in Kansas City
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| Jamaal Charles gashed the Patriots defense |
Each week, PatriotsLife will check the tape of the Pats previous game using the NFL's "All 22 coaches film", posting our thoughts on the developments good or bad that shaped the outcome of the game. This week, we look back at one of the worst losses of Bill Belichick's lengthy career, a 41-14 shellacking at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs
I plan to normally use this column to highlight one particular aspect of the game, positive or negative, and analyze how it played a role in the game's outcome. However, a debacle of Monday Night's proportion goes far beyond any one component of the game breaking down. While my expectations for the offense were low heading into the Monday Night game, I was shocked by defenses anemic performance. For that reason, I've turned my focus towards several defensive issues in this week's film breakdown.
Setting the edge:
It was no surprise that Kansas City would look to establish the run in this game, as the Chiefs offense is built around their explosive backfield. Taking that into account, I expected the Patriots defense to load the box, prioritize stuffing the run, and let their scheme force Alex Smith to beat them with throws downfield.
Instead the Chiefs absolutely gashed the Pats defense on the ground, gaining 207 yards on their 38 attempts. While the Patriots run defense wasn't good enough anywhere, a closer look reveals that much of that damage came on runs to the outside.
I went back and looked through the Chiefs designed running plays (excluding scrambles from Alex Smith). The Chiefs ran off tackle or end 13 times for 84 yards, good for 6.4 yards per carry. They gave up three plays of 12 or more yards, and had a 17 yarder by Knile Davis called back thanks to a dumb block in the back penalty from Travis Kelce that had little impact on the play.
Compare that to the Chiefs performance running up the middle. The raw numbers don't look good; 20 carries, 110 yards, 5.5 yards per carry, but those numbers are greatly inflated by one play: Knile Davis's 48 yards scamper on a fake end around that fooled the Patriots defense. Excluding that one breakdown, the Pats defense gave up 62 yards on 19 carries up the middle, an average of 3.26 yards per carry. Those numbers are closer than what you'd expect to see from a defense with as much talent as this Patriots unit, and are indicative of solid nights from Vince Wilfork (+1.5 run defense grade from PFF), Jerod Mayo (+1.1) and Chris Jones (+0.7) in the running game.
So, why the struggles to defend outside running plays? Some of the credit has to go to the Kansas City backfield of Jamaal Charles and Knile Davis, both of whom are explosive and dangerous in the open field. However, they wouldn't have gotten the space to get into the second level of the defense if not for some poor fundamental play from the edge setters on the Patriots defense, with Chandler Jones standing out as one of the main culprits.
It didn't take long for this to become a problem, as Charles bounced the Chiefs first outside rushing attempt for 12 yards. With no help to the outside other than corner Logan Ryan (who is occupied by a receiver), it's the job of Chandler Jones to set the edge of the defense and force Charles to cut inside, where the Pats have three linebackers and a safety in the box waiting.
This is obviously a major problem, especially considering Charles' world-class speed, which allows him to quickly gain 12 yards before Devin McCourty is able to stop the bleeding.
It's well known that Bill Belichick has little tolerance for "error repeaters", and thus it's likely that Jones had a miserable time when the team broke down the film of this performance. Nearly the exact same scenario unfolded on the Chiefs first play of their second series, with Jones once again allowing Charles to break a run to the outside.
Once again, the play appears to be a designed run through the B gap, which this time is the responsibility of linebacker Jamie Collins. At first glimpse, the Pats appear to have this play well-defended; Collins is flying upfield to take on the lead blocker Sherman in the backfield, and Jones has gotten a solid push against Fisher.
Collins winds up creating a pile, with both Sherman and himself hitting the deck right in the hole Charles is supposed to run through. In this case, Jones should be extending his arms and attempting to "squeeze" Fisher into Charles' space. If Jones can maintain that edge, Charles will be forced to cut back inside, where the Pats have a multitude of defenders waiting.Instead, Jones once again rips inside and tries to make the play on Charles himself. The running back manages to use his quicks to get around Jones' tackle attempt and then turns on the jets, taking advantage of the open field Jones left occupied, and gaining 17 yards to spark KC's first scoring drive of the night.
This isn't intended to pick on Jones alone, as Rob Ninkovich and Dont'a Hightower both made similar mistakes when trying to set the edge against the run. However, Jones was the main culprit, and appeared to be a target of Kansas Cities game plan. 12 of Kansas Cities 13 outside runs went to the left side, directly at Jones' preferred spot on the right edge of the Pats defensive front.
Jones is shaping up to be an excellent player for the Pats defense, but he's had his occasional struggles setting the edge against the run. Kansas City clearly noticed this and took advantage early and often. Given the copy-cat nature of the NFL, expect other teams to continue to test the Pats defense, and Jones in particular, on outside runs going forward.
In the zone
Another defensive issue that came up throughout the game was the amount of zone coverage the Pats used. Most believed that the offseason acquisitions of Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner would dictate a lot of physical, press-man coverage from the Pats secondary, freeing up the front seven to get after the quarterback on passing downs.
That hasn't been the case so far this season, as the Patriots have mixed a lot of zone coverage into the mix. Monday night was no exception, as the Pats played about an even mix of zone and man. While they had their struggles with both coverages, zone put the Pats linebackers in some noteworthy mismatches that Kansas City was able to exploit with ease.
For instance, take a look at the coverage on this play, a 9 yard completion to tight end Travis Kelce. The speedy Kelce is initially matched up with Jamie Collins, the Pats fastest and best coverage linebacker, but his route takes him across the shallow middle of the field. Collins is responsible for the left flat, so he passes the tight end off to the next zone and sprints back to his assignment. Unfortunately, that next zone is being manned by Dont'a Hightower, who simply isn't fast enough to run with Kelce. The result is an easy completion and solid first down gain for Kansas City.
Another similar play comes up in the Chiefs two minute drill at the end of the first half. On this play, receiver Dwyane Bowe lines up in the left slot, with the tight end Kelce coming in motion to split out wide to that side. Bowe is initially covered by safety Patrick Chung, but Chung must pass him on once his route starts breaking inwards, as Chung is responsible for the right flat. This leaves Jerod Mayo responsible for Bowe, who leaves the linebacker in the dust with a quick cut outside and gains an easy 33 yards on the play.
The amount of zone coverage played in the game also played away from the strengths of the Patriots secondary, and Darrelle Revis in particular. Take a look at this play, which starts with Revis (lined up on the defenses left side) giving Dwyane Bowe almost a 10 yard cushion at the snap.
With only one safety deep, the onus is on the cornerbacks to not get beat deep in this coverage. Revis accomplishes this, but in doing so gives Bowe way too much space, especially considering Bowe is used far more on intermediate possession routes than as a pure deep threat. Bowe still has plenty of cushion when he breaks his route off, and the result is an easy hook-up from Alex Smith for a first down.
The 15 yard slant to Dwyane Bowe that set up the Chiefs first touchdown was a perfect example of this. On this play, Revis is matched up with Bowe in man coverage, just as many had anticipated going into the matchup. However, Revis doesn't attempt to get physical at all with Bowe, who is free to run his route uninterrupted. Revis's coverage is tight, but with a free release Bowe is able to get the half-step he needs for Smith to hit him over the middle.
The Patriots have always prided themselves on their versatility and ability to give an opposing offense multiple looks, but sometimes you have to play to your strengths. It's hard to justify making a major investment in Revis, the best man corner in the game, only to have him sit back into soft zones and not press at the line of scrimmage. At least Revis, despite his obvious strength being in man, is a capable zone corner; the results will be disastrous if they try to force stiff-hipped Brandon Browner into zone coverage.
No pressure
A final constant in the Patriots defensive struggles was the lack of any consistent pass rush. The Pats managed a mere six hurries and two sacks in Alex Smith's 31 dropbacks. With little threat of a pass rush, Smith was able to calmly read the field and pick apart the Pats soft coverage, resulting in a sparkling 20-26, 248 yard, 3 touchdown, 0 interception statline.
The lack of pressure was especially surprising given Kansas City's prior struggles upfront. The Chiefs came into the game having given up roughly as much pressure as the Pats beleaguered offensive line through the season's first three games, but they did an excellent job of keeping Smith clean all night.
Some of the blame for that has to go to the players for not winning their matchups up front. Chandler Jones was very quiet after an early sack, despite going against a struggling left tackle in Eric Fisher. Rob Ninkovich and Vince Wilfork each only managed a solitary hurry, despite 32 pass rushing snaps apiece. Dominique Easley came up with a goose egg in his 17 snaps rushing the passer.
However, some of the blame also has to come on the coaching staff. One of the upsides from this offseason's investments in the secondary was supposed to be a new-found willingness to attack upfield, particularly with a trio of effective blitzing options at linebacker. So far, that hasn't been the case, and the linebackers spent far more time chasing pass catchers than Alex Smith.
Despite his early season effectiveness as a pass rusher, Dont'a Hightower only rushed the passer 9 times against Kansas City. That was still more than Jamie Collins and Jerod Mayo combined, who each had four snaps apiece as a pass rusher.
It's a puzzling trend that has continued all season. Mayo's five QB pressures have him tied with Hightower and Ninkovich for second on the team, and he also has a sack and QB hit to his name already in this young season. Those numbers would seem to dictate more opportunities as a blitzer, especially given that opposing quarterbacks have completed 12 of their 14 combined passes against his coverage. Instead, Mayo has only had 28 snaps rushing the passer all season. For comparison's sake, he's been in coverage for 123 snaps.
The usage of Collins has been even more confusing. The lanky Collins is built like a pass rusher, had success rushing the passer as a defensive end in college, and flashed considerable potential as a rusher during his rookie season last year. However, Collins' four pass rushing snaps on Monday were his first of the season. Collins is also the Pats best coverage linebacker due to his blazing speed, so his heavy usage in coverage is less surprising than Mayo's. However, Collins has the ability to be a pass rushing weapon, and that aspect of his game has been completely ignored throughout the first quarter of the season.
It makes even less sense given the Pats lack of pass rushing threats outside of Chandler Jones. Rob Ninkovich has nearly identical pass rushing stats to Mayo (5 hurries, 2 hits, 1 sack), but has done so in 114 pass rushing snaps. Dominique Easley was expected to bring a jolt to the interior pass rush, but he's only managed a hit and a hurry so far in 73 pass rushing snaps. Michael Buchanan was quiet on Monday as well, playing in his first game of the season after an preseason ankle injury kept him sidelined early in the year.
Rushing only four and dropping the remainder of your defense into coverage is a great strategy...if you can consistently generate a pass rush with those four. However, any NFL quarterback will pick apart your secondary with no pressure, especially if the secondary is playing passive, off-man coverage and allowing the receivers space to get into their routes.
The Patriots currently don't have the personnel to consistently get pressure rushing four, and that doesn't figure to change any time soon unless Easley or Buchanan show massive improvements. With that in mind, it would make sense for the Pats defensive play calling to get a little more aggressive when it comes to blitz packages. They don't need to go Rex Ryan style and start sending the house on every other play, but sending an extra man more often could give some juice to the pass rush, resulting in more turnovers and negative plays down the road.
