Patriots Take 2: Tom Brady, Passing Game Neutralizes Lions Defensive Line

Just when you think the New England Patriots are done blowing out their competition, they hang another 30-burger on an opponent and keep on rolling.

If the No. 1-ranked Detroit Lions defense couldn’t slow the Patriots’ offense down, it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to do it the rest of the way out.

Week after week, the Patriots continue to prove that their offense is among the most diverse the NFL has to offer. There seems to be no limit to the number of different playmakers the Patriots can center their offensive attack around; over the past seven games, they have had six different players lead the team in yards from scrimmage.

That’s a far cry from an offense that couldn’t find anyone to produce outside of wide receiver Julian Edelman and tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Here’s a look at how they did it this time, and how the defense was able to put the brakes on Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate III and the rest of the Lions’ offense.

Under Pressure
Offense (53 total pass snaps):
Nate Solder: 53 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Ryan Wendell: 53 pass-block snaps; 1 hit
Bryan Stork: 53 pass-block snaps; 2 hurries
Sebastian Vollmer: 53 pass-block snaps; 1 hurry
Dan Connolly: 49 pass-block snaps; 3 hurries; 1 hit
Rob Gronkowski: 11 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Josh Kline: 4 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Shane Vereen: 4 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Michael Hoomanawanui: 4 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Tim Wright: 1 pass-block snap; 0 hurries
In total, Tom Brady was pressured eight times (5 hurries; 3 hits).
That’s a sterling effort against a Lions defensive line that features three young, explosive first-round picks—Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley, and Ezekiel Ansah—as well as veterans C.J. Mosley, and Jason Jones.
One way in which the Patriots neutralized that pass-rush was by spreading the field with a quick-strike passing attack to get the ball out of Brady’s hands quickly. The Patriots ran a lot of screens and short patterns to keep Brady clean.

Notice that the Patriots came out with three or four receivers split out wide, in an obvious effort to also spread out the Lions defense and give Brady as many options as possible to get the ball out of his hands.
The Patriots also ran a lot of screens, including this 16-yard screen to Brandon LaFell.

This is also, coincidentally, a continuation on the play-action drive-starters to LaFell, which have become a recurring theme on the season.
According to stats website Pro Football Focus, Brady attempted his passes in an average of 2.16 seconds after taking the snap. That was the third-quickest time in Week 12 and is nearly a full two-tenths of a second quicker than his season average of 2.35 seconds.
Defense (50 total pass snaps):
Rob Ninkovich: 46 pass-rush snaps; 1 hurry; 1 sack
Akeem Ayers: 37 pass-rush snaps; 3 hurries; 1 sack
Vince Wilfork: 36 pass-rush snaps; 2 hurries
Chris Jones: 28 pass-rush snaps; 1 hurry
Dont’a Hightower: 19 pass-rush snaps; 4 hurries; 1 hit
Jamie Collins: 14 pass-rush snaps; 1 hurry; 1 hit
Alan Branch: 13 pass-rush snaps; 1 hit
Zach Moore: 10 pass-rush snaps; 1 hit
Jonathan Casillas: 3 pass-rush snaps; 1 hurry
Patrick Chung: 2 pass-rush snaps; 1 hit
Devin McCourty: 1 pass-rush snap; 0 hurries
Logan Ryan: 1 pass-rush snap; 0 hurries
In total, the Patriots defense created pressure on Matthew Stafford 19 times (12 hurries; 5 hits; 2 sacks). According to stats website Pro Football Focus, Stafford has been under pressure on 32.9 percent of his dropbacks this season, so the Patriots’ 38 percent pressure rate on Sunday is in fact better than what opposing defenses had been able to do against the Lions previously.
Akeem Ayers continues to be a revelation for the Patriots off the edge and has now logged a sack in three of his four games with the Patriots.

Ayers pulled off a nice pass-rush against Lions left tackle Riley Reiff with 9:27 remaining in the first quarter. Ayers began with a hard upfield rush, and once Reiff extended his arms to attempt a block, Ayers swiped them away and cut back inside. Ayers set up the inside move by forcing Reiff to react by starting with the upfield rush, leaving a sizable hole in the B-gap for him to run through.
He clocked Stafford from the blind side before the veteran quarterback could get rid of the ball

Dont’a Hightower Shining In Jerod Mayo’s Absence
The best pass-rusher of the bunch this week was Dont’a Hightower, and his pressure-packed performances have become a positive trend for the Patriots. Hightower produced five total pressures on 19 pass-rush attempts.

The third-year linebacker said this offseason that he would like to rush the passer more often, and he is delivering on the opportunities he’s been given. Hightower has done a good job of rushing through the A and B-gaps in the line of scrimmage, taking on guards with either a bull-rush or a quick move to avoid the block.
He is excelling not only as a pass-rusher, but he is also a force against the run.

It’s not necessarily his ability to attack a gap, like Brandon Spikes, but rather his ability to keep himself clean from blocks and find the ball-carrier off the backs of the defensive linemen. That’s exactly what he did on this tackle on 1st-and-10 with 13:17 remaining in the first quarter. Hightower waited for the Lions offensive lineman to block Patriots defensive end Rob Ninkovich, and then attacked the running back Joique Bell once he got to the line of scrimmage, holding him to a gain of only three yards.
Hightower may not have as many opportunities on the edge as he did earlier in the season, but he is doing the little things — and some big things — that have helped him step in seamlessly for Mayo at inside linebacker.