How the Patriots pass rush notched 8 sacks against the Bills
Potential: unlocked.
The defensive front seven of the New England Patriots is loaded with talent. On Sunday, that talent showed itself on the field.
Against a mobile quarterback like Tyrod Taylor, a fierce pass rush could be a bad thing. That wasn’t the case on Sunday in the Patriots’ 40-32 win over the Buffalo Bills.
Taylor made the Patriots pay on a couple of occasions by scrambling to buy extra time in the pocket and by running through gaps in the line to gain yards on the ground, but the Patriots finished with eight sacks, the most they’ve had in a game since 2003 against Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
Well, that’s one way to make everyone forget about the wholesale changes in the secondary.
The Patriots didn’t even have to turn up the heat to put Taylor’s feet to the fire. According to stats website Pro Football Focus, the Patriots only sent a blitz after Taylor on 10 of the Bills’ 42 pass plays, but were able to generate pressure 21 times.
They only achieved two of their eight sacks when sending a blitz after Taylor, while the other six sacks were a result of a four-man rush.
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Five defenders rushed Taylor on the first sack. Both Chandler Jones and Geneo Grissom lined up with their hand on the ground as defensive tackles; Jamie Collins lined up over the center as the middle linebacker, but was pressed up against the line of scrimmage; Rob Ninkovich and Jabaal Sheard lined up in a two-point stance (standing on their feet) on the outside.
Initially, it looked as if Taylor could escape the pocket up the middle on the run, but Sheard came around from the end and forced Taylor to run to his right. Ninkovich did a great job in space, kept Taylor in front of him, and forced the quarterback out of bounds.
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The second sack was a four-man rush, with Jamie Collins coming up the gut on a rush against center Eric Wood. Chandler Jones lined up at the one-technique, in between the guard and center, and angled his rush in such a way that he occupied both men for a brief time. That was long enough for Collins to breeze past the center, and with the pocket collapsing around him from the edges, Taylor had no choice but to eat the sack.
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The third sack of Taylor was a result of a heavy rush. Six defenders started off on the rush before Dont’a Hightower bailed out and dropped into coverage.
With six blockers and five rushers, the Bills had the numbers advantage, but Chandler Jones and Jabaal Sheard won their one-on-one matchups — Jones to collapse the pocket from the outside and Sheard to contain the middle of the pocket and prevent Taylor from running into the secondary. Jones continued to pursue, and his hard work eventually paid off.
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The next sack was another example of Jones’ motor, coupled with a nifty counter move by the fourth-year defensive end. Jones got past offensive tackle Cordy Glenn by starting his rush to the outside and then cutting to the inside to get through the gap between the tackle and the guard.
Ordinarily, this would be the perfect opportunity for Taylor to scramble to his left, but by the time he reacted and began spinning to evade the rush, it was already too late.
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Another four-man rush came after Taylor on the fifth sack, the first and only sack that was logged by a defensive tackle. Alan Branch charged hard up the field to get after Taylor, and may have evacuated his gap to do so.
The quickness with which he was able to get into the backfield negated Taylor’s ability to evade the rush, though. Taylor hadn’t even gone to his second read in the progression before he was already looking for the football on the ground after it had been knocked out by Branch.
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The sixth sack is an interesting example of a four-man rush meeting an exotic pressure package. Jamie Collins rushed hard up the middle, in between defensive linemen Malcom Brown and Chandler Jones. Brown rushed against left guard Richie Incognito, Jones against left tackle Cordy Glenn and Collins against…well, no one.
As a result, a four-man rush — which is usually easily picked up by the offensive line — resulted in a numbers advantage for the Patriots defense. Once again, the rush got home too quickly for Taylor to do anything about it. The Bills were lucky that running back LeSean McCoy was there to pick up the fumble, but that’s only because he wasn’t in position to pick up the blitz.
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There were no tricks or exotic rush packages on the seventh sack, it was just four defensive linemen against five offensive linemen. Jones did a great job of setting the edge and pushing Glenn into the backfield. Once he got there, though, it was what he did next that was most impressive. Taylor began to rush to his left to get away from Jones, but the defensive end stacked and shed Glenn to ensure that he could close off the edge. Taylor tried to react, but he slipped and fell. Jones wrapped him up, and Ninkovich came flying off the other edge to bring him down.
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The eighth and final sack was a result of a four-man rush and a swarm mentality. Malcom Brown occupied two blockers on the offense’s left, and Sealver Siliga did the same on the right. Safety Patrick Chung rushed, which freed up linebacker Dont’a Hightower, who nearly lost his footing. Jamie Collins was pushed out of the way initially, but kept his motor running until the play was over. Basically, with the exception of Brown and Siliga, there was no thought of gap integrity.
Of course, that lack of gap integrity is what led to the Bills’ comeback efforts.
“We had our moments,’’ Bill Belichick said of his team’s pass rush after the game. “We let them run around a lot too. Taylor ran around and he scrambled and threw for big yardage. I didn’t think it was all great. We made some plays and we gave up some plays. It wasn’t very consistent. We’ve got to coach better, be more disciplined and play better. We’ll see it again this upcoming week. We’re going to have to do a better job than we did today.’’
It would be hard to imagine the Patriots doing better than eight sacks, but against mobile quarterbacks, it’s about more than sack totals. Gap containment is key if the Patriots want to prevent Blake Bortles from having a surprising performance against their defense.
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