The torch has been passed; Stephon Gilmore is now the most important player on the Patriots
It’s Stephon Gilmore’s team now.
COMMENTARY
The New England Patriots have never had a player named NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Stephon Gilmore should be the first.
There’s chatter that mentions old friend Chandler Jones, rookie Nick Bosa, and reigning champ Aaron Donald as well, but what Gilmore has managed to contribute to the NFL’s best defense has been transformative.
According to @DomGonzo12, a Twitter account that touts itself as “Stephon Gilmore’s resident stat-keeper,” here is the damage that the All-Pro cornerback has managed to instill for his now 10-1 Patriots: Over the first 11 games of the 2019 season, opposing receivers have been targeted 53 times, coming away with 19 receptions. That’s a 36 percent competition rate.
Stephon Gilmore 2019 coverage stats:
11 games
53 targets
19 receptions
36% completion
223 yards
0 touchdowns allowed
4 INT
10 PBU
18.04 Passer RatingBest cornerback in football.@BumpNrunGilm0re @Patriots
— El Capitãn (@DomGonzo12) November 25, 2019
Receivers going up against Gilmore have managed only 223 yards (20.27 yards per game) and no touchdowns. Gilmore has four interceptions and 10 passes broken up.
Opposing quarterbacks are managing only an 18.04 passer rating against him.
But Sunday was the defining game for Gilmore’s tremendous season thus far, with the cornerback shadowing Amari Cooper and shutting the Cowboys wide receiver down, the biggest factor in the Patriots’ 13-9 win. This wasn’t against a depleted Eagles offense, nor was it versus any of the punch-and-judy oppositions against whom the Patriots opened their season.
This was against a team that came into Sunday’s game ranked as the No. 1 offense in the NFL.
The Patriots’ defense held that unit to nine points.
Gilmore held their top receiver to zero catches for zero yards.
“He just works and prepares so hard for his matchups every week, and takes those as such a personal challenge,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said.
Even considering Sunday’s goose egg at a soaking wet Gillette Stadium, Cooper is still sixth in the NFL in receiving yards with 886, and happens to be the best opponent Gilmore has gone up against this season. It’s a shutdown process that the cornerback has excelled in over the first 11 games, but nothing to the degree of what he managed against Cooper, a receiver on a team that classifies as the first, real tangible evidence that we can, finally consider this 2019 Patriots defense among the elites that the league has seen.
In between grumbling about his misfortune about being on the team with the No.1 seed in the AFC, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady even admitted the obvious last week; the Patriots are a team built on defense and special teams. That may not necessarily be to his liking seeing how things balance out on the offensive side of the ball, but there’s another underlying truth to the matter. Forty-two-year-old Tom Brady is no longer the most important player on his team, a role he had claimed for almost two decades.
It’s now Stephon Gilmore, the best player on one of the best defenses the NFL has even seen.
“Steph is the best corner in the league,” Patriots defensive back Duron Harmon said.
No kidding.
This was the first time that Cooper had been held without a catch as a Dallas Cowboy. In fact, Cooper has elevated Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott to such a level that taking him out of the game plan put the Cowboys in flux, both on the field, and most notably on the sideline, where head coach Jason Garrett proved to be another in a long line of dumb decision-makers trying to match wits against Belichick and company.
Blame the weather, if you must, for the ugliness involved in such a low-scoring affair. Cowboys fans can blame the refs for a pair of phantom tripping calls, and whine all about how their team was jobbed in the home of the defending champs. Which is cute, and maybe would be true if the Cowboys had showed any ability — or willingness — to make adjustments, i.e, kicking a field goal with six minutes left, down by seven.
But at some point, we have to stop merely decrying the stupidity on the other side and give credit to a defense that should now, officially, get all the kudos it deserves. The Patriots have allowed a total of 117 points so far this season, on pace for 170 which would trail only the 2000 Baltimore Ravens in NFL history.
That starts with Stephon Gilmore, NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
“It’s no secret it starts with Steph,” safety Devin McCourty said. “He goes out there, competes his butt off…I think a lot of it goes into his film study, understanding the defense, understanding when he has help, when he doesn’t have help. And then all of us executing as 11 guys on the field, gives each guy a chance to go out there and play good individually.”
It’s Stephon Gilmore’s team now.
DeAndre Hopkins and the Houston Texans will want to make note.
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