After scanning the Patriots' snap counts from week four, here are a few things that stood out on both sides of the ball:
Offense
1. Along the offensive line, Dan Connolly, Sebastian Vollmer, Nate Solder, and Marcus Cannon each played all 75 snaps. Jordan Devey (60 snaps) was benched in favor of Bryan Stork late. Stork played center while Connolly took over Devey's right guard spot. We'll see if that sticks moving forward.
2. Stevan Ridley saw the majority of the snaps at running back, with the Patriots clearly trying to establish the run (with limited success). Ridley played 43 snaps compared to Vereen's 28 and Bolden's 7.
3. Rob Gronkowski watch: played a season high 44 snaps (59%). Michael Hoomanwanui still led all tight ends with 48 snaps played.
Defense
1. The Patriots had seven players that participated in all 58 snaps for the defense, which is an unusually high number. Those players: Logan Ryan, Rob Ninkovich, Devin McCourty, Chandler Jones, Dont'a Hightower, Jerod Mayo, and Darrelle Revis. This is a top-heavy unit. Michael Buchanan was active for the first time this year, and only saw snaps on special teams.
2. Chris Jones (27, 47%) and Joe Vellano (14, 24%) saw the majority of the snaps after Sealver Siliga went down with injury. Jones moved into the 4-3 DT spot for Siliga, while Vellano came on as a 3-4 DE (and fared better than week one). Meanwhile, Dominique Easley continued his trend of seeing about one third of the total snaps (16, 28%).
3. Safety rotation remained consistent, with Patrick Chung seeing the majority of the snaps opposite Devin McCourty (40, 69%). Nate Ebner (10, 17%), Duron Harmon (12, 21%), and Tavon Wilson (15, 26%) split the rest of the snaps, and each saw some time in sub-packages. Another note on the defensive backs: Kyle Arrington saw just 21 snaps as the team worked mostly from the base defense, and often opted for the "big nickel" when moving to the sub.
Note: Snap counts tracked by NFL, provided via official gamebook.