The interior line is still rotating
Marcus Cannon (60, 100%) and Cameron Fleming (60, 100%) played every snap, but the interior was still a mess. Bryan Stork (49, 82%) sat for David Andrews (11, 18%), while Tre Jackson (50, 83%) and Josh Kline (43, 72%) started for Shaq Mason (28, 47%). The Patriots need someone to step up on the interior, but it seems too late in the season to trust any of these five interior players to improve their play to "mediocre."
Steven Jackson had a preseason game
There's no other way to describe the Patriots performance other than preseason. Hopefully Jackson (24, 40%) has seen enough time on the field to help in the playoffs as it seemed like the offense was functioning at a preseason level with both playcalling and performance. Jackson actually led the running back in snaps as James White (23, 38%) and Brandon Bolden (17, 28%) played lesser roles.
Danny Amendola is still recovering
Brandon LaFell (57, 95%), Keshawn Martin (56, 93%), and Rob Gronkowski (55, 92%) led the receivers as the Patriots opted to play Michael Williams (25, 42%) over Danny Amendola (23, 38%) and Scott Chandler (14, 23%). New England also dialed up some 2-RB packages. But the Patriots clearly wanted to run the ball with a heavier offensive set, and it could have been linked to Amendola still recovering from his knee injury.
The Patriots didn't really substitute on defense
Malcolm Butler (75, 100%), Logan Ryan (75, 100%), Devin McCourty (74, 99%), and Patrick Chung (71, 95%) held down the secondary. Jamie Collins (75, 100%) and Jerod Mayo (69, 92%) were stalwarts at linebacker. The Patriots rotated Leonard Johnson (47, 63%), Jordan Richards (13, 17%), and Duron Harmon (12, 16%) as the nickel.
Jabaal Sheard (71, 95%) and Rob Ninkovich (63, 84%) led the way, with Geneo Grissom (22, 29%) coming off the bench as a sub-rusher. Malcom Brown (54, 72%), Akiem Hicks (49, 65%), and Alan Branch (47, 63%) rotated at defensive tackle.
The rotation on the defensive line was standard and the rotation at nickel was personnel based.
The following players had 15+ snaps on special teams:
Nate Ebner (27), Dekoda Watson (27), Jordan Richards (20), Matthew Slater (20), Brandon Bolden (20), Brandon King (19), Darius Fleming (17), Michael Williams (16)