The Patriots have posted their Sights & Sounds from week 5 against the Browns and, as always, it’s must watch television. QB Tom Brady was fired up in his first game back and TE Martellus Bennett was having a party on the sideline.
For me, though, the big takeaway was a sound clip from defensive line coach Brendan Daly after the Patriots injured QB Cody Kessler at the end of the first quarter.
“This is going to be [Charlie] Whitehurst, okay?,” Daly informed the defensive linemen of the Browns’ back-up. “Bigger body, he can move; he’s a different scrambler than this guy [Cody Kessler], we’ve got to be alert of the rush lanes, we’ve got to keep this guy in the pocket, make him throw from the pocket.”
This reveals why the Patriots pass rush wasn’t overly effective.
The Patriots have two styles of defensive line play that depends on the opposing quarterback. If they are facing a statue quarterback, like Brock Osweiler or Carson Palmer, they’ll try and rush the quarterback in the pocket.
If they are facing a mobile quarterback, like Tyrod Taylor or Ryan Tannehill or, apparently, Whitehurst, they focus more on maintaining the rushing lanes to keep the quarterback in the pocket. The goal for the defensive line is to squeeze the pocket and make sure there isn’t an escape lane for the quarterback to scramble.
DT Malcom Brown managed to pick up two sacks on Whitehurst, which means that the edge defenders did their job of containing the quarterback.