The New England Patriots have released their Sights and Sounds mic’d up video from week 13 against the Los Angeles Rams and it’s a great look at the Patriots defensive performance.
“Let’s give them something to remember, fellas,” FS Devin McCourty said before the game.
“We bring the energy!,” ED Rob Ninkovich shouted to the trench player hudd
“Great job cleaning, great job being square, great job driving on it, great wall build, good job on the back side,” defensive line coach Brendan Daly said to the defensive tackles.
I found it interesting how defensive coordinator Matt Patricia told his players, “Run, pass, third down,” and went back to the game plays to see if there were any truth to the statement.
It turns out: uh, kind of. The Rams didn’t actually call a run and a pass in that order, but over the first half, the Rams called a run and a pass in some order on the first two downs for five of their six drives. The lone exception came when the Rams offense picked up 9 yards on first down, so the Rams called another passing play on 2nd and 1.
In other words, if the Rams called a run play on first down, then the Patriots could pretty reasonably expect a passing play on second down, and vice versa.
The game script changed in the second half as the Rams had to throw the ball to try and close the deficit to the Patriots. Nearly 75% of the Rams first and second down plays in the second half were passing plays and the Patriots defense reacted accordingly by dialing up some trench penetration (instead of controlling the line against the run) and dropping into coverage.