The Patriots are in Miami, ready to tackle another game without All-Pro cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
They’re hoping to tame Tua Tagovailoa and his vaunted Dolphins arsenal without their top coverage back.
Week 1, the way they blitzed so much, it’s like they forgot Gonzalez wasn’t out on the boundary playing opposite Carlton Davis III.
The luxury of having two top-tier corners, or two that are close enough to shutdown level, was supposed to allow the defense to do so much more. Gamble more with extra rushers.
In theory, having their outside corners playing man coverage, without needing safety help, would give Mike Vrabel and Terrell Williams the green light to scheme up all kinds of trouble for opposing quarterbacks.
Even though Gonzalez was out, the Patriots still blitzed like crazy against Geno Smith and the Raiders.
They didn’t get the result they were looking for, surrendering nine plays of 20 or more yards in the 20-14 loss to Las Vegas.
They didn’t cover well, tackle well, and didn’t always get to the quarterback when sending extra rushers.
Gambling is fine if you get to the quarterback, or make sure all the bases covered behind. The Patriots aggressiveness - blitzing an NFL-high 17 times against the Raiders - didn’t cost them every time, but it cost them enough.
While they did manage four sacks, they also allowed 189 passing yards when they blitzed, tops in the league last week.
The Dolphins with Tagovailoa and his cast of offensive stars - Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, and De’Von Achane - are on the menu and ready to atone for their Week 1 loss.
The Patriots defense can’t have another game where they are explosive-played to death.
As Vrabel pointed out during the week: “You can’t live in a blitz world.”
The Colts, who crushed Miami last week, may have provided a bit of a blueprint for taming Tagovailoa and the Fins offense, taking away his first read, and flooding the middle of the field. They forced three turnovers, with two of those coming via pick.
Understandably, Vrabel doesn’t want to completely abandon their aggressiveness. There’s nothing worse than a passive defense. The Patriots just need to be smarter about it. And, they need to get to Tua when they do blitz.
“You either have to do what the Colts did, which was turn it over, or you’re going to have to make a play along the way and make them earn it,” Vrabel said. “Pick and choose your spots to try to be aggressive. It’s not just Tyreek, I mean, they’ve got a fantastic orchestrator. I mean, Tua does a fantastic job of knowing where he wants to go with the ball. Quick delivery, he’s extremely accurate. Then the speed with Waddle, Tyreek and the whole team.”
The Patriots won’t have defensive coordinator Terrell Williams calling the shots. He’s on leave due to undisclosed health issues.
Whether it’s Vrabel, or linebackers coach Zak Kuhr, who has been designated as the signal caller Sunday, the Patriots have to devise a plan to tame Tagovailoa and his merry band of weapons.
“You gotta have vision on the quarterback, be able to break on throws, tackle, it’s a huge thing with their team speed,” linebacker Robert Spillane said. “They’re looking for a track meet. We’re looking for a street fight. So somewhere in between that.”
The Dolphins have issues up front on their offensive line, so the Patriots shouldn’t need to blitz as much to get home. They can rush four and stress Tagovailoa without having to bring the house at every turn.
It’s going to be a delicate balance, because Tagovailoa isn’t as effective under duress, which was the case last week against Indy.
They just need to tackle and defend better if the Dolphins quarterback manages to beat the blitz.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Patriots missed 11 tackles against the Raiders with Spillane and Christian Elliss being the worst offenders. Many of those misses resulted in the Patriots giving up a ton of yards after catch (144).
Against the Dolphins, that’s a recipe for disaster.
Patriots safeties coach Scott Booker agreed the team won’t win a lot of games giving up nine ‘X plays" in a game. Specifically, they won’t beat the Dolphins if they give Tagovailoa too much time, and if they allow receivers too much separation.
“Our situation is we want to make sure we do a good job getting bodies on people,” Booker said. “Sometimes that’s man coverage, sometimes that’s zone coverage. We don’t want to allow them to have space. When you have space, that gives them windows for the throws, and that gives them opportunities for run-after-catch.
“So we want to eliminate the space. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
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