Welcome to the Friday Five!
Each week during the NFL regular season, I’ll drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.
Ready, set, football.
#### 1\. 4th-down dominance
As a team with middling to above-average talent, sustaining a season like the Patriots have requires the proverbial little things.
Winning the field position battle. Limiting pre-snap penalties. Mastering clock management. Going for it on fourth down at the exact right places and times.
Since Mike Vrabel’s hiring, the Patriots have evolved from one of the NFL’s most conservative teams on fourth down to one of its most aggressive. That aggression, informed by Vrabel’s feel for the game and his staff’s use of analytical models on game day, has paid off in spades.
No team is better on fourth down than the Patriots, who have converted a league-leading 82.3% of the time, including a defensive pass interference penalty Mack Hollins drew in Week 1. Of their 14 conversions, nine have either sustained a scoring drive or scored a touchdown. One such conversion powered one of their biggest wins of the year: a 28-23 escape at Tampa Bay.
Trailing with two seconds left before halftime, Drake Maye lobbed a pass for Stefon Diggs on fourth-and-goal snap at the Buccaneers’ 1-yard line that resulted in a go-ahead touchdown and a major lift heading into the locker room. Without that score, the Pats likely lose in Tampa Bay, where Maye endured one of his toughest games of the season. On fourth down, though, Maye’s been money.
He’s 9-of-10 for 85 yards and two touchdowns, plus two scrambles this season. Behind Maye’s success, which includes targeting Diggs half the time, is sound play-calling from offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. On Thursday, McDaniels explained there’s a balance between holding on to his best plays for fourth down and calling them when the time is needed, which can sometimes mean critical third downs in the first half.
“It’s a tough (thing),” McDaniels said. “It’s tricky if you have something you love — not to use it early in the game. But hopefully, what we’re trying to do at the end of the week is have enough things we like in that (situation) that if we end up with two or three (third downs) or what have you, and then a fourth down comes up in the second or third quarter, we have enough there where you say, ‘You know what? I like five calls in this (situation), and I’m going to use the next one that comes up.”
Thus far, there’s been a clear method to Vrabel’s madness. Of the Patriots’ 17 fourth-down attempts, 14 have come in opponents’ territory, and none have attempted to cover more than seven yards. In fact, just two fourth-down plays have attempted to pick up more than four yards.
Basically, if it’s a manageable distance and the Patriots find themselves on the other side of the 50-yard line, it’s go time.
#### 2\. Counters to the counters
With Bengals star receiver Ja’Marr Chase sidelined for Sunday’s game, it’s reasonable to expect the Patriots will shadow Bengals’ No. 2 wideout Tee Higgins with shutdown corner Christian Gonzalez.
Higgins is a towering receiver with two 1,000-yard seasons to his resume and seven touchdowns this year. He’s averaging 15.5 yards per catch, thriving as both a deep threat and intermediate target. Lately, the Pats have used Gonzalez to neutralize top-flight receivers more often than they did earlier in the season.
This, of course, the Bengals know. So understanding Cincinnati will try to free Higgins from Gonzalez’s sticky coverage with different schemes, the Patriots’ defensive staff must come prepared with counters to the motions, formations and route concepts Bengals head coach Zac Taylor likes to use. Defensive play-caller Zak Kuhr hit on a few of those concepts Thursday.
“They do a good job of building bunches and stack (formations), some rub routes, getting to (audibles) when they feel that; whether it be some mesh concepts (criss-crossing routes), or it may be — (Taylor)’s a creative dude. He’s got some great answers in the pass game, some new stuff you might not see week to week,” Kuhr said.
What might the Patriots’ counters to those counters be? Kuhr could opt for double-teams, zone match coverage or switching man-to-man schemes that might take Gonzalez off Higgins but keep a defender tight to Cincinnati’s best receiver whenever he’s in motion.
The game within the game.
#### 3\. Play-calling wisdom
Legendary Celtics coach and GM Red Auerbach used to say sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels addresses the media during a press conference at Gillette Stadium. (Mark Stockwell/Boston Herald)
On Thursday, Josh McDaniels took that idea and applied it to play-calling while explaining that in-game flexibility is one of the more important lessons’ he’s learned late in his coaching career.
“Sometimes it’s what you don’t call that’s as important as what you do call, and having enough confidence in yourself and your staff and your team in the middle of the first or second quarter to cross off seven (plays) because of what’s happening in the game or how it’s going,” McDaniels said. “And not be so bullheaded about, ‘Well, I liked this on Tuesday or Wednesday, and by gosh, I’m going to call it no matter what.'”
Patriots quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant went into further detail on McDaniels’ play-calling later on Thursday.
“He has answers to the tests before they come up,” Grant said. “He’s been in his system for a super long time, and he has experiences, and he knows where every skeleton is laid and what can hurt every single play in his system. And (he) knows what the complement or the answer to that is, which is impressive. As soon as a defense shows something, he knows exactly what to do next to combat that.”
#### 4\. Awards season
During his weekly press conference, Patriots special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer revealed his midweek meetings after wins involve more than film study and game plans.
How about awards?
“We do different things,” Springer said, “Not to elaborate too much on it, but guys that are reaching (the) highest speed or (make the most) most tackles or MVP of the week, the soldier of the week, things like that.”
Springer shared he hands out awards in an answer about special teams captain Brenden Schooler breaking a double-team during last week’s win over the Jets. Schooler has also been recognized after wins for his sprint speed, having been clocked at faster than 21 MPH this season, according to Springer.
#### 5. Vrabel-Flacco history
It’s been almost 15 years, so you’re forgiven if you forgot Joe Flacco ended Mike Vrabel’s playing career.
In January 2011, the Ravens rolled into Kansas City for a Wild Card playoff game and never stopped rolling en route to a 30-7 win. Flacco sizzled amid freezing conditions, going 25-of-34 for 265 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. That loss capped Vrabel’s second and final season in Kansas City.
Six months later, he entered the coaching ranks as an assistant at Ohio State. Flacco continued playing through the start of Vrabel’s head-coaching career in the NFL and went 2-0 against the Titans during Vrabel’s time there. In fact, Vrabel is 1-5 all-time versus Flacco, with his only win coming as the Texans’ linebackers coach in 2014.
This week, Vrabel remembered a young Flacco being similar to the quarterback he’s studying on tape this week ahead of Sunday’s game in Cincinnati.
“About the same,” Vrabel said. “I mean, big, talented, strong, probably ran a little bit more. So, just the longevity, (I’ve got) a lot of respect for him as a person and as a player.”