Patriots' AFC title game offensive and defensive stats from PFF

Our friends at ProFootballFocus.com were kind enough to share their quick stats from Sunday’s game. Make sure you check out their PFF Edge and PFF Elite products to give you insight, and an edge with your fantasy team. The PFF guys really know the game, so make sure you follow them at @PFF.

AFC Championship Game Patriots Offensive Stats

Although QB Tom Brady completed just three of his eight deep passes (20-plus yards in the air) for 83 yards, two of the five incomplete passes were dropped passes. Furthermore, Brady completed a total of 12 passes more than 10 yards downfield and became the first quarterback this season to complete more than nine such passes against the Jaguars defense.

WR Danny Amendola was all over the field and proved to be Tom Brady’s favorite target once again. New England’s receiver led the Patriots with nine targets and caught a pass against four different defenders as he finished the day with 7 receptions for 84 yards and 2 touchdowns. While Amendola averages 1.43 receiving yards per route run in the regular season since he joined the Patriots, he is more efficient in the playoffs as he averages 1.53 receiving yards per route run in the postseason.

Brady did a good job of evading sacks in the Patriots’ first playoff game as he was not sacked on any of his 13 pressured dropbacks. As a comparison, the New England signal caller was sacked on 17.9 percent of his pressured dropbacks in the regular season, which was just the 21st best rate in the NFL.

The Patriots failed to get the running game going and their running backs did not help either. Dion Lewis, James White and Rex Burkhead failed to break a single tackle on their 13 combined carries while they averaged just 1.31 yards after contact.

New England’s offensive tackles were up to the task against Jacksonville’s stout front seven as they allowed just three total pressures on 92 combined pass blocking plays. Nate Solder and Cam Fleming allowed three total pressures as Fleming also gave up a sack besides the quarterback hurry.

AFC Championship Game Patriots Defensive Stats

Edge defender Trey Flowers had a terrific afternoon and recorded six total pressures for the second consecutive game. Flowers now has 12 total pressures in the 2017 postseason, which is tied for the second most just one behind Cameron Jordan’s 13. Furthermore, Flowers’ pass rushing productivity of 13.8 (12 pressures on 67 pass rushing snaps) ranks third among 4-3 defensive ends behind Chris Long and Vinny Curry.

Defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois continues to be a force against the run in the middle of New England’s defense. Even though Jean Francois was on the field for just 15 snaps against the run, he finished the day with three run stops. As a result, he recorded a run stop percentage of 20.0 percent, which was tied with Jacksonville’s Marcell Dareus for the highest among defensive tackles in yesterday’s conference championship games.

New England’s cornerbacks struggled in coverage against the Jacksonville receivers. Even though Stephon Gilmore, Malcolm Butler and Eric Rowe all recorded one pass breakup they allowed 10 receptions on 15 targets for 161 yards. As a result, Jaguars QB Blake Bortles had a passer rating of 102.4 when targeting the Patriots cornerbacks.

New England dialed up a lot of blitzes against Jacksonville as they blitzed on 17 of the Jaguars’ 40 passing plays, leading to a blitz percentage of 42.5 percent, which was the second-highest for the Patriots defense all season. However, when the Patriots generated pressure it was just after an average of 2.61 seconds, which was tied for the fifth slowest this season and the second slowest since Week 5.

The Patriots got creative with their pass rushing towards the end of the game as safety Patrick Chung and cornerbacks Butler and Rowe combined to rush the passer a total of seven snaps. In addition, Butler tied his career-high of three pass rushing snaps in a single game. All three Patriots defensive backs finished the game with one quarterback hurry apiece.