Patriots' defense faces another challenge with dynamic running style of Buffalo's Josh Allen

FOXBOROUGH — No team in the league has consistently struggled defending mobile quarterbacks this year than the Patriots. It was an issue in October, and remains an issue in December.


New England is worst in the league when it comes to quarterback rushing yards per carry, yielding an average of 6.62 rushing yards on those runs. Deshaun Watson, Blake Bortles, Mitchell Trubisky and others have all gashed the Patriots on the ground.

In all, New England has allowed 245 rushing yards to opposing quarterbacks through 14 games, and while that total isn’t all that imposing when stacked up against the rest of the NFL, it’s clear that when opposing quarterbacks have made the most of their chances when they’ve taken off and run against New England.

Part of the issue is simply bad timing — the Patriots have likely faced more true running quarterbacks than any team in the league to this point in the season. And while stats always have to be placed in some sort of context (there are cases where New England is more than willing to trade yards for clock if it's holding a second-half lead), the average is certainly worth noting, especially when you consider who the Patriots will be facing this weekend in Josh Allen.

Allen, the first-round pick of the Bills this past spring, has already become one of the most proficient running quarterbacks in the NFL. In only 10 games, he has 506 rushing yards. (By way of comparison, Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson leads all quarterbacks with 566 rushing yards, while Carolina’s Cam Newton is third with 488, Watson is fourth at 436 rushing yards, and Trubisky is fifth at 402..)

Allen has topped 100 rushing yards in two of the last three weeks — 135 vs. Miami, 101 vs. Detroit. Some of it has been on scrambles, and some on designed runs. But regardless of how he gets them, Allen has been a standout on the ground.

“He’s big, he’s fast, he’s got a strong arm (and) he’s accurate,” Bill Belichick said Wednesday. “He can stand in the pocket and throw. He can get out. There’s some designed runs. There’s some quarterback scrambles, or some scrambles that are runs or he scrambles and extends plays and throws it.”

The Patriots caught a bit of a break last time around against the Bills, when Allen was sidelined with an elbow issue. But this week, it sounds like he’s good to go, which should provide a whole new series of issues for a New England defense that has struggled to stop the run as of late — the Patriots have allowed an average of 130.5 rushing yards per game the last six contests.

One possibility for the Patriots? They take a page from old friend Matt Patricia. The Lions slowed Allen last week, holding him to a career-low 16 yards on the ground. After the game — a 14-13 win for the Bills — Patricia pointed to discipline and containment as keys in slowing Allen, as well as a focus in guarding against big plays. (To that point, Buffalo had just four plays of 20 yards or more.)

Asked Wednesday about possibly following Patricia’s blueprint, Belichick wouldn’t bite, but did acknowledge there could be some carryover from last week’s game plan: For the Patriots, it’ll be the second consecutive week where they face a bigger quarterback that has some escapability.

“There are scramble rules that we go through from pretty much the first day of training camp, offensively and defensively,” he said, “And then there are obviously a lot of sub bullet points to general rules based on specific situations and so forth.”

For the Patriots’ defense, it will come down to communication and execution. On the first level, linemen need to be aware of gap discipline and guard against over-pursuit. At the second level, it’s communication and execution, guarding against possible play-fakes and not guessing when it comes to the right gap. And in the secondary, there’s the need to be exceptionally self-aware — if you’re running with a pass-catcher in man coverage and Allen decides to pull it down and run, defensive backs need to break off their coverage and react accordingly.

Ultimately, history hasn’t been kind to young quarterbacks making their first start in Foxborough. Despite the admiration for his skill set, Belichick isn’t interested in seeing Allen break new ground Sunday against New England.

“He’s a strong guy — we’ve seen him stiff-arm some people,” Belichick said. “He’s definitely fast. He can outrun guys. You have to take good angles and obviously wrap him up and try not to let him get started.

“He’s a hard guy to defend.”