Bedard: What went wrong on the Patriots' defense to allow so many big plays?

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A first run through the defensive TV copy of the game to try to get a bead on where the issues were. We'll go through some of the big plays and then give you a few takeaways:

FIRST HALF

1-10-BLT 36 (13:05) (Shotgun) M.Ingram right end pushed ob at BLT 49 for 13 yards (P.Chung).

Patriots do not shift to the strength of the defense when the fullback motions to the right, so they're already in a bad spot. Elandon Roberts is late getting outside and is delayed by mammoth RT Orlando Brown.

1-10-BLT 49 (12:32) (Shotgun) L.Jackson pass short middle to M.Brown pushed ob at NE 25 for 26 yards (D.McCourty).

Ravens do a nice job formationally with the tight end on the right, and the fullback offset to the other side. When Brown comes in motion, Jamie Collins doesn't anticipate it and, after taking a false juke move inside, is easily wiped out by the fullback to key the play. So far, this is Greg Roman beating the Patriots' defensive coaches/signal callers.

1-3-NE 3 (8:20) (Shotgun) L.Jackson left end for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

After Shilique Calhoun goes offsides on the field-goal attempt, Collins is completely fooled by the read-option and gets put in his rear end for good measure.

1-10-BLT 25 (7:49) (Shotgun) M.Ingram left guard to BLT 39 for 14 yards (D.McCourty).

Danny Shelton is double-teamed out of his gap and Dont'a Hightower is turned out of his. When Elandon Roberts is also picked off, Ingram is off to the races.

1-10-50 (5:49) (Shotgun) L.Jackson right guard to NE 32 for 18 yards (D.McCourty).

Lawrence Guy and Roberts both end up going for the dive back on the read-option, which leaves a gaping hole when Dont'a Hightower is blocked by Marshal Yanda.

1-10-BLT 35 (15:00) (Shotgun) M.Ingram left guard to NE 12 for 53 yards (J.Jackson).

Ja'Whaun Bentley's run fit was bad from the start — he appeared about one yard or two to the right of where he should have been — which puts him out of the gap to begin with. Everyone else was fine but Bentley.

1-10-NE 12 (14:11) (Shotgun) G.Edwards left guard for 12 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Collins didn't squeeze the backside gap and Bentley was again lost. By the time he found the ball, Edwards was off to the races. That he went in untouched is considered an embarrassment for an NFL defense.

SECOND HALF

3-5-BLT 24 (7:16) (Shotgun) L.Jackson pass deep left to M.Andrews to BLT 42 for 18 yards (T.Brooks).

Just a great throw and catch against good coverage. Nothing you can do.

4-4-NE 38 (3:33) (Shotgun) L.Jackson pass short right to W.Snead to NE 31 for 7 yards (J.McCourty).

Ravens run a pick play — which are legal if done correctly (no visible intent to delay to the defender) — to perfection. They caught the Patriots in lock coverage (no switching), which didn't help. And Jason McCourty tried to go over the pick instead of under — that's a tough call.

2-11-NE 32 (1:52) (Shotgun) L.Jackson pass short middle to M.Brown pushed ob at NE 16 for 16 yards (J.Collins).

Just speed beating speed, and since Hightower was spying Jackson, he didn't provide the normal help he would against a low crosser.

1-10-NE 16 (1:13) L.Jackson scrambles left tackle pushed ob at NE 5 for 11 yards (D.Hightower).

A pretty good rush and mostly just Jackson being Jackson, but Guy was sort of chasing his tail and Jackson ultimately went through his gap.

2-5-NE 5 (15:00) (Shotgun) L.Jackson pass short left to N.Boyle for 5 yards, TOUCHDOWN [L. Guy].

A straight coverage bust by the Patriots. Somebody had Boyle man-to-man. At the start of the play, it was Devin McCourty but when Boyle went in motion, he passed it off to Duron Harmon. That meant that Terrence Brooks jumped the wrong player and he was supposed to stick with Boyle. This is my guess, but I think that's the correct read on this play.

3-4-BLT 49 (9:48) (Shotgun) L.Jackson pass short right to M.Ingram pushed ob at NE 33 for 18 yards (D.Harmon).

2-8-NE 23 (7:02) (Shotgun) L.Jackson pass short right to M.Ingram pushed ob at NE 12 for 11 yards (D.Hightower).

Just exploited mismatches: Roberts against Ingram, and then Hightower.

2-8-NE 10 (5:37) (Shotgun) L.Jackson up the middle to NE 1 for 9 yards (D.Harmon).

Collins crashes into the A gap but no one scrapes over the top. When Guy is also a little wide in the other direction, a big hole opens up.

TAKEAWAYS

There was a little bit of everything up front for the Patriots but the good news — going forward — is that most of this stuff is correctable and were just tiny flaws in technique and assignment. Of course, that doesn't help the Patriots much right now after the game.

There were a lot of issues with the Patriots' off-the-ball linebackers, from Collins and Hightower to Roberts and Bentley. These are some of the same issues that showed up previously and the Ravens did a nice job exploiting them.

If I had to guess, I would think that Belichick is mostly upset with himself and the coaches for not having those linebackers properly prepared for this game. That there were that many big errors by the group means that the Patriots' coaches did not give them a good enough look in practice. I'm seen prepared Patriots defenses in the past, and this was not one of them. They were obviously thrown for a loop by some of the Ravens' looks and while they did settle down as the game went on, there will be a lot of frustration within One Patriot Place.