FOXBOROUGH – So let’s clear the air, right here and now.
Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, hell toss OBJ in there if you like.
None of them would have mattered.
The New England Patriots defense is that good.
An oft-flustered Baker Mayfield, whose best connection of the day went to Patriot Kyle Dugger – in Baker’s defense he did hit him right between the 2 and the 3 on his jersey – had to agree postgame.
That is, if his head had cleared from the pounding he absorbed here on the Gillette Stadium turf in New England’s 45-7 blowout.
“They did a good job. They covered us. It’s a good defense. It’s a good pass defense,” said Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski. “They were outscheming us. And ultimately we didn’t hit enough plays.
“Some of those plays we hit early, we didn’t hit later. I think it’s simple. We got outplayed and we got outcoached.”
Stefanski was understating this shellacking.
After the opening possession, an 84-yard TD march in which D’Ernest Johnson ground out 58 yards on four carries, the Browns ran the next 12 plays of the half for a net total of 7 yards.
By that time, the 7-0 lead melted into a 24-7 hole. Clearly still groggy, Mayfield felt like at that point, the Browns were still in it.
Things went from pathetic to worse – again thanks to a suddenly frisky Patriots defense – as the Browns ran 14 offensive plays in the third quarter, netting a whopping 24 yards. The Browns finished with 217 yards and just 1 of 11 third-down conversions.
“They play hard. They play extremely hard. I mean, obviously, they're coached well. They got a lot of veterans. They play hard and disguise well. And they just execute well,” said Mayfield, who characterized himself as “pretty beat up” after the Patriots assault on the pocket. “They had a good scheme. They play hard and disguise well.”
Cleveland’s opening drive, at least the four Johnson runs, were tainted. New England had six defensive backs on the field, with Adrian Phillips sliding up into the linebacker slot as he did out of need back in 2020.
That did not last long.
While his offense was answering the opening score, Bill Belichick was busy on the sideline, re-adjusting things.
“That's the NFL. You know, teams come in with plans and plays and if you don't play things well or haven't coached it well, then you have to fix that,” said the game’s most celebrated defensive mind as he lent a lesson to the legion of mediocre, yet stubborn, coaches that populate the pro game right now.
As captain Devin McCourty noted, “Some of the adjustments were great.”
Even before he got repeatedly boxed around, Mayfield (11 for 21, 73 yards) was flummoxed.
New England has gone old school clearly, with late Raiders’ owner Al Davis echoing in the background of every possession: “The other team’s quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard.”
Check out the carnage.
The Patriots have knocked out three quarterbacks – Mayfield on Sunday, Carolina’s Sam Darnold last week and the Jets’ Zach Wilson before him. This pass rush has wreaked havoc. And it’s not about the blitz.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
Sunday’s onslaught produced five more sacks, raising the season total to 24.
“Once we got a lead, those guys can go in and eat, they do a great job. So when you can go in there and play a four-man rush and get different coverages, then you can get pressure with those four men, it makes it tough on the offense,” said McCourty.
Judon was credited with just one-half sack and three of the Patriots’ nine QB hits, doing his damage with the Browns giving him special attention.
That left Deatrich Wise alone on the opposite side, and he got home twice, once for a strip-sack and the other time a big shot that commenced Mayfield’s loss of heart (it was called a knee contusion by Stefanski).
The push in the middle from Lawrence Guy and Christian Barmore was solid all day. Meanwhile, the third-down looks where Judon backed out into coverage, allowing for the rush to come from somewhere else, yielded sacks from Kyle Van Noy and Dont’a Hightower (one-half).
Scheme or not, the Patriots have put playmakers in position to make plays.
Take Dugger’s pick, a nice, athletic effort with the second-year man in zone, reading Mayfield and under-cutting the route on a third-and-7. That play was a “third-and-7” because on second-and-7, Belichick’s scheme had confused Mayfield into trying to jam a ball to a double-covered Donovan Peoples-Jones in the left middle while wide receiver JoJo Matson was uncovered and ignored by the QB in the left flat.
Right now, the Patriots defense has it going on.
“We evolved. We saw how we were being attacked and what was happening to our defense. We made an emphasis on stopping that. Pushing the pocket, collapsing the pocket, making QBs throw from a well. When it gets tight in there, footwork gets bad for QBs,” said Judon. “Our secondary has been disguising and making it tough on QBs. When you do that, the front end working with the back end, it's hard for QBs and you see what it leads to. We have to continue doing that. Get our pass rushers to crush the pocket and our DBs to continue covering tight and make plays. Because they're making a lot of plays.”