Ryan: Judon, Uche go QB hunting as Patriots defense helps push New England over .500

Sam Ehlinger likely didn’t sleep too soundly on Saturday night.

Granted, the slippery QB was already going to have plenty of butterflies ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the Patriots  — with the 2021 sixth-round pick making his first career road start for a woefully undermanned Colts squad. 

But given all that went sideways for Indy’s offensive unit over the past week, it sure felt like the University of Texas product was doomed before he even managed to step onto the turf at Gillette Stadium. 

One week after benching Matt Ryan, the Colts fired offensive coordinator Marcus Brady on Tuesday, uprooting any semblance of continuity for Ehlinger ahead of his next major test as an NFL signal caller.

A porous offensive line wasn’t going to make things any easier for Ehlinger, especially against a Patriots front seven that had to be licking their chops ahead of Sunday’s meeting. But when adding in injuries and roster transactions, the Colts essentially handed Ehlinger a pop gun before sending him into the trenches against New England. 

The same day that Indy removed Brady, the team also dealt running back Nyheim Hines to the Bills, removing a valuable pass-catching back from Ehlinger’s list of weapons. And to make matters worse, the Colts were going to be without their top player in running back Jonathan Taylor — who was sidelined on Sunday with an ankle injury. 

That’s enough misfortune and bad breaks to keep a second-year QB up at night.

And given what then transpired out on the gridiron Sunday afternoon, it sure seems like Ehlinger will be seeing Patriots pass rushers — including a blur of a specter draped in red sleeves —  in his nightmares for the foreseeable future. 

It was expected for Ehlinger and the Colts’ offense to have their work cut out for them on Sunday, but the end result was downright comical against a ravenous Patriots pass rush.

In total, the Patriots finished Sunday’s 26-3 victory with nine total sacks — standing as just the fourth time in team history that they reached such a single-game milestone, and the first time since Nov. 4, 2001. 

With New England feasting against the Colts' line of pylons up front, Indy struggled to orchestrate any semblance of an extended drive against New England. In total, the Patriots forced Indy into eight three-and-out drives and kept them to just 2.0 yards per play. 

Two. Yards. Per. Play.

By the time Ehlinger, battered and bruised all afternoon, finally managed to scramble for 19 yards with three minutes left in the game, it allowed the visitors to finally cross the 100-yard threshold as a total offensive unit. 

"We don't want to give out no yards,” Matthew Judon said postgame. “We don't want to give up nothing. You have to earn everything and that's what we were gonna make offenses do. They gotta earn it. And when an offense has a good day, you kind of just gotta tip your hat and go back to work. But today it was us. And today, everybody came to play.”

As expected in a game where the Patriots' defense spent most of the afternoon trampling into the Colts' backfield and wrangling up Ehlinger, Judon served as the conduit that sparked New England’s dominant performance, finishing with three sacks on the afternoon en route to a league-leading 11.5 sacks through nine games. 

"I think teams should start trying to block him,” Jonathan Jones said of Judon. “He's able to get out there. He's a heck of a player and he does so much for our defense. He's one of our staples.”

Judon did his damage early against Ehlinger and the Colts, wrapping up the Indy QB on each of the visitors' first two drives of the game. Judon could have finished the first quarter with yet another sack, only for it to be negated off of a roughing-the-passer penalty against Daniel Ekuale. 

The ugly final totals put forth by the Colts offense might elicit plenty of laughs, but a strong start for Judon and Co. was needed on Sunday, considering Indy’s ineptitude was largely matched by the Patriots' offense for most of the afternoon.

On the first six drives of the game, the Colts and Patriots combined for just nine total yards of offense. It was an ugly start for the Patriots, especially with their own offensive line doing little to help out Mac Jones, but it was still not nearly as ugly as the Colts — who ultimately finished the first quarter with -2 yards of total offense. 

“We talked about getting off to an early start,” Devin McCourty said. “When you play a young quarterback, if you can make it tough like we did today, even that second sack that (Judon) got that ended up getting called back for roughing the passer — you just add pressure. Like he felt that early in the game. To get to the quarterback, two or three times in like the first six to nine plays, that's tough to come into the game with. So those guys did a great job.”

While Judon set the tone early, it was Josh Uche who continued the pressure as the Patriots started to pad their lead behind the leg of Nick Folk and some clutch special-teams play.

By the end of the afternoon, both Judon and Uche finished with three sacks apiece — with Sunday standing as the second time in team history that multiple players had 3+ sacks in the same game. Andre Tippett and Don Blackmon first accomplished the feat back in 1985 against the Packers.

While Judon’s warpath against an ill-equipped O-line was hardly a surprise, Uche’s three-sack performance stood as another encouraging sign for the now third-year LB, who entered Sunday with 5.0 sacks in his young career. 

"Josh actually calls the plays out there when we were in third down,” Judon said of Uche. “So our execution is from him. And that's hard. That's hard for somebody that's in year three and hasn't had that much success in the NFL and it's third and long, and he has to make the right call. But for him to come out there and have a game like he had and play lights-out like that, that just allows him to see what he can do in his league. He can be a premier pass rusher and always tell him, he's probably the best pass rusher we got.”

Whatever plays that Uche were calling on third down clearly had Ehlinger and the Colts flummoxed, as Indy ended the game with a heinous 0-for-14 showing on third-down situations. 

Entering the bye week, the Patriots still have plenty to work on, namely on the offensive side of the ball. 

But even with Sunday’s dominance, Judon and the Patriots' defensive unit aren’t going to get too carried away from a performance against an offensive grouping like the Colts. 

Ehlinger won’t be getting much rest in wake of his matchup against New England. But if the Patriots want to orchestrate a second-half surge this season, they’re going to have to give much more established QBs those same night terrors over the next eight weeks. 

“This season, it's been ups and downs,” Judon said. “(Matthew Slater) kind of talked to us about struggling. And so when you're struggling and you have individual success, but you're not getting the wins or whatever, you find out who you are. You find out what kind of teammates you have. And I'm the kind of guy, we could have won the same game, we could have had the same game and I could have had no sacks. Uche, Daniel, Wise, Anfernee — they could have all had the sacks and I would have come up here excited the same way and that's what type of player I am. 

"I'm having success on the season. That's what my team needs me to do. That's what I'm gonna continue to do. But it's all about the wins and losses for me. It's all about striving for something bigger than myself. And so that's what I'm gonna continue to do.”