FOXBOROUGH — When the Patriots needed a big play in a big spot, trailing the Dolphins 14-10 late in the third quarter, as Miami faced a 3rd and 15 situation, they turned to an old reliable call: inverted Tampa 2.
"We ran it last week," said one defensive player. "Like three or four times."
Of course, last week they faced Joe Burrow and the Bengals — a pretty experienced offense and talented quarterback, and it wasn't always a success. In fact, against the Patriots' regular Tampa 2 coverage, the Bengals burned them for a touchdown, another pass down to the 2-yard line, and there was also a dropped touchdown.
Safety Kyle Dugger was in the middle of all those plays, and it didn't always go well. Here are the videos from last week, as a reference to the Patriots and their regular Tampa 2 coverage, which features wider safeties and a middle linebacker (sometimes Ja'Whaun Bentley, sometimes Dugger) patrolling the deep middle of the field.
The Patriots likely knew the Dolphins looked hard at that Bengals film and would target the weaknesses. So the Patriots came up with a wrinkle that they hold for special occasions.
"The key to it is we have people doing things we already do on the defense, just with different people," said the player. "So it kind of messes with the quarterback. He's like, 'This guy isn't usually here," and that messes them up."
Trick defensive calls are all about what you signal to the quarterback, how he will interpret that, and then targeting the weakness in their usual answer by the formation they are in.
The Patriots used multiple layers of deception on this play, starting with the cornerbacks playing off the receivers some 7-10 yards, showing no deep safeties. The Patriots also have seven players near the line of scrimmage, including safeties Devin McCourty and Kyle Dugger.
To the quarterback, this signals the Patriots may be coming with an all-out blitz. It would be unusual for them in this situation and on this side of the field — Patriots are more known to blitz around field-goal range to push them back. But the QB can't rule it out here. Still, he's probably thinking this is a bluff, and the Patriots will drop back into Tampa 2, which they often use in longer distance situations.
This is likely what Teddy Bridgewater was anticipating: safeties Adrian Phillips and Jabrill Peppers would drop out, cornerbacks Myles Bryant and Jonathan Jones would squat on the shorter routes, Dugger and McCourty would drop into the seams, and Ja'Whaun Bentley would be the MLB — and he could be vulnerable over the top due to his presnap alignment.
But the Patriots flipped the play on its head — they inverted it:
- Cornerbacks Bryant and Jones became the deep safeties.
- Safeties Phillips and Peppers became the cornerbacks.
- Bentley and McCourty carried the seam routes.
- Dugger became the deep linebacker.
That is prone to cause a lot of indecision from a quarterback, which is what you're hoping for.
"We disguise so well that to opposing offenses they think they're going to get something different," said Peppers.
Said Phillips: "I mean, we knew it was a good call we feel more times than not, any call that we do it's just on us to make the play. We got a lot of playmakers on the field. We've been working on that call, we've been building on it every week. It's a tough call for the offense so you know, I don't want to say it was like guaranteed to win when we call that call. but it's a super high percentage and we know that.
Said Dugger: "Just cover-two dropping as the middle player. Got some odd drops, saw my threat was eliminated, so I was able to get my eyes back to the quarterback and get around to the backside vertical."
The Patriots got a little fortunate that RB Jeff Wilson (23) released into the flat and didn't run a vertical route. That was likely the "threat" Dugger was talking about. Once Wilson was out of Dugger's responsibility, he could turn his attention to the first threat to the middle of the field, and that was Trent Sheffield (14) — the only in-breaking route. From there, Dugger is reading the route and the quarterback.
"I know the stick (distance) situation had a lot to do with it," Dugger said. "We knew it's probably going to be some vertical routes, vertical route concepts downfield. That had a lot to do with it. As far as making the play myself, you never really know what it's going to be your time to do that. I was in the right place at the right time.”
Then he made a ridiculous return.
"It was a great play," said Bill Belichick. "A little bit like Marcus' [Jones] play. It was a great run. The interception, it was a good play, a good catch and all that but he made a lot of yards on his own. Like I said, like Marcus did last week, breaking tackles there midfield or 40 yard line, whatever it was, cutting back. Yeah, we all know Kyle's a very, very explosive, athletic player. He's done a great job for us jamming receivers, making the run, tackling, making big plays. When he gets his hands on the ball, he's a hard guy to get. Not many guys out there that are going to catch him from behind on offense, so if it was the Detroit scoop-and-score play, the interceptions here he's had the last couple weeks, last few weeks, he’s really helped us. Big play with [DeAndre] Hopkins, knocking the ball off of him for the fumble in Arizona, that [Raekwon] McMillan got. He's been involved in a lot of those big plays. That's obviously really helped us."
For the Patriots, that play was a long time coming with techniques that takes a lot of reps in the film room, practice field and other games to nail down.
"I think the big thing in zone coverage is having good awareness of the pattern," said Belichick. "Any time you get pressure on the quarterback, and the quarterback doesn't have time to look off and move the defense, you get a good break on the ball, you get a player like Kyle who is fast and long, some players wouldn't have been able to quite get to that ball, but he did. Like I said, it's a big difference when he got his hands on it and being able to run with it. Yeah, zone coverage is all about discipline, finding receivers, reading the quarterback, getting a good break on the ball. Kyle did all those, so we've used a decent amount of zone, man, pretty even I would say roughly on the mixes. A little more man on third down, a little more zone on early downs. Enough of each to try to keep the offense off balance."
Mission accomplished on Sunday.