The New England Patriots defense played its best game of the season in the wild card playoff round against the Los Angeles Chargers, giving up only three points and 207 yards of offense. The secret was in the unit’s aggressiveness.
Whether it was sending blitzers after Justin Herbert and an outmatched offensive line, or throwing disguises at the Pro Bowl quarterback, the Patriots put their foot on the gas early in the game and did not let up. Sitting behind the wheel was Zak Kuhr, the team’s acting
defensive coordinator with regular DC Terrell Williams undergoing cancer treatment.
The Kuhr-led defense has had its ups and downs this year, but the Patriots hit all the right buttons using a blitz-heavy battle plan against the Chargers. So, will that be the recipe going forward? Not necessarily, the 37-year-old explained.
“It’s always a balance,” Kuhr said on Thursday. “It is game-to-game and at some point you got to kind of feel what is working best for you without being reckless. But there’s different times where, ‘Hey, we don’t really want to send it this week because this is what they have X, Y, and Z,‘ or, ‘This is the reason why we do want to send it this week, X, Y, and Z.’ But I would say it’s a good mix of our personnel and opponent-dependent.”
Against the Chargers, using a blitz on 20 of 44 dropbacks could have been a risky approach considering that Herbert was among the league’s best quarterbacks in such situations during the regular season. Ultimately, the plan worked because the Patriots executed at a high level and overwhelmed an opponent whose offensive line had been an issue throughout the year.
So, could the same plan work versus the Houston Texans as well? That remains to be seen, although the numbers suggest that it might.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud, after all, has put up some solid but not necessarily threatening numbers against the blitz so far this year, going 109 of 161 (67.7%) for 1,257 yards with 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions and 13 sacks. The line in front of him has also been fairly mediocre, which is still better than what Herbert had to work with but could give the Patriots a chance to exploit some vulnerabilities again.
When it comes to disguising looks, meanwhile, Kuhr sees it as a method to level the playing field between the offense and defense.
“Always balanced with everything we do, even the disguise part,” he said. “In this league, the game is so fast and these guys process quickly on both sides of the ball. You have a lot of stuff on tape right now, especially this late in the year. And to maybe just gain that one step back of the offense knowing the play and the defense having to play the play.
“Maybe with our disguise and they’re thinking one thing — because they’re going to try to anticipate stuff — how can we gain that step back? And that’s maybe giving them something they weren’t thinking at the snap and now they have to process something new.”
Regardless of what the Patriots have in mind against the Texans, the primary goal will be to throw Stroud and his offensive line off their rhythm one way or another. Because, as Kuhr put it:
“When he’s in a clean pocket, he is deadly.”
