Ahead of this year’s training camp, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained that he was looking at his team’s performances in three distinct categories. There is the good, the bad, and, as he called it, the s—t that gets you beat.
Sunday’s 26-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals saw plenty of all three. So, if the coach wants to look at the Patriots through the three categories he established, who are we to disagree? So, let’s break down the Week 12 game in exactly that manner.
The good: Battling adversity
The Patriots
did face their fair share of challenges during their current win streak, but for the most part did not have to overcome any major obstacles. That was not the case on Sunday.
Not only did they fall into a 10-0 hole behind another slow defensive start and a sloppy offensive performance that included Drake Maye’s first career pick-six, they also suffered multiple injuries along the way. The entire left side of the offensive line — rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson — was unable to finish the contest, as was special teamer Brenden Schooler.
And yet, the Patriots were able to overcome all of it. While the end result may not have been particularly pretty and the Bengals came within 26 yards of scoring a potential game-winning touchdown, New England showed the mental toughnesses required to fight through its own insufficiencies on offense and defense as well as multiple injury worries to celebrate a ninth victory in a row.
“These are long games, and they are decided by a few plays,” said Mike Vrabel during his postgame presser. “In the end, we made a couple more than they did.”
The bad: Run game
With Rhamondre Stevenson returning from the toe injury that had sidelined him the previous three games, the Patriots had all available hands on deck again at the running back position. And yet, they had a hard time getting the veteran or indeed any of their backs going versus the 31st-ranked run defense in the NFL.
Not counting three Drake Maye scrambles and a kneel-down for 22 combined yards, the Patriots managed to gain just 85 total yards on 27 carries — an average of 3.1 yards per run. New England finished with an EPA of -0.35 per run as well as a success rate of just 36% on the ground.
Stevenson’s output was particularly bad, with his six rushing attempts resulting in only 5 yards. For comparison, TreVeyon Henderson finished with 66 on 18 carries and a 3.7-yard average.
New England was not much better on the other side of the ball. With Milton Williams on injured reserve and Khyiris Tonga in and out of the lineup, as well as Jahlani Tavai missing the game for personal reasons, the team’s defense had a hard time consistently slowing down the Bengals’ ground game.
When all was said and done, Cincinnati had gained 120 yards on 23 carries for 5.2 yards per run. Compared to the Patriots, the Bengals performed significantly better and more efficient in the ground game, posting a 0.03 EPA per play with a 54% success rate.
The s—t that gets you beat: Goal line offense
The final stat line — 0-for-2 — does not quite capture the Patriots’ inability to play successful goal line offense against the Bengals. Their first opportunity came midway through the third quarter, following a pass interference penalty drawn by wide receiver Kayshon Boutte.
The call set the Patriots up at the 5-yard line, and we’ll just let the official NFL game book take it from here:
1-5-CIN 5 (11:16) (Shotgun) D.Maye pass incomplete short left.
2-5-CIN 5 (11:11) D.Maye pass short left to T.Henderson to CIN 1 for 4 yards (B.Carter).
Timeout #1 by NE at 10:23.
3-1-CIN 1 (10:23) (Shotgun) V.Lowe reported in as eligible. D.Maye pass incomplete short middle to H.Henry (J.Giles-Harris).
4-1-CIN 1 (10:18) D.Maye pass incomplete short left to K.Boutte.
PENALTY on CIN-D.Hill, Defensive Pass Interference, 0 yards, enforced at CIN 1 – No Play. X12
1-1-CIN 1 (10:15) V.Lowe reported in as eligible. T.Jennings left guard to CIN 1 for no gain (B.Carter; D.Knight).
2-1-CIN 1 (9:29) D.Maye pass short left to H.Henry for 1 yard, TOUCHDOWN NULLIFIED by Penalty.
PENALTY on NE-M.Hollins, Offensive Pass Interference, 10 yards, enforced at CIN 1 – No Play.
2-11-CIN 11 (9:25) (Shotgun) D.Maye pass short middle to H.Henry to CIN 1 for 10 yards (B.Carter; D.Knight).
Timeout #2 by NE at 08:40.
3-1-CIN 1 (8:40) R.Stevenson right guard to CIN 1 for no gain (G.Stone; J.Battle).
4-1-CIN 1 (7:54) (Shotgun) R.Stevenson left guard to CIN 1 for no gain (M.Murphy; J.Ossai).
Those are nine snaps in a goal-to-go setting, including six from the 1-yard line, that saw the Patriots fail to reach the end zone in a legal fashion while also burning a pair of timeouts. They eventually turned the ball over on downs to end what was a pivotal sequence in the game: a touchdown would have put New England up 24-13 instead of keeping the game in the one-score category.
In the fourth quarter, the Patriots found themselves in a similar situation with a slightly different but still not overly satisfying result:
1-4-CIN 4 (7:32) D.Maye pass incomplete short right to A.Hooper.
2-4-CIN 4 (7:29) (Shotgun) T.Henderson left guard to CIN 1 for 3 yards (D.Hill; G.Stone).
3-1-CIN 1 (6:49) D.Maye up the middle to CIN 1 for no gain (B.Carter).
4-1-CIN 1 (5:58) A.Borregales 19 yard field goal is GOOD, Center-J.Ashby, Holder-B.Baringer.
“You have to score, whoever you call,” said Mike Vrabel during his postgame presser, hinting at the team’s injury situation causing problems for the unit. “It’ll be a good learning opportunity for us in a lot of phases. It shows just how important and how critical the week of practice is and being ready to go because you never know when your opportunity is going to come. You need to make sure that everybody’s on the same page. And there were a lot of moving parts today.”
