When they released their final injury report of the week on Friday, the New England Patriots had six cornerbacks on their active roster. Five of those were listed, including four who had been ruled out for the Week 5 game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
But even though they were without starters Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis as well as backups Channing Canada and Karon Prunty, the Patriots were able to keep the Raiders’ pass game largely in check. The three remaining cornerbacks — Marcus Jones,
Charles Woods and recently-promoted Kindle Vildor — had a lot to do with this, as did another backup, big nickel safety Jaylen Reed.
“Next man up mentality,” linebacker and defensive captain Robert Spillane called it after the Patriots’ 45-17 win. “Oftentimes in this league you’re an opportunity away from showing people that you deserve to be on the field. There are so many guys that stepped up huge for us, especially on the defensive side of the ball today.”
Whereas Jones is a regular part of the Patriots’ three-cornerback groupings alongside Gonzalez and Davis, Woods and Vildor started the season as a fourth option and on the practice squad, respectively. On Sunday, however, they were asked to play prominent snaps against the seventh highest-scoring team in the NFL entering Week 5.
The results were not perfect — Jones shadowing tight end Brock Bowers early was a mismatch the Raiders were happy to exploit — but the damage overall was kept in check. And not just that.
Woods had a pair of pass breakups and a tackle for loss, while Vildor broke up a third-down pass intended for Bowers and later forced a fumble against the tight end. They also were able of holding their own in 1-on-1 situations when the Patriots ran blitz calls up front.
“They showed up huge,” said Spillane. “When you blitz those corners are out there solo dolo a lot of the times, and they really stood up not only making the plays but helping us get off the field on numerous occasions, or getting the ball out, turnovers. Just really proud of all of those guys. At the end of the day, we knew they were going to step up. They prepared to be starters their whole careers.”
“We try not to panic. We just try to get the next guy ready,” said head coach Mike Vrabel. “We ask everybody to be ready to prepare as a starter. It’s a credit to the football players. The guys on this team and the guys we’ve tried to bring in here, and they realize that when you get an opportunity and you do something with it, you’ll get more opportunities.”
What Woods’ and Vildor’s opportunities in particular will look like once Gonzalez and Davis are back in action remains to be seen. At the very least, they have proven that they can be trusted.
Not that that was any surprise.
“We trust each other as a team. We trust whoever’s on the field to do their job,” said Spillane. “They’re one eleventh. We had a bunch of guys step up and really provide huge plays for us. Kindle getting that ball out on the turnover, solidifying that game — I just thought overall so many guys stepped in today and really did a good job for us.”
