New England Patriots Run game and play action game

 The New England Patriots are 3rd in the NFL in rushing averaging 159 yards per game and have always been one of the best rushing teams in the NFL.

They have rushed for an average of 5.1 yards per carry this year and have done it a few different ways. 

Some of its old school under center, power, counter, iso, toss schemes and then they mix in some zone read concepts with Newton out of the gun which makes them difficult to defend. The Boss read play weak is a real difficult concept to defend. 

The most impressive is that they constantly get 8 man boxes because teams don't respect their downfield passing game. Regardless, the Patriots still can rush the football and hit teams with their playaction concepts.

Here's some of the plays and plays off it

Play                               Play off it

Toss                               fake toss slant

jet                                  wing counter

iso/power                       play action dover concept (deep over)

boss   read                       play action to the tight end drag

Vs. The Bills in 2020

They do a great job running play action off their run schemes which I will show you later in the clips.

They really hurt the Bills running the ball then running a sequential counter, play action scheme. 

This is all being done with limited tight end and wr play in the passing game. 

Lets take a look at some of the concepts vs. the Bills.

They ran 29 carries for 183 yards  =. 6.31 yard

Toss.   7, 2,5,6,6,1. = 6/27 yards                                    4.5 ypc

qb sweep with toss blocking 2,19,5 = 3/26 yards            8.6 ypc

counter 22 td,    (309 3rd). 18, 7        2, 3 = 5/52            10.4 ypc

iso 2,2 ,13, 1=4/18 yards                                                 4.5 ypc 

power 4, 2=2/6 yards                                                       3 ypc

zone read 4. 1/4                                                                4 ypc 

boss read .  2/14                                                                7ypc.   play action  133 2nd 

qb draw for 3, 2                                         2/5                  2.5ypc

wide/ inside zone -2, -2 10=4/9 yards                             2.25ypc

wham 2                                                    1/2                    2 ypc

jet sweep 6                                                1/6                   6ypc

wing trap 6 off jet 3rd 10:15                     1/6                  6ypc

speed option 8                                            1/8.                8 ypc

The Patriots ran a toss crack concept against the Bills

1st and 10 for 7 yards 

TE cracks on de.        Wr cracks on SS       Tackle pulls for the cb

Whether its toss or qb sweep, that's the scheme they ran 9 times for 53 yards. 

1st and 10 in the 3rd quarter

They run the toss crack for 5 yards out of 21 personnel.

Only difference is fullback runs the alley.

Next they run the toss out of 22 personnel

Same scheme similar result-7 yard gain. You'll love the double pancake from the right tackle on the film!!

Later in the 4th quarter after great success, they hit the slant off the play action because they Bills were playing a lose cover 3. Had it in the hip pocket all game. They gave the same look and the Bills defense had no answer to it.

Heres some toss clips and play action ff it 

They also ran the qb sweep with toss blocking scheme. big 19 yard gain.

In the 2nd quarter the Pats start running counter.

The counter to the 1 technique side was another big play for the Patriots. Seemed to like running this to their left attacking the right side of the Bills Defense. Bills were rolling to the tight end side to take away the power /toss concepts.

counter blocking #1 22 yard td.

Counter blocking scheme 2 : 20 yard gain

3 counter clips are below:

Another sequence was the boss same side zone read 2 times. 

They ran it 2 times for 14 yards before running a nice play action off it.

Look at the hole from the boss fake, Cam reads the end 9 yard gain

After running boss read on 2 occasions, they run the play action pass for a 10 yard gain.

Hits te off the action for 10 yards

Here are 3 clips,

First the boss read then the play action off it.

The Patriots run jet earlier in the game, then they run the jet counter off it.

Again so much of what the pats do is sequential. fake the jet give the wing the ball.

Heres the wing counter for 6 yards 

3rd and 10 on the Bills 37

The pats run a zone read and give it  Burkett vs cover 1.

Great call figure go for it on 4th or get into field goal range.

Here's the toss play vs the Bills in 2021.

Offense 22 personnel with Tackle at tight end spot

Defense:4-3 cover 3 with SS down over the  tight end.

I hope you enjoyed some of the concepts the Patriots run game.

Coaching Football Defense -Belichick and the Patriots defense vs The Cardinals.

I took some time to do a different post on the Cardinals vs Patriots and the game plan the Cards used to shut Murray down.

 Cardinals vs Patriots week 12 featured another good matchup of Belichick vs the very good offense of Murray and the Cardinals.

A few things that stood out. Lets look at the run game first.

1. On run downs the Patriots were content on having Drake beat them in the run game. They played their defensive ends extremely wide.  It forced the give to the back. They were more concerned with Murray as a runner and forced the give. Smart coaching. 

Murray was limited to 5 carries for 31 yards using this strategy.  They also brought pressure on medium downs which took the draw away. Good scheme by Coach Belichick and staff as they held the Cardinals to 300 total yards. Played mostly 4-2 with some odd mixed it. 

RUN GAME ANALYSIS

Heres an example of man free coverage on the outside with the inside lb playing combo on the tight end and ss and excellent run defense

When the cards go under center they decide to go cover 3

1st and 10 the Patriots go to an odd front with 4is, they still play the olb really wide and sit him for Murray forcing the give. They go 1/4, 1/4 , 1/2 to the trips. The olb does a great job squeezing as does the safety playing cut back  and the de does a nice job shedding the tackles block. Great team defense.

 

As you can see from the above examples they did an overall nice job keeping Drake contained and limiting Murray's carries.

PASS GAME ANALYSIS

In the passing game, again it was a simple yet effective gameplan.

1. When going man bring 6 get pressure but also get hands up to try to take away passing lanes.

2. Bringing 6 man pressures took away the qb draw element and made that a non factor.

3. Run games inside as the Cardinals have shown a tendency to get beat on some inside games, both 3 hands and 4 hands.

4. Gilmour on Hopkins was a given but just thought id mention, play the best on the best.

5. They disguised some coverages in zone 2 to 3, and man to zone with some good disguises.

6. When they blitzed, they went out of their way to get their hands up and at times Murray pulled the ball down and it caused the big interception in the 2nd half! They helped take away the quick throw.

Here  are some examples of the game plan discussed

3rd and 12

The Patriots go cover o and bring 6, dropping the nose.

They force Murray to throw it away.

on another 2nd and 12 they go cover 0. They force the slide and the right def end comes clean.

Murray scrambles for no gain.

On the next play 3rd and 10.

The Patriots confuse Murray, they show cover 2 and jump to a cover 3 look with the safety robbing #3.

They get inside pressure from #50 and they force the check down for no gain and get off the field.

The inside pressure and stunts gave the Cardinals trouble inside. Here is another Twist from their 4 hands look that gets home. on a key 2nd and 12.

On the big interception on 3rd and 3 , Murray has Hopkins open for the slant, but watch all the de get in the lane and force him to pull the ball down. By the time he tries to throw it #70 gets his paw up and knocks it up for the interception. Great coaching getting the hands up on cover 0 pressures all game to take away the quick easy throws. 

On the goalline the Patriots ran cover 0 , sent 4 and played the lbs underneath as rat defenders.

They made it difficult on a few plays but got hurt with a few penalties.

3rd and 3 

On a similar 4th and 4 they run the same concept

The Cards come out in empty

To the 2 wr side. They pats combo 2 and 3 with tthe safety and lb. LB takes him because he releases inside and the other player (the safety acts as a rat on #1) All other players are in man. 3 wr to the top of the screen are in man. If not for a tough penalty, the defense works out.

As you can see from the results, the game plan worked ut great . They kept the Cardinals to under 300 total yards and did a great job containing Murray in the run game.

Kudo's to Coach Belichick and staff.