Rob Gronkowski still makes a major impact for the Patriots, even when he’s not catching passes

Rob Gronkowski only had one catch for 25 yards last Sunday. He was still instrumental to the Patriots’ crushing Divisional Round playoff win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Gronkowski was only targeted once in Tom Brady’s 44 passes, but he still helped propel his team to 41 points and an eighth-straight appearance in the AFC title game. The 265-pound tight end devastated the Chargers’ linebacker-light lineup with the other five-star tool he brings to the field — a space-clearing blocking game.

Gronkowski and fullback James Develin barely showed up in the box score last week (three combined touches), but the Patriots’ beeftrain lineup (TM) made the duo the unofficial sixth and seventh members of the club’s offensive line. When head coach Bill Belichick opted to shift his focus away from Los Angeles’ defensive back-heavy scheme, he opted instead for a series of runs and screen passes that allowed New England to wear down its visitors early and often.

The plan worked to perfection. The Patriots, typically a pass-first team thanks to Brady’s never-ending reign in the pocket, ran for 127 yards and four touchdowns ... in the first half alone. The Chargers never had a chance after that.

The biggest beneficiary of Gronkowski’s blocking was rookie tailback Sony Michel, who has used the bulk of 2018 to prove he was worthy of a first round selection last spring. Michel’s ability to exploit the holes created up front pushed him to his fifth 100+ yard performance of the year.

But Michel’s runs didn’t just create first downs, they outright demoralized LA, thanks to the lane-clearing blocking up front that kept defenders from even getting a hand on him until he was several yards downfield. His 40-yard scamper in the second quarter summed up New England’s dominance perfectly.

Here, Develin and Gronkowski seal off the edge, creating the off-tackle seam that Michel slides through, easily shrugging off a diving arm tackle en route to a 40 yard gain — the longest of his NFL career. The SkyCam view of the play shows only one defender on the right side of the field even breaches the line of scrimmage, and safety Jahleel Addae’s quest to get around the edge to stop Michel is quickly snuffed out by Develin:

Here, the pair teams up again to ensure no static on the left side of the line for Michel’s first touchdown of the afternoon.

And here he negates inside linebacker Hayes Pullard — while doing enough borderline holding to help his team without drawing a flag in the process — to help clear the path that allowed Michel to go untouched for the first 12 yards of a 14-yard touchdown run soon after Gronk is very strong, but he’s also smart about knowing when to let go of a linebacker’s jersey before the umpire takes notice.

By putting Gronkowski in motion, the Patriots were able to add an extra blocker as they attacked the LA defense with off-tackle carries. But since the All-Pro tight end is also an explosive receiver out of those sets, his movement alone wasn’t enough to tip New England’s hand. Instead, it all played into a larger strategy:

Los Angeles’ success against the Ravens in the Wild Card round was predicated on a powerful push from the line of scrimmage and the blanketing coverage from a secondary that typically relied on five or six defensive backs to take away Baltimore’s limited receiving corps. That’s a plan that could have worked on the Patriots, too. New England’s offensive line is stronger than the Ravens’, but the team’s lack of high-level receivers meant a decent push up front would give LA the latitude to snuff out Gronkowski and leading receiver Julian Edelman with never-ending double coverage.

This did not happen.

Instead, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels took advantage of the Chargers’ lack of bulk up front by beginning the game with a litany of runs and short passes. These plays were designed to compress the Los Angeles secondary pre-snap and spread its defensive line from sideline to sideline after it. The Patriots used Gronkowski’s blocking to open holes in the run game, but also sent him up the seam to draw two defenders downfield, creating the space for James White to thrive behind Brady’s screen passes:

This setup created the space for Brady to throw for 343 yards on an afternoon where 20 of his team’s first 22 plays were either runs or short passes. His first play-action pass of the day resulted in a 28-yard gain. He didn’t even need to fake a handoff to record his only touchdown of the game against a disheveled Charger secondary.

No team in the league gave up more yards per carry than Kansas City’s 5.0. In the Divisional Round, the Chiefs allowed the Colts to run for 87 yards on 14 carries — though the bulk of those came after that game was well in hand.

When these teams last met, the Patriots dominated the time of possession battle by more than 12 minutes thanks to a 112-yard, two-touchdown performance from Michel, who was making just the third start of his career. That didn’t stop Kansas City from maintaining a typically prodigious pace on offense, but New England’s ability to burn clock late on the ground and with short passes was the key in its 43-40 win.

Three runs and a short screen pass to James White worked the clock from 3:03 to 51 seconds at the end of a tied game. It also softened up the Chiefs’ defense to spring Gronkowski for a 39-yard catch that set up Stephen Gostkowski’s game-winning 28-yard field goal seconds later.

So while Gronkowski may not be in the midst of a dominant season as a receiver, he’s still a massive part of the Patriots’ upset hopes at Arrowhead Stadium Sunday. New England can win if he makes eight catches in the AFC title game. But Sunday’s win over the Chargers shows the Pats can win if he doesn’t get a single target, too.