The Patriots need to find their pass rush
Despite getting the win, the Patriots did a terrible job putting pressure on Joe Flacco last week. They’ll have to do better if they want to stop Andrew Luck and the Colts. Retired NFL defensive end Stephen White explains how.
Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports
I love and hate Twitter during the NFL playoffs. I love it because a lot more people tend to pay attention to some of my tweets about the games for some reason, and some of them even end up following me, which is cool.
I hate it because, for so many trolls, it’s an opportunity to respond to one tweet taken totally out of context just to try to start an argument. I hate those people with the heat of 1,000 suns, for no other reason than the fact that I go out of my way to try to sound impartial with my observations about the games. Yeah, I may rag on one team more than another, but usually it’s because one of them played a lot worse than the other. They earned that excess scrutiny.
Unless the Cowboys or Buccaneers are playing, all I'm usually hoping for is a good game by both teams that are playing. That's really all I ask. Bad football gives me the vapors. Bad defensive football gives me a headache. Bad pass rushes make me sad and angry, all at the same time. So if there is anybody or anything that I am biased against, it's really just bad play.
And so it was that while watching the Ravens playing the Patriots last week, I got a little carried away by the end of the game. My emotions got the best of me because the Patriots were obviously having trouble putting pressure on Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco for most of the day, especially when they rushed four or less defenders. Flacco had enough extra time in the pocket that he could have downloaded that new D'Angelo album, watched that new Avengers trailer on his iPad, eaten a couple of crab cakes, and still have had enough time to carve up that normally imposing Patriots' secondary. And carve them up he did, to the tune of 292 yards and four touchdowns to go against two interceptions.
Colts vs. Patriots
I am the furthest thing from a Patriots fan you will find, but by the second half I found myself yelling at them -- through my TV of course, because I know they can hear me (just like the government) -- to get their shit together when it came to their pass rush. Their best edge rusher of late has been defensive end/outside linebacker Chandler Jones, but he was getting his ass handled by a rookie free agent at left tackle. Rob Ninkovich always seems to be good for a timely sack, but he appeared to be in coverage a lot. When he did get upfield, he couldn't seem to get his pass rush going either.
There was never any push inside, no matter who in there to rush for the Patriots. That allowed Flacco to step up all night long and avoid any wide rushes. It was all very confusing and frustrating to watch because everybody in America could see whatever plan the Patriots had wasn’t working But they refused to do almost anything differently to try to generate more pressure.
When the final horn sounded the Patriots had officially been shutout of the sack department, even though Flacco, who is athletic but no Russell Wilson, had thrown the ball 45 times -- 45 passes, no sacks. That's just damned ridiculous.
Want to know who else threw the ball more than 40 times last weekend and didn't get sacked? That would be one Andrew Austin Luck: Colts' quarterback and the man who will be standing between the Patriots and their shot at another Super Bowl ring this Sunday, that's who.
Luck is no Wilson, either, but he is pretty damn athletic and elusive when he wants to be. The Broncos, the team the Colts beat to make it to the AFC Championship game, inarguably have a much better four-man pass rush than the Patriots this year, and they could barely sniff Andrew Luck all game. Just imagine what that means for the Patriots.
I don’t give a damn if a team has Deion Sanders in his prime at one corner and Rod Woodson in his prime at the other -- if they give a good quarterback enough time to throw, somebody is going to get open. If they give a quarterback like Luck that kind of time in the pocket, get ready to see a triple bypass surgery performed up and down the field every time the Colts get the ball. It just can’t happen if the Patriots want to win.
Let me say also this. I couldn’t believe the Colts offensive line had performed so well up front against the Broncos, and I was sure there had to be more to it. Like maybe the Colts were going max protection a lot, or maybe the running backs were chipping a lot. After watching the All 22, I discovered I was wrong. The truth is that offensive line was damn impressive as a unit and they flat out kicked Denver’s ass last week. Having rewatched the coaches’ tape several times now, I don’t think that performance was a one week fluke at all.
Soooooooooo here’s the deal.
All reasonable persons should be able to agree that Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick, no matter what else you can say about him, is a certified genius when it comes to coaching defensive football. I have to believe he watched the same film the rest of us did and understands he can’t risk not getting pressure on Luck this week if he wants to win the game. What will be interesting to see is how he will go about trying to generate a better rush, whether it be with different alignments for a four-man rush or if he will find new ways to attack the pass protection with a blitz or blitzes over the course of the game.
Personally, with the Colts relying so heavily on their passing game these days, I would probably get off the bus blitzing and dare them to run the ball on me. I certainly believe that the way to beat the Colts is to force Luck to stay in the pocket and throw the ball early. That way he can’t just pat the ball and wait for the route combinations to come open down the field. Sending a bunch of people after him from the first snap of the game helps to accomplish both.
I will certainly note that even when guys come free, actually getting Luck on the ground is a damn sight easier said than done. That’s critical. Luck is so big and strong that he’s able to make some phenomenal throws downfield even with guys hanging off him at times. Just pressuring him won’t be enough this time around; he has got to go down and go down hard.
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I practically begged the Patriots to blitz because staying with a four-man rush just wasn't helping them at all, something I said last week that was misinterpreted on Twitter. I tweeted something along the lines of: if it's a matter of dying fast or dying slow against the Ravens' offense, take dying fast so that the Patriots' offense would at least have an opportunity to answer if the Ravens scored fast. What happened next was that Flacco, out of the blue, with no pressure on him, decided on second down to throw a ball up for grabs to receiver Torrey Smith who was effectively double covered with Patriots single high safety Duron Harmon cheating to Smith's right side at the snap.
While it was a stupid throw by Flacco, it was actually indicative of what I was calling for when I was begging the Patriots to blitz Flacco earlier. Force a quarterback to make a lot of quick decisions on quick throws down the field with pressure coming, there is a good chance you can force them into making some big mistakes. The probability goes up even higher when you have guys like Darrelle Revis and Devin McCourty in your secondary. Hell, by now you should all know from my previous columns that Luck loves to throw up a few of those random, inexplicable interception balls into a crowd every week.
This seems like a no brainer as far as a probable strategy for the Patriots. But then again, what do I know?
At the end of the day it won’t matter exactly how the Patriots try to get pressure on Andrew Luck. The only thing that will matter is how successful or unsuccessful they are at carrying out that strategy. If the Patriots get two sacks on Andrew Luck, no matter how they pull it off, they’ll get a shot at a fourth Super Bowl ring for Belicheck and Tom Brady. If they can’t get Luck on the ground at least twice, then Luck will be able to add Brady to the list of quarterbacks he has out-dueled in the post season, signifying a changing of the guard at the very top of the quarterback food chain in the NFL.
It’s really that simple.
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