Justin Herbert has been a different quarterback against the New England Patriots. For the second straight appearance, the Los Angeles Charger quarter threw two interceptions, his fourth multi-interception game in his career and his second against the Patriots. His quarterback rating against the Patriots (52.8) pales in comparison to what he’s done against the rest of the NFL (102.1).
What’s interesting is that the Patriots’ game plan was largely different than what they threw at Herbert in their first matchup in 2020. In his rookie season, Herbert faced a variety of stunts and twists from the Patriots’ defensive front and a mishmash of man and zone coverage. This year, the man-heavy Patriots went into zone, bucking their season trend.
“We saw a lot of Cover 2. That was just one of those things that they did not show all year. That is one of those gameplan things where you go into the game, see and address at halftime,” Herbert said after the game. “[It was] a lot of disguise. We were expecting a lot of man [coverage], but did not get a whole lot of that today. I think that is a credit to [WR] Mike Williams and [WR] Keenan Allen. Those guys are tough to match up with, but those guys on defense are pretty good, too. It was just a tough day for us, but we are going to have to get better from it.”
Herbert finished the game 18 of 35 for 223 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions while taking three sacks. He looked sharpest on his first drive and most confused on his two most important drives in the fourth quarter, when he threw a pick-six and then a handful of misfires on the team’s penultimate drive. He did manage a last-minute touchdown, but it proved too little too late, with the Patriots recovering an onside kick to close out the game.
Belichick was asked about how pleased he was to see his defense stump Herbert, one of the leagues’ budding stars.
“You never want to just tell them, ‘This is what we’re in and here’s where to go with the ball.’ We change it up on them. Make them read it post-snap,” Belichick said on Monday. “Somehow or other, we try to keep the quarterback off-balance, either with his post-snap reads or, if its a team that checks their players prior to the snap, then that’s another reason to disguise it.”
The entire Chargers offense looked at its best when Herbert was accurate checking down to the running backs. That’s by design. Belichick forced Herbert, a gunslinger with excellent deep targets like Williams and Allen, to stay patient and dink and dunk with the Chargers’ explosive offense.
“In the passing game, they were going to try to take you out of the deep part of the field,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said postgame. “What you have to do is be patient and disciplined. There are a lot of yards available. That’s going to be the formula against that defense.”
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