The New England Patriots stymied the Miami Dolphins offense in their 21-11, Week 1 win at Gillette Stadium. They picked off Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick three times and held him to a 44.6 passer rating. Bill Belichick’s defensive unit also limited Miami to just 87 rushing yards on the ground. The Dolphins used three different running backs but amassed just 3.2 yards per carry.
To show how the Patriots did this, we went to the film, where an assortment of unique roles for New England’s defensive backs helped befuddle the Dolphins. The findings should be illuminating to New England’s fanbase, particularly as it pertains to cornerback Joejuan Williams and safety Adrian Phillips.
WEEK 1 (VS. MIAMI DOLPHINS)
Most common formation: Nickel 2-4-5
DT — Lawrence Guy/Adam Butler
DT — Byron Cowart/Deatrich Wise Jr.
EDGE (stand-up) — John Simon
EDGE (stand-up) — Chase Winovich
LB — Ja’Whaun Bentley
LB — Adrian Phillips
CB — Stephon Gilmore
CB — J.C. Jackson
CB (slot)/S — Jason McCourty
CB (slot)/S — Jonathan Jones
S — Devin McCourty
Key inactives/injuries: LB/EDGE Josh Uche, LB Cassh Maluia
Interesting wrinkle: The Patriots moved their defensive backs all around their formatons, with Devin McCourty notably spending time at safety, outside cornerback and slot defender. Other examples include Jonathan Jones bouncing around as both a deep safety and slot cornerback, and Jason McCourty playing some safety in addition to slot cornerback and perimeter cornerback. Additionally, Adrian Phillips was used almost solely as a linebacker, whereas Terrence Brooks and rookie Kyle Dugger mostly played strong safety. Joejuan Williams played a good deal of snaps, but was almost exclusively used as a man coverage option on Miami tight end Mike Gesicki.
Additional analysis:
— In coverage, we tallied the Patriots running some form of man coverage (which can include zone assignments) on 77 percent of passing plays — including plays that were QB scrambles or that had various penalties. As expected, Cover 1 (often with some form of “robber” defender as well as a deep safety zone) was the most used coverage.
— In man coverage, the most common assignments were Stephon Gilmore on Dolphins X-receiver Preston Williams, J.C. Jackson on speedy receiver Jakeem Grant, Jonathan Jones on Isaiah Ford in the slot and Joejuan Williams matched up against Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki. Miami’s No. 1 receiver, DeVante Parker, played just 23 snaps because his day was shortened with an apparent injury. Gilmore and Jackson both spent time on Parker in the early going, with the other guarding the 6-foot-5 Williams. Jason McCourty played a great deal of safety late, but in man coverage he was most often used to defend Ford out of the slot.
— In the race for snaps as a box safety, Adrian Phillips outpaced Terrence Brooks and rookie Kyle Dugger. But as mentioned above, although Phillips spent time at strong safety and pseudo-linebacker, he really acted mostly as a true off-ball linebacker in New England’s Nickel 2-4-5, which was the Patriots’ closest thing to a base formation both last season and on Sunday. In defending the pass, Phillips often dropped back into zone coverage (where he made his fantastic interception reading Ryan Fitzpatrick’s eyes) or followed Miami running backs in man coverage. He covered Miami tight end Mike Gesicki only (once), hinting at his usage as more of a linebacker in the front seven, as opposed to a box safety masquerading in the front seven. He also rushed the passer from the EDGE spot in a few six-plus defensive back formations. He usually ran a stunt that saw him shoot right up the middle, which forced a Fitzpatrick interception to Stephon Gilmore on one instance.
— Earlier in the week, former Patriots CB Aqib Talib mentioned that Belichick had offered him a one-year, $6 million deal to cover tight ends in 2020. It appears Williams, who spent a chunk of this offseason with the safeties, will fill that role. In 24 coverage snaps, it appears he was placed on Gesicki each time, but Gesicki only ran a route on 20 of those snaps. On the others, he stayed in to block, which put Williams in his apparent second assignment, which was a middle-of-the-field, shallow zone to stop short crossing routes — think of the yellow zone in EA Sports’ Madden NFL video game series.
— Up front, the Patriots commonly went with their base Nickel 2-4-5, with Chase Winovich and John Simon at the EDGE spots, and Ja’Whaun Bentley and Phillips in the middle. In the interior and along the defensive line, the team began with Lawrence Guy and Byron Cowart, but often turned to Adam Butler or Deatrich Wise Jr., specifically in Dime formations or clear passing situations, but also at times in base Nickel. Wise Jr., who many thought wouldn’t fit in New England’s 3-4-principled defense, seemed pretty effective as an interior defender.
— Winovich stood out as a player who may be in the midst of a second-year jump in the NFL. He was used mostly as an effective situational pass rusher last season, and although it would appear he would be too small to set the edge like a Kyle Van Noy or John Simon, Winovich was noticeably efficient in stopping the run on Sunday. That’s a good sign for the Patriots.
—It was encouraging to see 2017 third-round pick Derek Rivers notch a sack, as it was to see Shilique Calhoun play roughly 53 percent of snaps (mostly in the second half) as a pass rusher. However, it’ll be interesting to see how they divy up the snaps once second-round rookie LB/EDGE Josh Uche gets involved. Uche was a surprise inactive on Sunday.
— Last season, New England often turned it’s Nickel 2-4-5 formation/personnel into a “little” 3-4 with Patrick Chung or Terrence Brooks moving up to linebacker, Jamie Collins moving from off-ball LB to the EDGE, and EDGE defender John Simon moving inward to act as a stand-up 3-4 defensive end. On Sunday, the Patriots added another wrinkle to their Nickel 2-4-5 look, but instead of sometimes positioning their personnel as a “little” 3-4, they ran seven in the box in a 2-5-5 look, with two linebackers and three stand-up EDGE defenders. It was Phillips’ linebacker positioning at times that made Belichick’s seven-in-the-box design look like a 2-5-5. Phillips’ presence as a linebacker caused Brandon Copeland to move to the edge next to Winovich. They used this look just a couple of times at the start of the game, so it’ll be interesting to see if they come back to it in future games this season.
— Rookies Kyle Dugger (11 snaps at strong safety) and Anfernee Jennings (9 snaps at linebacker) were used sparingly, as were newcomers Xavier Williams (9 snaps in the interior) and Brandon Copeland (8 snaps at linebacker and EDGE).
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