The Art Of Football, Part 7: Patriots' Linebacking Corps Built For The Base 3-4 Alignment

The New England Patriots just keep piling on veteran players with an axe to grind...

On Wednesday afternoon, various media outlets were reporting that the team had signed ten-year veteran run-stuffer David Harris to the 90-man roster, shoring up what some believed to be a weak spot on the Patriots defense - and while there may be some truth to that notion, one has to wonder how that shakes up the defense as a whole, if at all.

As we know, New England played three-quarters of their defensive snaps last season in a three-safety nickel, rushing just three at times and playing three linebackers - sometimes only two - plus bringing strong safety Patrick Chung down into the box as sort of an impromptu and undersized weak side linebacker - in effect, giving the defense a traditional 3-4 look.

Hightower and Roberts form a good interior linebacking corps

The signing of Harris confirms that.

In the New York Jets' 3-4 defense, Harris played the "Mike", or strong-side interior linebacker who takes on rogue linemen trying to get to the second level, freeing up the "Will", the weak side interior linebacker, to flow to the football - a role that Patriots' defensive captain Dont'a Hightower played to success in college at Alabama.

Coincidence that New England would bring the veteran stone wall?  Not at all, considering that Hightower is considered the best blitzing linebacker in the NFL, and having a veteran "Mike" in the lineup to keep him clean from offensive linemen on the second level speaks to that end.

Coming out of Michigan in 2007, Harris was considered a two-down run-stuffer and a liability in pass defense - yet was taken in the second round, the Jets trading up from number 63 overall to number 47, surrendering that second rounder plus their third and sixth rounders to make Harris the anchor of Eric Mangini's 3-4 defense...

...and though he never made a Pro Bowl and notched just one lone second-team All Pro nod in 2009, Harris is a typical Patriots' pick up - a consistent, durable and amazingly agile athlete who does everything well, but is not elite in any particular aspect of the game and who finds himself in a circumstance of battling for a roster spot for the first time in his career.

Because the Patriots depth chart is loaded down with linebackers, but have experienced some volatility since Jerod Mayo's body started breaking down in 2013, eventually forcing his early retirement after the 2015 season.  In between, head ball coach Bill Belichick has ridden Hightower on the second level, his team-first attitude and flair for the dramatic turning the tables in two Super Bowls.

Veteran sidekicks have helped to fill the void left by Mayo's misfortune - Jamie Collins leading the list of temporary fill-in's that includes names like Dane Fletcher, Jonathan Casillas and Akeem Ayers - and now includes the likes of Kyle Van Noy and Shea McClellin...

...and as far as human missiles are concerned, the Patriots haven't had a true one since Brandon Spikes, though second-year man Elandon Roberts shows promise as a downhill stuffer - but there's also more to Roberts' game than meets the eye; pigeon-holed as a two-down run-stuffer with limited athleticism, Roberts posted a potential-sparking fifth-rated overall grade among rookie linebackers.

In fact, it was Roberts manning the middle of the second level zone, allowing for Hightower to blitz from the strong side and cause the strip sack that changed the momentum in the Super Bowl. But it was also Roberts who got tangled up with Falcons' receiver Mohamed Sanu and allowing running back Devonta Freeman to flow into the flat uncovered for a play that should have cooked the Patriots' collective goose.

So there's progress to be made with a young "Mike" linebacker with more game than advertised as a sixth-round pick - a low round pick surrounded by top round talent, in fact, as both Hightower and Shea McClellin are former first-rounders and Kyle Van Noy came into the league as a second-rounder, as did Harris.

That's some serious draft capital investment for a unit considered by many to be the weak spot of the defense - but if one takes the cup-half-full angle, they would realize that the linebacking corps being the weak spot of the defense just goes to show how good the defense actually is, and that the second level is actually designed this way for a reason.

Earlier it was mentioned that the defense played seventy-five percent of their snaps in the three-safety nickel alignment in 2016 - an alignment known to Patriots' fans as the Big Nickel - in which the linebacking corps "sacrifices" one of it's positions (usually the weak side linebacker) to allow the strong safety to reduce into the box and play the position to counter the opposition's off-the-line strengths.

That typically means coverage on either the tight end or the running back - vital because the type of linebacker that the Patriots employ usually leaves a bit to be desired in pass coverages which, as mentioned, is intentional in the scheme.  But it isn't as if the linebackers have no coverage skill, it's just that they typically have been a read-and-react entity, which leaves them subject to deception.

Case in point? We mentioned Roberts getting tangled up with Mohamed Sanu in the Super Bowl, leaving Devonta Freeman wide open in the flat for a 39 yard catch and run, and that was a designed play in which Sanu could have easily been called for interference for blocking downfield before the ball was thrown, but wasn't because he was also being engaged by strong safety Patrick Chung on the play.

On the play, Roberts had responsibility for the middle zone while Hightower shot the gap between the left guard and tackle as if expecting a running play, and the Falcons took advantage of the aggressiveness by isolating the rookie and easily eliminating him.  To his credit, Roberts recovered and eventually made the tackle, but that is a play that should have led to Atlanta icing the game...

...but their own aggressiveness got them in hot water a few plays later and they ended up kicking the ball back to the Patriots, who drove down the field to tie the Super Bowl and sending it into overtime. The same issue came up in Super Bowl 49 when former Patriots' linebacker Jamie Collins was isolated on Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, who burned him in a similar manner to put Seattle in business late in that game.

The point is that teams have been able to exploit New England's defense when they take the aggressive route to try and force a play - and that can only happen when the opponent has put the Patriots in a mode where they have to take chances in coverage, and it usually involves a matchup issue between running backs and linebackers.

The solution? a switch back to the 3-4 base in which the "Mike" takes on the disruptor on the second level and freeing up the "Will", which in both instances would have been Hightower.

The depth is better now , with Van Noy and McClellin both able to play either the "Will" or the weak side and with greybeard Rob Ninkovich and rookie third-round pick Derek Rivers able to handle the strong side, and the signing of Harris providing invaluable depth as the "Mike" - not to mention mentoring Roberts in the role that Harris has excelled in during his ten-year career.

So the depth chart at linebacker is stocked to overflow, which means that it is likely names like Jonathan Freeny an d Rob Ninkovich become tough cuts at the end of training camp - perhaps even McClellin as well, if undrafted free agent Harvey Langi performs as advertised.

Langi is worth mentioning in the mix because he possesses a skill set that could make him an effective interior linebacker in the Patriots' scheme, though he needs work on the fundamentals of the position since he was used first as a running back, then linebacker, then defensive end in college, having the versatility to fill in where the team needed him to...

...which means that he has work to do, but what better way to learn the position than with Harris and Hightower showing the way, whether he make the 53-man roster or spends a season on the practice squad?

In the end, New England should sport a top linebacking corps.  They have essentially the same personnel that they ended last season with, but it has to be remembered that the unit was in flux most of the season - what with trading Collins during the bye and trading for Van Noy to take his spot - and they really didn't start to gel as a unit until their playoff run, but even then, it wasn't seamless.

This season, however, the corps starts fully stocked and ready to roll - and the competition for roster spots will bring out the best and cause the cream to rise to the top - and maybe, just maybe, this set of linebackers won't be a weak spot for the defense any longer...

Turnovers, Curious Play Calling Doom Patriots To Beating Themselves

Ball security is paramount to any football team's success, and on Sunday night in Foxborough, the entire country got a live tutorial on how negative an impact poor ball security can have.

For a moment, try to forget the Patriots' seemingly horrid pass defense and the curious play calling on both sides of the ball, and think about what transpired when wide receiver Julian Edelman put the ball on the ground with the game on the line against the Seattle Seahawks at Gillette Stadium.

In a see-saw affair that had seen six lead changes between two Super Bowl quality squads, the Seahawks were nursing a 25-24 lead on the strength of a Steven Hauschka 23 yard field goal with just over eight-and-a-half minutes remaining in a classic track meet that had produced just two punts for each team, both teams moving the ball seemingly at will...

C.J. Prosise burns Patriots' Elandon Roberts to set up a Seattle score

...and with excellent field position courtesy of butter-fingered rookie return man Cyrus Jones, who showed excellent burst to get the ball almost to Seattle's forty yard line before coughing it up - and the Patriots had seemed to have dodged a major bullet when alert safety Nate Ebner recovered the ball and the Patriots were in business just 5 yards out of field goal range.

Two plays later, Edelman laid an egg, giving the Seahawks the ball at midfield, and with neither defense being able to stop the opposing offense, no one in the stadium or watching at home were surprised when Wilson led the Seahawks right down the field for a touchdown and a seven point lead - nor were they surprised when Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady let his team right back down the field and poised inside the two yard line with a first and goal.

For reasons that may never be known, power back LeGarrette Blount, who had already found paydirt three times in the game, was given only one shot at the end zone from that spot, as a Brady sneak failed before he fumbled an exchange with center David Andrews, then overthrew tight end Rob Gronkowski, who was in full-grapple with Seahawk safety Cam Chancellor and fighting through a hole in his lung...

...so when the smoke cleared, Seattle walked off the field with a 31-24 win, a score that could have been reversed had New England not turned the ball over at the most critical of times.

The Seahawks scored on seven of their nine possessions, racking up an obscene 420 total yards but the Patriots' defense, true to form, allowed only the three Baldwin touchdowns in six red zone trips, forcing Seattle to have to settle for three Hauschka field goals after stalling inside the ten - while the Patriots scored on just four of their nine possessions, the result of not only being stonewalled on the goal line on the final drive, but also because of Edelman's gaffe and a what-the-hell-were-you-aiming-for Brady interception in the first half.

In short, the Patriots succeeded in beating themselves.

And that's been the thing all along, right?  That the only team capable of beating the Patriots are the Patriots themselves?

The Seahawks came into the game ranked in the bottom third of the league in total offense, leaning on their defense to propel them to a 5-2-1 record, but it had only been for the past three weeks that Wilson had been anywhere close to healthy, and the Patriots' win was the second week in a row that Seattle's offense had put up 31 points.

"This is what we've been talking about, trying to take this turn" Seattle ball coach Pete Carroll said after the game when asked about the uptick in offensive productivity. "We had been waiting to just get healthy, and maybe we waited a couple of weeks too long, but we had been waiting on Russ (Wilson) to get right, and we kicked it in last week.

"You saw the change," Carroll continued "all the offensive coaches seized the opportunity to go ahead and go."

And the weapons that Wilson has at his disposal are NFL-tested on the biggest stage the sport has to offer, all except at running back, where rookie C.J. Prosise has grasped the reigns and is making a strong case to keep the job permanently as he is proving to be an every down back.  His running between the tackles will never be confused with what the now-retired Marshawn Lynch offered...

...but his receiving ability out of the backfield is far more prolific than BeastMode, which goes to figure for a guy who runs a sub 4.4 in the forty and was a wide receiver at Notre Dame until injuries in their backfield dictated that Prosise fill in, for lack of a better choice - and with covering backs in the pattern out of the backfield a perpetual albatross for New England to begin with, Prosise was going to be problematic.

So why leave a guy that fast and that experienced in the pattern to a linebacker ill-suited to cover him with any chance of success? A better question might be, where the hell is the Big Nickel alignment that is structured just for the scenario that the Seahawks present?

And an even better question is, what is the use of having all the pieces for the Big Nickle defense, if you are not going to use it?

For the uninitiated, the Big Nickel defense employs five defensive backs, but unlike a standard nickel which calls for a third cornerback to replace a linebacker in obvious passing situations, the Big Nickel employs a third safety to replace the linebacker.  It may not sound like such a huge deal as both are defensive backs, but the difference between the two in the Patriots' scheme are like night and day.

In the Patriots' defensive scheme, weakside linebackers are devalued in favor of strong safeties in an effort to present a more difficult matchup for the opposing offense due to increased athleticism at the position to handle running backs, both curling out into the pattern and in the running game, where the strong safety will fill the gap much like a downhill-style linebacker would.

That leaves two safeties to fill in where needed, most often with free safety Devin McCourty reducing down to cover the double slot or to double on the outside, and hybrid Free/Strong centerfielder Duron Harmon patrolling the back end sideline-to-sideline - but Harmon played only a third of the snaps, and when he was in the game, he shadowed tight end Jimmy Graham, who was targeted only with linebacker coverage, mostly against Hightower

So on Sunday night against the surging Seattle Seahawks, with the Big Nickel conspicuously absent, Prosise caught seven out of seven targets for 87 yards against mostly linebacker coverage, including a 38 yard bomb that set up a Seattle score, an absolute nightmare scenario for the Patriots' defense.

Six of Prosise's seven catches converted third downs for Seattle - as a matter of fact, Prosise was on the receiving end of every single third down conversion for the Seahawks, with all but two with coverage provided by either Dont'a Hightower or Elandon Roberts, neither of whom with the wheels to stick with the sleek rookie.

Many will point to the cornerbacks, Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan and Justin Coleman, as the goats in this scenario - and lord knows they could have played better, and have played better - but what they gave up in critical errors would not have been possible without Prosise converting third downs - and that is true in every single instance when Seattle scored.

One also has to wonder why New England didn't do the same thing on offense with passing back James White, who is even more prolific than Prosise, and with a developing NFL pedigree - but that is to be addressed at another time, along with the shakeup at defensive end.

But even with all of that happening and combined with an anemic pass rush, it came down to putting the ball on the ground in a critical moment that made the difference in a win or loss.

"Plus two in a game like this..." Carroll said with a smile, reflecting on Brady's first pick of the season and Edelman's egg, "it's fitting that a plus-two game would get you the win."

Fitting indeed.