Sneaky Good Amendola Clutch As Usual In Playoff Setting, But Has Been That Way All Season

The quarterback rolled to his right, escaping the collapsing pocket through a large gap created by his linemen who escorted the strong-side pass rush up and over the imaginary protective bubble, headed towards the line of scrimmage, where just beyond his receiver was engaged in a hand fight with the opposing cornerback...

...the receiver locking eyes with the quarterback as he pump-faked the ball once to cause the corner to react and break discipline on the receiver, who took advantage of the fake and sprinted towards the opposite sideline, raising his hand to give the quarterback a target over the big bodies converging on him...

Amendola, Gronk and Hogan celebrate a touchdown vs. Titans

And, yes.

When New England Patriots' wide receiver Danny Amendola saw Tom Brady breaking the pocket and chugging into the flat, he locked eyes with Brady who, by sheer familiarity with Amendola knew that he was going to sprint to the open flat on the opposite side. Brady stopped just short of the line of scrimmage, set his feet and fell backwards, lofting the ball over the outstretched arms of three defenders...

...delivering a perfect bucket throw that gained a first down and kept the Patriots' final scoring drive alive. Not that they needed more points, but once you get locked into a serious point scoring groove, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

Amendola had other receptions in the 35-14 victory over the Titans - eleven to be exact - but that was most highlight reel worthy play of the bunch. That's because Amendola is anything but flashy - he doesn't possess elite speed, has all the size of a standard garden gnome and an injury history that reads like a human anatomy quiz...

...but it's worth noting that of those eleven receptions, seven went for first downs and five of those converted third downs - and you wouldn't know it unless you looked at the box scores the next morning.

Something else you probably wouldn't know is that including the performance against the Titans, Amendola is the second-leading receiver on the entire Patriots' roster with 72, behind only tight end Rob Gronkowski's 75 - of course, Gronkowski has a huge edge in yardage gained, but that's not the point.

The point is that Danny Amendola had a solid season. In fact, Amendola has the third most receptions in the league among teams remaining in the tournament, behind only Philly's Zach Ertz and Gronkowski.

Known for being especially clutch in the postseason and an afterthought during the regular season, Amendola teams with Gronkowski and running backs James White, Rex Burkhead and Dion Lewis to form the most formidable short game in the league, built particularly to take advantage of linebackers and safeties in isolation.

The versatility of the backs in particular make things challenging for opposing defensive coordinators - even for Todd Wash, the defensive coordinator for the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars who has guided his charges to being recognized as one of the top set of stoppers in the league and lead all of professional football in passing yards allowed.

That number is skewed some, however, when one considers that the Jaguars were thrown against only 509 times this season, which was fourth lowest mark in the league - why? Simply because their opponents had such success in rushing against them (4.3 yards per carry), so why test that excellent secondary?

With the backs that New England employs, defenses must be aware of the threat of the run, even on obvious passing downs, which gives the Patriots the advantage of fully calling upon their play action, led by the master of the play fake in Brady, whose wizardry and slight of hand can stagger a pass rusher and freeze a linebacker...

...and whose skill at looking off defenders only to burn them is unmatched, which can only help against the Jaguars' secondary, who are playoff neophytes despite their successes and regular season experience.

They get to deal with the likes of Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett and Kenny Britt - not to mention Gronkowski up the seam - who will rotate in and out of the lineup like a hockey line changing out, taking turns running corners down the field and just plain running them down. And if Brady is on with the uptempo game, the trend has been that he can toy with an exhausted defense for the entire second half.

And when a defense allows a quarterback like Brady artistic expression, the entire world gets to see Brady playing like he's drawing up plays in the dirt - a true men among boys, as it were.

And that's where Amendola makes his bones, hauling in the tough circus catch or a laser beam to the sidelines like he did in the overtime session of last February's Super Bowl to extend the game-winning drive - that notion, married to his performance in last Saturday's victory over Tennessee, causing Gronkowski to label him Danny "Playoff" Amendola for his penchant for heroics when the lights are the brightest and the stage is the largest.

But it's really just Danny Amendola - or "Dola", if you prefer - because he's just as clutch in the regular season. Just no one really notices.

Prelude To A Championship, Part II: Setting The Edge Paramount To Patriots' Run Defense Success

When Training camp started, Patriots' Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia welcomed what he thought was a defensive line bordering on the elite.

And, why not?  After all, In addition to bringing back stalwarts in nose tackle Malcom Brown, three-tech tackles Alan Branch and Vincent Valentine - and complimented by defensive end Trey Flowers - then added five-techs Lawrence Guy and Adam Butler through free agency, traded for defensive end Kony Ealy then drafted Arkansas defensive end Deatrich Wise and hybrid Derek Rivers.

Harrison was the perfect pickup for a team needing edge help

But things started going south almost immediately as Branch showed up out of shape, Valentine and Rivers hit the IR with knee injuries and Ealy was a bust in the system and was released. Suddenly, the Patriots were thin on the defensive line and with their linebackers dropping like flies as well, they entered the season with a front seven that had plenty of holes and no dirt to fill them in.

What was a compelling story line heading into camp - that being the structure appearing to be changing to a more flexible alignment to bring the linebackers' athleticism more into play - was suddenly a question of survival with a protracted earning curve that manifested as one of the worst stretches of defense that Foxborough has seen under head ball coach Bill Belichick.

The first month of the season was harrowing indeed, but with time and a concerted effort to play the most rudimentary style of defense in an effort to bring out the skill set of each player, and that has paid off in spades, and may be the best job of coaching in Belichick's tenure.

Bringing in Guy, Ealy and Butler signaled that the Patriots were in the final stages of building a defensive front that would resemble the old New York Giants 3-4 plus one which means an offset three man line playing odd spacing with a "Jack" linebacker being the fourth rusher, that position manned by a rotation of players on the second level.

That alignment was part of a defensive philosophy invoked by an obscure Giants' defensive coordinator named Bill Belichick, who had one of the most fearsome front sevens the game has known, with the likes of nose tackle Jim Burt flanked by five-tech ends Leonard Marshall and George Martin...

...backed by interior linebackers Gary Reasons and Harry Carson and outside 'backers Carl Banks and Lawrence Taylor. Taylor, who is widely considered to be the best outside linebacker to play the game, was usually the "Plus One" who combined with the three down lineman to put a four-man rush on the quarterback.

No need to go into the legacy of Taylor, nor the Giants in general, because there isn't a Taylor, nor Reasons, nor Carson, nor Banks to be had, only previously obscure youth on the second level playing behind a proven defensive line in a scheme tailor-made to the skill set of each player - and it's worked out pretty well so far.

How well? Considering that once the dark first month of the season is eliminated, the Patriots' defense has allowed a miserly 14 points per game, which is tops in the National Football League and a far cry from the 32 points per game they surrendered in the first four weeks of the season - while finishing the season in the middle-of-the-pack in total defense...

...as well as third down conversions per game, net time of possession allowed, and eighth in sacks - but the only real issue with the defense the entire season was setting the hard edge

In the running game that means taking away the lanes outside of the tackle box and forcing the running back inside, where big bodies awaited to make the stop, and in the passing game it requires covering the backs coming out of the backfield and into the flat on passing downs, as well as boxing in uber-ambulatory quarterbacks whose game depends on escaping pocket pressure and extending the play to the flats.

All told, the Patriots faced five teams whose quarterbacks thrive outside of the pocket and who game planned for New England with called bootlegs to take advantage of their weakness on the edges - and those teams, Kansas City, Houston, Carolina, Atlanta and Buffalo, combined for seven yards per carry from their quarterbacks and an astounding 28 first downs.

Running backs didn't have quite the absurd success that scrambling quarterbacks did, but frequently exposed the strong side of the Patriots' defense for 5.5 yards per carry, though they have gotten better during the past two weeks of the regular season. The reasons? well, ten sacks in two games will get you there, as well as limiting some fairly substantial running games to a measly 62 yards per game.

But in preparing for their divisional round matchup with the Tennessee Titans, the Patriots are facing an offense that gets it done on the ground from both the backs and the signal caller positions, working behind perhaps the best offensive line in the league.

Against  Kansas City in the wild card round, Eddie George / Marion Butts hybrid runner Derrick Henry punished the Chiefs from all angles, hammering home 96 yards in just 15 carries (6.4 ypc) right into the teeth of the Kansas City run defense, then showed off his wheels on the edges, turning the corner four times for 38 yards (9.5 ypc)...

...while quarterback Marcus Mariota broke the pocket - not to mention the Chiefs' hearts - five times, gaining 52 yards (10.4 ypc) and picking up four crucial first downs in the process, including a desperation 3rd and eight from the Titan 38 that kept alive the game winning drive.

The scariest part of the Titans' win over the Chiefs was how their line dominated a fairly stout front seven, enabling Henry to run for two first downs and bleeding Kansas City's time outs in a smashmouth display of the four-minute offense. They were able to wear down the Chiefs' defense by winning the time of possession battle and forcing them to be on the field for seventy offensive snaps...

...so that by the time Mariota started feeding the raging Henry on his downhill surge late in the game, the Chiefs had nothing left in the tank.

Henry wore them down, which is to be expected of a 247 pound running back who is not what one would call "creative" in his running style, which is a little like a bull in a china shop where he seems unaware of anything except his initial read, a running style that often leads to a trail of bodies in his wake of carnage - and it looks as if he's not even trying.

His offensive line has more to do with that than his style, however, as he's not the kind of back that can make something out of nothing, and generally gets what's blocked for him - so the best way for the Patriots to limit the damage that Henry can do is by setting the edge and by being disciplined in their individual gap assignments. That should help the Patriots win on first and second down and then get off the field on third down, which the Titans have accommodated this season to the tune of a 25th ranked 35% conversion rate.

The problem there is that the Patriots only hold their opponents to a 39% conversion rate - but that's the Patriots, they play the bend-but-don't-break scheme as well as anyone ever has, giving up most of their yardage between the twenties but clamping down in the red zone, allowing only 43.75% of their opponent's red zone visits to result in touchdowns, good for fourth-best in the NFL.

Those number explain how New England's defense can be one of the worst in terms of yardage allowed, yet in the top five in points allowed.

One thing we probably will not be seeing much of is Henry in the pattern, as he's been targeted just eleven times all season, so the Patriots will most likely run with a standard 3-4 plus one, with Eric Lee, James Harrison and Trey Flowers taking turns at that "Jack" position, a spot that the newbie Harrison showed in the season finale that he is plenty capable of handling, so his workload should increase, allowing for defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to utilize Lee and Flowers to scheme with.

The Titans can run the ball. Their smashmouth style appeals to old-school football fans and elicits respect from their opposition and should have Patriots' fans looking forward to seeing how their defense holds up against a true feed bag bell cow with a mean streak, and how they plan to contain a quarterback who plays the same legacy-brand of ball that is a perfect compliment to Tennessee's downhill approach.

New England has allowed just 124 rushing yards in the last two games combined against teams who are run-first entities, for a per-rush average of just 2.6 yards - and while it seems that holding the Titans to that standard may be a pipe dream, the Patriots have certainly shown they are capable of it - so if they can set the edge, filtering Henry inside and containing Mariota in the pocket where he'll be forced to throw, they'd have to feel pretty good about their chances to win the game.

Patriots Defense Dominates, Offense Does Enough To Down Titans

When Bill Belichick this week hinted that he was concerned about increasing Brandon Bolden's touches on offense, he apparently meant it.

"He's been a four down player for us" the Dark Master said on Wednesday of Bolden, "He's played the role of the big back for us, he's played the role of a sub back, and he's played well for us in the kicking game. I think it would be hard to increase each role."

Jaball Sheard sacks Tennessee's Zach Mettenberger

Of course, Belichick then went on to job this week's opponents, the Tennessee Titans, by feigning confusion in a manner consistent with someone who was really torn about the decision by moaning "maybe you just increase one and decrease another. I think we're going to have to figure that out."

He figured it out.

Bolden carried the ball just ten times, yielding to the power running of rookie Joey Iosefa and the increasingly impressive stylings of James White in the pattern, while the Patriots defense picked up the slack of an otherwise sluggish offense by scoring a touchdown on a fumble and sacking Tennessee quarterbacks five times as New England topped the game Titans by a count of 33-16.

Iosefa rumbled for 54 yards on 14 carries in his professional football debut as a roster replacement for injured LeGarrette Blount, and White had his third consecutive excellent performance, hauling in seven passes for 71 yards - a total that he had nearly doubled on one big play in the fourth quarter, taking a Tom Brady offering in the left flat, making his man miss, then scampering 70 yards on a play that would have nailed the Titans' collective coffin shut...

...but a questionable offensive pass interference call on Keshawn Martin on the play negated the big gain and denied White the biggest statistical game of his career.

Brandon LaFell led the Patriots with four catches totaling 88 yards and tight end Rob Gronkowski pitched in with five and 54, despite a couple of uncharacteristic drops. Brady had typical Brady-like numbers - 23 of 35 for 267 yards and two touchdowns - as the offense did just enough to win the game.

And while doubling your opponent's scoring output would make one think blowout, and despite the novelty of Iosefa and the coming of age of White, this was an overall sluggish effort that confirmed that this offense will clearly not be able to get over the loss of Julian Edelman, regardless of the tremendous effort put forth by the players.

The defense, on the other hand, had no such issues despite their captain, safety Devin McCourty, being on the shelf with a bum ankle. Sure, Titans' receiver Dorial Green-Beckham used Patriots cornerback Logan Ryan like a tissue to the tune of six catches (on nine targets) for 133 yards, but the rest of Tennessee's offensive weapons were summarily held in check.

Titans' starting quarterback Marcus Mariota took a horrible beating from the New England pass rush, being sacked three times, the last one the result of a Jamie Collins hug blitz that knocked the rookie signal caller from the game in the second quarter - replaced by the seemingly far more capable sophomore Zach Mettenberger, who threw two scores to tight end Delanie Walker, but also interceptions to cornerback Malcolm Butler and linebacker Jamie Collins.

The Patriots' top ten run defense shut down the Titans' running game, allowing just 2.8 yards per carry and forcing first Mariota and then Mettenberger to the short passing game, mostly targeting their running backs and tight ends for quick gainers underneath, with an occasional deep throw to Green-Beckham or Walker.

Mariota was under siege every time he dropped back to pass, and being sacked by Akiem Hicks, strip-sacked and injured by Jones, and then knocked out of the game on Collins' sack, twisting his body so that his leg was pinned beneath him, ending his day...

...while Mettenberger enjoyed a little better protection, he still took two for the team, Jones getting him in the third quarter for 12.5 on the season, which counts for the third highest sack total in franchise history and fellow defensive end Jabaal Sheard notching his seventh on the year.

As seems to be the Patriots' M.O. of late, Brady led the Patriots right down the field on their first possession, capping it off with a short toss to Gronkowski for a 7-0 lead, that number increasing to 14 points jjust seconds into the second quarter, when defensive end Chandler Jones strip-sacked Mariota and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks recovering in the end zone for a two score lead.

A pretty James White flat screen that went for 30 yards made it a three score advantage for New England, but they would not find the end zone again, settling for four Stephen Gostkowski field goals the rest of the way while Mettenberger played well enough to find the end zone twice in the second half, but that said, Tennesseee never seriously threatened at any point of the game.

New England's defense continues to evolve into an elite unit of speedy sack artists and punishing run stuffers, backed up by a pack of young greyhounds in the secondary that common sense tells us shouldn't be as good as they are, while the offense seems to treat the games as a live scrimmage, running high-percentage, low-risk plays out of basic formations as if working on fundamentals...

...which makes sense, because with as many players as they have to integrate into the offense, practice is fine, but not enough. In essence, the seldom used players who now are being counted on to produce are in what can only be called an impromptu breaking in period not unlike what the team as a whole uses preseason games for.

Except these games count, and the "new guys" on the offense seem to be getting better game by game - but make no mistake, the offense will not be a great offense until Edelman returns. They are good without him - getting-by good - and that's been enough to get by Houston and Tennessee in successive weeks, but more importantly, the experience that these players are getting under duress will certainly come in handy come playoff time.

With the win, and coupled with Denver's loss to Pittsburgh, the Patriots have assured themselves of a first round bye, which is essential to a team as banged up as New England actually is - because with time to heal, the offense will reach juggernaut status, and combined with their constantly evolving defense, there's no reason to think the Patriots won't be defending their title in San Francisco in February...

McCourty Injury Puts Spotlight on Ryan, Butler

The Patriots are the only team in the National Football League capable of running the hybrid Big Nickle defense as a base alignment.

Rather, let's make it that, they were.

The high ankle sprain suffered by New England free safety Devin McCourty is a huge blow to a secondary that is just starting to come into its own - not to mention a terrible loss for a defense that is starting to look like world beaters.

The Patriots are working on their back up facilities at several positions currently, including wide receiver, running back, offensive tackle, defensive tackle and middle linebacker - but none of the injuries at those positions are as hard-hitting and potentially devastating as losing the lynch pin of the entire secondary.

New England head ball coach Bill Belichick has been collecting safeties for the past four seasons, "reaching" with high draft picks for some of them in the eyes of many media members and fans - but there was a reason why he wanted those players and why he valued them much higher than the experts did...

...because he was creating a talent pool in which he could rotate his safeties in and out as desired, setting up his opponent with a defensive alignment that could keep the team in the nickle as a base defense while still being able to keep the running lanes accounted for.

Like the standard nickle alignment, the Big Nickle is a formation that utilizes five defensive backs to prevent the opponent from flooding the field with receivers - but unlike the standard nickle that sees a third cornerback in place of an early-down, run-plugging linebacker, the Big Nickle utilizes three safeties: a single high "centerfielder" and two hybrid safeties who help out in coverage in passing situations and who are rugged enough to reduce down into the box in run support.

So when the Patriots are in full roll in this alignment, McCourty aligns close to the line of scrimmage and either helps out in coverage or takes a receiver from the slot, Pat Chung also aligning close to the line to help out with tight ends and to plug running lanes, while speedy Duron Harmon covers sideline-to-sideline on the back end.

You wonder how the Patriots keep getting away with carrying just three healthy corners? That is how. But now with McCourty going down and questionable to play this Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, corner depth will become an issue because McCourty is the key to the entire secondary.

Projected as a late second round selection out of Rutgers, McCourty became the first "reach" selection in Belichick's secondary at 27th overall in the first round as a cornerback, where he gained Pro Bowl and second-team All Pro honors in his first season at corner, after which Belichick started toying with him at free safety toward the end of the 2012 season, then moved him there permanently next to Chung midway through the 2013 season...

...his elite 4.34 speed and excellence in zone coverages precipitating the move. By that time, the team had already selected Illinois corner Tavon Wilson in the second round of the 2012 draft and Harmon in the third round of the 2013 process, completing the Big Nickle look by "reaching" for Stanford safety Jordan Richards last May.

Belichick groomed Harmon for the centerfielder job just as he did McCourty in the 2012 season as he contemplated the switch in positions, Harmon's coming out party a month-long affair last January when he transformed into a scavenger of the highest order in securing New England's comeback from two fourteen point deficits by picking off Baltimore's Joe Flacco in the divisional round in the playoffs.

The rest of the post-season was just a coronation of sorts, as Harmon and rookie corner Malcolm Butler penciled their names in the lineup with their tough, clutch play.

But there is a reason why the Patriots broke out the company card and made McCourty a multi-millionaire with the second-richest current contract for a safety in the NFL. Out of he, Brandon Browner and Darrelle Revis, Belichick knew that the one that could least afford to lose was McCourty, given his experience as a true hybrid.

This is not to say that the safety play is masking the cornerback play as much as it is turbo boosting it,but the proof in that pudding will come on Sunday if McCourty is forced to miss the game against the Titans.

Well, maybe not against the Titans, as their receiving corps is lead by 31-year old tight end Delanie Walker with running back Dexter McCluster a distant second in catches on the season. In fact, the most receptions by a wide receiver on that team is 33 by Kendall Wright, who will be inactive for the game while nursing some cracked ribs.

So, right. Maybe not this Sunday. But most definitely the following Sunday against the New York Jets, who sport some big receivers and a modern day Steve DeBerg at quarterback, who is so hot and cold that he could look like Dan Fouts one game and JaMarcus Russell the next.

But that's getting ahead of the situation. McCourty returned to practice on Friday and is officially listed as questionable for the game against Tennessee, but circumstances are not nearly as dire enough to risk putting McCourty into harm's way at less than 100%, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

With Tennessee's game being the short passing game to backs and tight ends, this is more of a linebacker / safety coverage game, which means that Harmon could still patrol the back end, with Chung and maybe Richards gaining leverage on the second level. Butler and fellow impressive corner Logan Ryan should have things well in hand with the likes of 31-year old Harry Douglass and rookie Dorial Green-Beckham being the top two outside threats.

So, it's probably a good game for McCourty to miss. He can hang with his brother, Titans' cornerback Jason, who is also on the shelf and actually on the team's injured reserved list. They can kick back in a booth, put their feet up and catch up with each other - but if he remains out for more than just this week, we will get to see if the cornerbacks really are playing as well as they seem to be, or if the safety play has been masking deficiencies.

Every Patriots' fan alive wants the corners to be legit, and they certainly appear to be, with Butler seemingly in a good rut where he gives up one big play per game, then shuts his man down and Ryan making his second-year jump in his third season, after spending most of his sophomore campaign behind the aforementioned Browner and Revis.

In fact, at this point in their development, it would be natural for Ryan to be ahead of Butler in technique, but how much of that success can be attributed to having that safety over the top?

If McCourty misses more than just this Sunday, we're going to find out.