Saints beat Patriots on line of scrimmage

The theory here is that the respective secondaries of the Patriots and Saints actually had very little to do with the outcome of Monday's game. The theory here is that the game came down to two factors:
* The Saints' ability to get pressure on Tom Brady with just three rushers, freeing up others to double-team Randy Moss and Wes Welker;
* The Patriots' inability to get pressure on Drew Brees even with five rushers, leaving the secondary shorthanded while still allowing Brees to step confidently into every throw.

Let's compare a pretty similar play-action pass play run by both the Saints and the Patriots in the first half -- and their dissimilar results:



The first-and-10 call was a play-action pass out of the I-formation with two receivers running down the middle of the field. Tight end Jeremy Shockey (88) ran the shallow route, and wide receiver Robert Meachem (17) ran the deep route.

The Patriots read run all the way -- safety Brandon Meriweather (31) crept toward the line of scrimmage even before the ball was snapped -- but that wasn't the only issue. Linebackers Rob Ninkovich (50) and Adalius Thomas (96) both blitzed from the outside and were picked up by the left and right tackles, respectively, with help from the Saints' two backs. Each of the Patriots' three defensive linemen were handled one-on-one by the New Orleans guards and center -- as detailed here, the strongest part of the Saints' offensive line -- and got nowhere near Brees.

With Shockey and Meachem converging in the same neighborhood, safety Brandon McGowan (30) couldn't just read the eyes of Brees to figure out where the pass would go. McGowan guessed Shockey -- and that left Jonathan Wilhite (24) in one-on-one coverage with Meachem. Wilhite never had a chance.

Had the Patriots gotten some pressure on Brees with their five pass-rushers, though, things might have turned out very differently. The coverage of Wilhite actually was pretty good, and a little pressure on Brees might have meant a pass that wasn't quite so precise.

The Patriots ran a similar play in the first half, a play-action pass with two targets down the field, but didn't get even close to the same results. Here's the diagram:

The Patriots lined up with Laurence Maroney and ran a play-action fake on second-and-8, a similar fake to the one Brees ran with his running back. Like the Saints, the Patriots sent just two receivers out wide -- Welker (83) and Moss (81) -- and kept two other skill-position players in the backfield to block.

The Saints, however, sent only four pass-rushers at Brady and dropped their other seven defenders into coverage. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is known as a blitz-happy coach, but he there actually were plenty of snaps on Monday that Williams sent only three pass-rushers at Brady and dropped eight into coverage.

Welker, the wide receiver who torched the Jets a week ago, lined up against Baltimore castoff Chris McAlister (29) -- but while McAlister ran with him underneath, safety Roman Harper (41) jumped into the play to cut off any pass underneath. Double coverage.

On the other side of the field, the recently signed Mike McKenzie (34) lined up deep against Randy Moss and stayed deep. Middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma (51) dropped back to cover the underneath route to Moss, and free safety Darren Sharper (42) stayed deep in case Moss suddenly took off for the end zone. Triple coverage.

Given time, Brady almost certainly would have found one of his two receivers -- or one of his tight ends (in blue on the line of scrimmage) eventually would have drifted into the flat to catch a dump-off pass. That's why so many teams blitz Brady: Given time, as talented as his receivers are, someone always is going to get open for him.

But Brady didn't have time.


Tight end Chris Baker (86) actually went in motion before the snap, moving from the right shoulder of Nick Kaczur (77) to the left shoulder of Ben Watson (84). Immediately after the ball was snapped, center Dan Koppen pulled to get to the same place, the outside shoulder of Watson, and was in position for a blitz that never came. Outside linebacker Scott Fujita (55) showed blitz, but he hung back to guard against the dump-off pass Brady loves so much.

Because Baker motioned, though, he left Kaczur one-on-one against Bobby McCray -- and McCray steamrolled him. (The Saints attacked the edges of the Patriots' line, often ignoring guards Logan Mankins and Stephen Neal -- a perfect example of exploiting a weakness.) At the same time, while Mankins (70) handled defensive tackle Remi Ayodele (92), Watson couldn't quite handle defensive end Will Smith (91). Neither Baker nor Koppen was in a position to help because they were at the end of the line waiting for a blitz that never came.

The end result: The Saints sent four pass-rushers against seven blockers -- and two of those four pass-rushers still got free. Smith busted through the hole between Watson and Mankins, and McCray ran around Kaczur like he was a slalom pole. Brady never had time to look for either Welker or for Moss -- let alone for Maroney (39), who was leaking out of the backfield to be a last-ditch outlet.

The Patriots ran almost the same play the Saints had run when they scored their third touchdown. Because the Saints won the battle at the line of scrimmage, though, they turned a potential touchdown into a sack for a loss of four yards -- and the Patriots eventually would have to settle for a field goal.

Wilhite has put loss to Colts behind him

Jonathan Wilhite isn't going to pretend that he can ignore plays at will, that he'd completely forgotten the game-winning touchdown catch he surrendered to Reggie Wayne by the time he got on the plane in Indianapolis late Sunday night.

"You wouldn't be a football player if you didn't think about it," the second-year cornerback said. "Wayne made a good catch, and Peyton (Manning) made a good throw. It happens in football."

A cornerback, though, has to have a short memory -- and the Patriots do short memory as well as anyone.

"You can't succeed without it," Wilhite said. "If you're worried about what happened (last) week, that means you're not giving the Jets your full attention."

The Jets certainly merit attention.

Wide receivers Jerricho Cotchery and Braylon Edwards both are averaging better than 15.0 yards per reception this season. Cotchery has more receiving yards against the Patriots than any other team in the NFL. (He's averaging 56.1 yards per game against the Patriots -- and just 45.6 yards per game against Buffalo and 35.4 yards per game against Miami.)

Edwards has brought a new dimension to the Jets' offense that wasn't there in Week 2, a big and physical wide receiver who can outmuscle smaller cornerbacks.

"He's a good receiver -- I knew that since I watched him in college," Wilhite said. "He can stretch the field, and he can make big plays."

The job of Wilhite will be to limit those big plays.

According to the film analysis experts at ProFootballFocus.com, Wilhite hasn't made a positive impact in pass coverage since Week 5 at Denver. His minus-3.7 mark overall ranks him 67th among cornerbacks in the NFL -- and behind Leigh Bodden and Darius Butler among cornerbacks on the Patriots.

He's become one of the team's top cornerbacks, but he wasn't exactly satisfied with the way he handled Manning and Wayne a week ago.

"All you can do is try to make a play," Wilhite said. "Sometimes, you're not going to always be in good position to try to make plays, but we did that. We just didn't make enough plays."

Patriots get out the bag of tricks

"The Patriots want to blitz," Phil Simms said early in the CBS broadcast of the New England-Tampa Bay game on Sunday, "and they want to put pressure on the quarterback and they want to put pressure on the short routes."

But the Patriots hadn't blitzed. All season long, with Jerod Mayo and without, the Patriots hadn't blitzed. They'd done some shifting between a 4-3 formation and a 3-4 formation while mixing in some nickel and dime, but they'd mostly stayed home and avoided the creative gambles that for so long was the hallmark of Bill Belichick defenses. Against Denver two weeks ago, with the Broncos' "Wild Horses" offense causing all sorts of problems, the Patriots did almost nothing but stay at home in their base defensive packages -- and Kyle Orton picked them apart.

On Sunday, though, the Patriots blitzed. They blitzed corners off the edge. They blitzed safeties up the middle. They blitzed linebackers from just about everywhere. They didn't blitz too much -- by the count of this reporter, they blitzed on 13 of their 36 defensive snaps in the first half -- but they blitzed enough to keep young quarterback Josh Johnson looking over his shoulder.

And while it didn't make much of a difference against the woeful Buccaneers, who would have lost big no matter what, it did demonstrate that it did demonstrate that the Patriots' new-look defense still is capable of executing the same complex defensive packages as its predecessors.

Here's a look at how the Patriots distributed their blitzes in the first half before the score started to get out of hand:

* Brandon McGowan blitzed four times;
* Jonathan Wilhite blitzed three times;
* Adalius Thomas -- remember him? -- blitzed three times;
* Wilhite and McGowan blitzed at the same time twice, including on the interception that Brandon Meriweather returned for a touchdown;
* Gary Guyton blitzed twice;
* Meriweather blitzed once, doing so in tandem with Thomas;
* Jerod Mayo blitzed once;
* Patrick Chung blitzed once;
* Leigh Bodden blitzed once.

And that's just the first half.

Oh, and the Patriots frequently lined up Tully Banta-Cain and Derrick Burgess at defensive end, flanking Vince Wilfork and Ty Warren, and both Banta-Cain and Burgess are at their best when they're going after the quarterback.

The result?

* Thomas had a quarterback hurry;
* Banta-Cain had two tackles for a loss;
* Chung had a sack and a quarterback hurry;
* Guyton had a tackle for a loss and a quarterback hurry;
* Mike Wright had a sack and a quarterback hurry;
* Myron Pryor had a quarterback hurry and a tackle for a loss;
* McGowan, Meriweather and bodden each broke up two passes.

The Patriots will face the Dolphins at Gillette Stadium in two weeks, a team that sparked the Wildcat revolution across the NFL. The Patriots weren't able to deal with the "Wild Horses" offense the Broncos threw at them, eschewing creativity in favor of conservatism.

It'll be interesting to see if they do the same against Miami.

Wilhite making his move in Patriots' secondary

(This so far has been almost exclusively a Red Sox blog since the end of football season in December, but look for more Patriots coverage in this space as training camp continues and the regular season begins.)

Last Thurday's Union Leader story about the Patriots' two second-year cornerbacks focused primarily on former second-round pick Terrence Wheatley -- mostly because Wheatley was the only one of the two who happened to be on the field on Wednesday. If you don't practice, you're not available to the media, and Wheatley therefore was the only guy available to tell the story of his offseason.

But Jonathan Wilhite has been back on the field since Thursday, and he appears to be rising up the depth chart ahead of Wheatley as well as, possibly, free-agent signee Leigh Bodden.

"He’s got a good variety of skills, and that’s always valuable when you can do different things with the same player," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "That helps him match up against different receivers, some fast receivers, some quick receivers, different guys that can run after the catch."

With Springs out, in fact, Wilhite has received extra reps with the first-team unit and had more of a chance to show what he can do.

"It's an opportunity for all our cornerbacks," he said. "It's a chance to go out and get some physical reps and play against some good receivers."

Springs actually has taken Wilhite under his wing a little bit, not treating the second-year corner as competition as much as a younger brother with a desire to learn the game.

"Shawn helped me out a lot," Wilhite said. "The guy has been in the game a long time, so he gives me pointers and things in the meetings and even out on the field that's going to help me down the road. I'm blessed to be in that situation."

The best piece of advice he's gotten?

"Be patient," Wilhite said. "This is a fast game, and he told me just to trust my ability and be patient."

But Wilhite might not have to be patient much longer. He played his way into the starting lineup by December of his rookie season, starting the team's final four games and even intercepting a pass against the Oakland Raiders. He finished the season with 28 tackles -- just six behind Adalius Thomas and ahead of Jarvis Green and Mike Wright.

"It was a dream," he said. "I got a chance to go out and compete and show what I could do. The guys around me -- especially my safeties, James (Sanders) and Brandon (Meriweather) -- helped me out, got me lined up, and I just tried to play ball."

Eight months later, does he see himself as a starter?

"Not at all," he said. "I see myself wherever they put me. Right now, I'm with the (first team), but that doesn't mean anything. It's training camp. Depths charts change every week, so we'll see what happens."

Wilhite not pressing in new role for Pats

Ashley Lelie, the veteran wide receiver, never turned to look for the ball. He had a rookie cornerback running step-for-step with him into the end zone; there was nowhere for his quarterback to throw the ball over the top.

And when the throw sailed short, intentionally or not, Lelie never turned to look for it. It was the rookie cornerback – a rookie cornerback who had just three interceptions in three seasons of college football – who turned to look for it. It was the rookie cornerback who went up and snatched it out of the air.

“Being a corner, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t waiting for my first pick,” Jonathan Wilhite said Wednesday, back at Gillette Stadium. “I only had (three) in college, so to have my first one my rookie year in the NFL, it’s a blessing, man. I look forward to many more.”

Wilhite had played three seasons of press coverage at Auburn; he spent most of his career jamming wide receivers at the line of scrimmage and trying to throw them off their route. He almost never started a snap six yards off the line of scrimmage, the way he did on this particular second-quarter play against Lelie.

That meant he rarely got a chance to look for the football. It normally was enough to stay step-for-step with the wide receiver and just to get his hands in the way. (He did plenty of that; he knocked down 14 passes in his career at Auburn.)

“It was a way different game plan,” he said. “We pressed every play – everything, we pressed it, so I didn’t get to look at the ball a lot or see the ball a lot or read the quarterback. …

“It’s been a lot different, being able to read the quarterback and play off sometimes and press sometimes, switch-ups and different things you can bring if you can read the quarterback. It makes you a better player, being two- or three-dimensional.”

He didn’t get it right away. It took some time.

He wasn’t even totally prepared after rookie camp and training camp and four preseason games; he still felt like he was on shaky ground when the season began.

“I felt like I really started understanding more toward the middle of the season,” he said, “understanding the game and learning how to be a professional and studying more game film on your own and knowing your opponent.”

He began the season, of course, playing mostly special teams. But injuries have decimated the Patriots’ secondary this season – safety Rodney Harrison and cornerbacks Terrence Wheatley and Jason Webster all have landed on injured reserve.

Veteran cornerback Deltha O’Neal has stayed healthy but been shaky; the Steelers beat him twice for touchdowns in November.

Enter Wilhite, who made his first career start at Seattle two weeks ago.

“He’s worked hard at it,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He’s improved all year. He was a very good player coming out of college. … Fundamentally, he was probably ahead of most players that I’ve coached coming out of college. He had a great college coaching background, so technique-wise he was pretty refined in relative terms.”

Said wide receiver Jabar Gaffney, “He’s grown a lot mentally. As far as physically, he had the tools. It’s just about getting in the right mind for understanding the game, and he’s doing a pretty good job.”

But Wilhite still had to figure out the scheme – and he still had to get on the field enough that he could get comfortable playing within that scheme. It didn’t help when he found himself under the weather – weather that wasn’t at all what he was used to.

“I’ve been in the South all my life,” he said with a wry smile. “I’ve been drinking a lot of orange juice and taking calcium pills, Vitamin C pills, trying to avoid things like that.”

But he was healthy enough to make the start against Seattle and healthy enough to make another one on Sunday against Oakland. And he was healthy enough to make the interception that kept the Raiders from pulling within two touchdowns just before halftime.

He took the football with him off the field, of course. Since then, though, it seems to have disappeared. He watched it all the way into his hands during the game on Sunday; he just hasn’t seen it since.

“It’s somewhere; they were supposed to get it to me,” he said, glancing around the locker room. “I’ve got it, though.”

Once he gets it again, though, don’t expect him to let it out of his sight.