The latest edition of our Patriots mailbag answers questions about Christian Gonzalez, rookie playing time, and more.
After falling back into the loss column, the New England Patriots enter the home stretch of their 2024 season. With six games left (and a bye week), Jerod Mayo, Drake Maye, and the rest of the team and coaching staff will look to finish the season with the arrow pointed upwards.
With that, let’s get into this week’s #PostPulpit mailbag.
There’s been a lot of second guessing around having Gonzalez only on the perimeter while the Rams had a field day over the middle. Slot corners make a lot more tackles than perimeter guys. Could it be that they don’t want to expose him to the wear and tear over the middle? – ed.liebfried
Christian Gonzalez’s usage against the Rams was the big brouhaha this last week. From this point of view, it was not the main issue with the game plan.
While shadowing one of Puka Nacua or Cooper Kupp with Gonzalez sounds like a great plan, it’s an extremely difficult task vs. L.A. With Sean McVay’s high use of motion (83 percent of plays on Sunday) and tight bunches and man beaters, defenses can’t sit in man coverage — or double receivers — throughout the game. Cornerback coach Mike Pellegrino said as much before the game.
“You can’t live in man. Otherwise you get killed in that,” he explained. “Because no matter how good you cover, there’s man beaters all across the league; crossers, pick plays, stuff like that. So [the Rams] use motion. So you got to change it up. Can’t do the same thing every time.”
With L.A. beating New England that exact way early in the game, they opted for some zone coverage looks and took whatever receiver worked to their side of the field. That often led to McVay purposely motioning Nacua and Kupp away from Gonzalez. From there, New England’s plans against these motions were not good (something they’ll need to fix against a Miami that uses plenty of motion this week).
Corners had serious communication issues — primarily Marco Wilson, who was released the next day — which resulted in easy completions for Stafford. In total, New England allowed double the amount of yards on plays with motion vs. without motion.
As New England did play nearly 60 percent of the game in man-to-man, Gonzalez still lined up his fair share across from Kupp or Nacua. They should have been better about their matchups in the red area (where McVay purposely made Gonzo not be involved in scoring plays), but Matthew Stafford primarily attacked away from Gonzo in other situations, such as:
- 21-yard completion to Nacua (Marco Wilson) with Gonzalez on Kupp
- 19-yard touchdown to Colby Parkinson (Christian Elliss) with Gonzalez on Nacua
- 6-yard compeltion Nacua (Marcus Jones) with Gonzalez on Kupp on 3rd-and-3 on LA’s final drive
Even on Stafford’s last pass of the day, Gonzalez was across from Kupp which led to a deep shot to Nacua. New England finally got a play from another corner as Jonathan Jones recorded a PBU.
The other issue with New England’s plan was blitzing Stafford 18 times (and only generating a 25 percent pressure rate), which took zone defenders away from the secondary and left corners on islands. Stafford shredded the blitz going 12-of-17 for 217 yards and three touchdowns — including the 69-yard score against the aggressive Cover-0 call to start the third quarter.
In total, the veteran QB was 4-of-4 for 92 yards and three scores vs. Cover-0 — the lone none score coming on the aforementioned 3rd-and-3 conversion on the last drive of the game. That came shortly after a blitz left a wide open Kupp for 18 yards.
Overall, the execution was poor while the plan from DeMarcus Covington was not great as he got beaten by one of the best offensive minds in the league. But, from the point of view, the failures were not all due to Gonzalez being parked on the boundary.
Has Boutte been playing more of an X receiver role instead of Z? If so, is he playing in the best spot for his talents? I have a theory that he’s playing the X role out of necessity and that he would probably be doing better in the Z role, but it’s just a theory that I can’t verify. – cf27
You’re eyes are correct. 371 of Boutte’s 434 offensive snaps (85 percent) have come out wide. With no other real X-receiver on the roster outside of Javon Baker, that role has become Boutte’s.
But, as you pointed out, that’s not his ideal role. At 5-foot-11, 197 pounds, Boutte does project best in the Z role. That higher-volume role is where he primarily played at college as he was a big time threat with the ball in his hands (6.4 YAC/reception) before his ankle injury.
When talking about receivers this offseason, the Patriots should be in the market for an outside receiver who can win on the backside of formations and provide Maye a jump ball target — an area Boutte has rightfully struggled with in recent weeks. Get ready for Tee Higgins and Tet McMillan talks.
Seeing as the season is now in full blown rebuild / development mode .. I have a couple of questions: Do you think we should play our younger players more and if so, going forward, which ones should get more playing time? As for the vets .. which ones should we consider moving on from, and/or trading after the season is over, and which ones should we be considering keeping for the future? – Green Monstah
Unfortunately there aren’t many other younger players to play. Ja’Lynn Polk has seen his snap count rise since returning from the concussion and the level of play may force him off the field. Fellow wide receiver Javon Baker would be the candidate, but the coaching staff does not seem interested in expanding his role — especially after getting benched as a kick returner last week.
Caedan Wallace’s potential return could be interesting while Layden Robinson also is on the bench. But when it comes to the offensive line, it may not be worth the risk of hindering Maye by inserting a rookie into action.
I read somewhere, I forget how it was phrased, which metric was used, but, the Pats’ D isn’t forcing turnovers. Lowest rate in the league. Is it simply the way the ball bounces or is it a schematic issue Covington isn’t addressing? I don’t even see them ripping at ball carriers much. It just seems surprising given the returning staff has had previous success. – PatsHowYouDoIt
The Patriots defense has forced just eight turnovers this season, which is tied for the third lowest total in the league. Pair that with their 14 giveaways and their minus-six turnover differential is the fourth lowest in football.
The ball isn’t bouncing the Patriots way on either side of the ball in recent weeks and correcting that has been a focus this week. For your exact question, we’ll let Covington answer it (via his Thursday press conference):
“Every week we talk about ball destruction and we talked about making sure that we seek the opponent — the opportunities whether it’s the quarterback or whether it’s one of those skilled players and seek those opportunities. And then really its about when we secure the tackle, then the next guy going in, punching after the football or raking after the football.
“So that’s really what we talk about. Every single week we work a takeaway drill where we focus on different areas by position, how we want to focus on those things.
“Then also, really, at the end of the day its about tackling the ball carrier too. Because when you’re trying to make an interception, then all of sudden now there’s a big play. Or you try to go punch out the ball, then there’s a missed tackle. So I think the most important thing is tackling the ball carrier, not giving up the big plays, and then also just making sure we don’t let him score.”
Is there any update or timeline on Peppers or do we just assume he’s gone for the year? – kwizzer
Peppers is actually due back in court today (Friday), Nov. 22. For now he remains on the Commissioner’s Exempt List but perhaps Friday brings some more clarity on the situation.
Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, who is the second most important player currently on the roster? – Matt1102
Christian Gonzalez.
The list of 25 semi-finalists for this year’s Hall of Fame class has been announced. As I looked through the list, without getting into deserving Patriot players, I found that you could pick 15 finalists without choosing any Patriot. There is clearly a glut of deserving players that are waiting. Any ideas on fixing it? If you’re only focusing on former Patriots, who you got? Adam V? Vince W? Rodney H?
James H (yeah, he’s a Steeler first)? Fred T (yes, another cup of coffee)? – 1stStateSoxFan
If Bill Belichick advocates as hardly as he does for Rodney Harrison to be in the Hall of Fame, the safety should be in the Hall of Fame. I’d also argue for Vinatieri and Wilfork to be in, but the positions (especially for Wilfork) could make that an uphill battle.
The Jets just canned Joe Douglas. How satisfying is the Jet-induced schadenfreude for you? – UnicornsShowPoniesWheresDaBeefThundercat!
Even for the Jets, this is quite the dumpster fire. Hate to see it.
That’s all for this week’s #PostPulpit mailbag. If you have questions you’d liked to be answered next week, submit them online in our weekly submission post or on Twitter using #PostPulpit. Make sure to be following @iambrianhines and @PatsPulpit as well.