There is no magic formula to fixing the Patriots’ leaky run defense

The Patriots have struggled mightily stopping the run the last few weeks.

Heading into its Week 7 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, the New England Patriots run defense faced some major questions.

In its previous four games, the group had surrendered a combined 667 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 122 carries, allowing opponents to average 5.5 yards per run. As a consequence, head coach Jerod Mayo and defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington decided to make some changes in the front seven.

Bigger-bodied defensive tackles Daniel Ekuale and Davon Godchaux ended up playing a season-high 54 and 50 snaps, respectively. Two other DTs — Jaquelin Roy and Eric Johnson — also saw an increase in reps. Fellow D-linemen Keion White and Deatrich Wise Jr., meanwhile, were moved into smaller roles.

In addition, Christian Elliss replaced Raekwon McMillan as the No. 2 off-the-ball linebacker alongside Jahlani Tavai. Also seeing his workload reduced was edge Joshua Uche.

The message was clear: the Patriots were taking some of their pass-first personnel off the field and replacing them with players better suited to defend the run, at least on paper. The only problem was that the plan still did not work out: Jacksonville ended up running the ball 39 times for 171 yards and a pair of touchdowns, averaging 4.4 yards per rush.

After the game, Mayo publicly criticized the Patriots for being “a soft football team across the board.” While he later walked those comments back a bit — a familiar move for he first-year head coach — he did have a point: his team was manhandled in the ground game by the Jaguars.

What went wrong, though? For Mayo himself, the answer is actually quite simple.

“We just have to be more disciplined, build a wall and defeat blockers in front of us,” he explained the day after his team returned from London.

“It’s not the Xs and Os. We just have to be where we’re supposed to be. Last week, it was the big runs that really — we talked about taking away those three big runs, and it’s not a problem; we’re not even having this conversation. [Sunday], it was almost like death by a thousand cuts where it was 4 yards, 6 yards, 5 yards, and that’s tough. I would like to sit here and say, ‘It’s this guy, that guy.’ I’m not going to do that. It’s all of us up front.”

Mayo’s answer might sound rather diplomatic in tone, but it actually is based on what happened on the field. The Patriots simply did not play well enough on a down-to-down basis, and a look at some of their big plays illustrates this.

The Patriots surrendering three big runs on the same concept — on the same drive and through the same hole, too — is obviously bad; there is a reason their run defense has underwhelmed and the club finds itself at 1-6. What can be seen, though, is that there are no big secrets as to why Jacksonville was able to move the ball on those plays.

Instead, it was a simple case of one team’s players outperforming another’s. Just take the first of those reps above. Operating out of a shotgun look, the Jaguars flowed to the offensive right which in turn prompted Christian Elliss to react accordingly. With him taking a few too many steps, and with neither Davon Godchaux nor Deatrich Wise Jr. winning their one-on-ones, a cutback lane opened up.

Time and again, one could see little miscues like those adding up. Elliss later spoke about “little things turning into big things” when assessing his performance — a perspective that also can be applied to the run defense as a whole.

That was true regardless of the personnel used.

While Daniel Ekuale had a decent performance in his biggest role to date, the same cannot be said for the other down linemen the Patriots employed.

Godchaux’s performance might have been the most disappointing among them. While he was the team’s best run defender early on in the season, he struggled mightily against Jacksonville. He had a hard time disengaging all day, which in turn gave the Jaguars the confidence to single-block him on a significant number of reps; this, in turn, gave them a plus-one up front and allowed other linemen to move to the second level easily.

Jaquelin Roy and Eric Johnson, meanwhile, did have some respectable reps. Still, fact is that neither of them is made for extended action or should be trusted to play consistent football at this point in their Patriots tenures. The former joined the team only a month before flying to London, while the latter arrived two weeks before that as a waiver wire pickup.

The reality is, however, that New England currently has no alternatives up front. Christian Barmore remains on the non-football injury list, Lawrence Guy was cut in the offseason, and his supposed replacement Armon Watts never made a serious push for a roster spot before landing on (and later being released from) injured reserve.

They just need the players they have to perform better. The same can be said about the linebackers, too.

The significance of losing Ja’Whaun Bentley cannot be overstated. Neither can his replacements being incapable of filling the void and failing some basic linebacker tasks: getting fooled by misdirection, overeagerly shooting gaps, not wrapping up properly while tackling — you name it.

Jahlani Tavai went from quality No. 2 to dubious No. 1. Christian Elliss went from core special teamer to outmatched starting linebacker. Raekwon McMillan… well, he actually performed surprisingly well in a reduced role after struggling as a top-level player in light of Bentley’s departure.

Still, the off-ball crew had another shocker against Jacksonville. Given the basic principles of New England’s defense — controlling the gaps up front to allow the linebackers to make plays on the ball — that is a major issue.

And once again, it all goes back to individual performance.

“It’s 11 guys on the field. It takes one person on the defense to mess up the whole plan,” Tavai said after the game. “We have to be consistent. We can’t do our job on one play, and then take off another. All 11 guys on the field who are out there at the time just have to do our jobs. …

There are plays when we shine, and then there are plays — like I said, it takes one person to mess it up. It doesn’t matter who it is. It can be a safety on a missed fit or it can be a linebacker not hitting his gap. You don’t know. But all 11 guys have to do their job so we can be successful.”

Getting all 11 players on the same page has proven to be a problem for the Patriots, especially when it comes to stopping the run. There were plays against Jacksonville when the front line held its ground, but the linebackers were out of position and vice versa.

As Christian Elliss explained on Monday, not all of those plays might necessarily turn out badly for the defense; the offense also has to hit the right notes to take advantage. However, more often than not on Sunday the Jaguars were able to do that.

The result was more disappointment on that side of the ball.

“I think it comes down to everyone doing their individual job. This is a team game. There are 11 pieces on the field. If one piece isn’t doing its responsibility it creates stress on every other piece,” Elliss said. “Even though the play might not turn out bad every single time when one piece isn’t doing its job, there are going to be times when one piece or two pieces or however many, if they are not in the right gap, if I’m not striking a blocker well enough, it creates stress on the guys next to me. …

“That’s what we’re going to do moving forward. Just do your job. Play your part. The play is going to come to you. Everyone’s going to have opportunities to make a play. Just make it when it comes to you. Don’t try to force a play, don’t try to do someone else’s job, or you end up not doing either.”

The Patriots’ next opportunity to do those things comes on Sunday against a New York Jets team that has not necessarily proven itself a power house when it comes to running the football. After seven games, the 2-5 Jets are ranked 29th in both yards per carry (3.9) and run EPA (-0.150).

Even against a lesser-quality opponent, however, the Patriots need to show real improvement. And to it appears there is no magic formula when it comes to that. They need players perform better, and coaches to create increased awareness and hone in on the fundamentals.

The solution to fixing the Patriots’ leaky run defense may not be sexy. But then again, defending the run rarely is.