Defense was hardly afraid to mix it up

December 21, 2009|Albert R. Breer

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Perhaps the most important thing the Patriots did to aid their defense’s success yesterday was something me, you, or some dude in Section 223 could do just as well.

That, of course, was to accept penalties.

It was a flag that halted Buffalo’s first drive, and limited the Bills to 3 points after they had ripped through the Patriots’ injury-ravaged front like a fat kid navigating a box of Ho Hos. It was a flag that called off the recovered onside kick that would’ve given the Bills the ball and a chance to tie the game late.

And in between, there was a litany of flying yellow cloth that put the New England defense in prime position.

Now, here’s where you give those guys credit - when there was blood in the water, more often than not in this sleepy 17-10 win, the Patriots defense went for the kill, and that’s a step in the right direction. So it was that the Patriots hurried and harried Ryan Fitzpatrick into a benching, then injured backup Trent Edwards for good measure.

When it was over, they had six sacks, a monumental number for one of the league’s worst pass rushes. In 11 of their last 12 games, they’d had two or fewer. Against Tampa Bay, the Patriots had three. The four they notched in the season-opener against these Bills - with two in the final two minutes - was the season high before yesterday.

They did it with scheme, flooding the field with edge rushers and linebackers, and floating them around the line to disguise who was coming and who was dropping into coverage. They did it with attitude, which sprung from players-only film sessions that prevented some of the riskier calls from becoming big plays for the opposition. And they did it with execution.

“We tried to mix it up,’’ coach Bill Belichick said. “We had a lot of different guys coming. We had some DBs and our linebackers try to stem the front and move it around a bit, just to make them work to pick it up. Sometimes we got there, sometimes maybe we caught them a little offguard, or hesitant trying to figure out who’s who.’’

If you need to find the reason why the approach was more exotic and aggressive this week, you can, as is often the case with the game-plan-centric Patriots, look at the opponent.

Yesterday’s five starters represented the eighth combination of offensive linemen the Bills have trotted out to begin a game this season.

Starting left tackle Jonathan Scott became a Bill after being cut by the Lions before their 0-16 season in 2008. Right tackle Kirk Chambers was another backup pressed into action because of injury. Guard Richie Incognito was a member of the Rams at this time last week.