DETROIT - And that look from Patriots coach Bill Belichick, taken in the aftermath of the Lions' final score of the first half, about says it all.
The Patriots’ trip to Detroit was pretty much an abject failure with a 34-10 loss. A viewing of the television copy did nothing to change that opinion.
The Patriots’ defense, one week after wreaking havoc against the Tampa Bay Buccaners, made Lions QB Matthew Stafford look like an All-Pro, as he completed 12 of 14 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns for a passer rating of 158.3. Yes, a perfect passer rating.
The biggest reason for that? The Lions came into this game determined to have a quick passing attack, probably after watching the film of the Patriots swarming the Buccaneers. Last week, between the DL and LBs, the Patriots combined for an amazing 35.5 total quarterback pressures (sacks, hurries, hits and holding penalties combined).
Against the Lions? Not so much.
Patriots LBs and DL combined for one sack, three hurries and five hits for nine total quarterback pressures. That’s it. The group was much-improved against the run with nine bad runs (those of 1 yard or less) but no one really cares about that after this game.
Why did the Patriots’ defense have zero pressure against Stafford and the other quarterbacks? For one, they didn’t bring much pressure. The Patriots blitzed the Buccaneers on 48.6 percent of dropbacks. Against the Lions, the Patriots blitzed 27.5 percent of time total (11 times on 40 dropbacks). Against Stafford, the percentage was even less (18.8 percent, 3 of 16).
Now, the Lions had a lot to do with that. They were not going to let the injury-prone Stafford sit back there and get pounded (wise decision).
On his 16 dropbacks, Stafford’s average release time was 2.07 seconds. Almost everything was a three-step drop, and throw on first read. Seven of his passes got off in under 2 seconds. So even if the Patriots’ blitzed, it probably wouldn’t have worked. But it couldn’t have been any worse. The Patriots got a sack (Kyle Arrington) and hit (Jerod Mayo) on two of their three blitzes against Stafford. The other sack, by Niko Koutouvides on Drew Stanton, also came on a blitz.
The only time Stanton held the ball over 3 seconds, he was sacked.
To contrast Stafford’s get-off time, Tom Brady’s was a very respectable 2.37, which throws a little bit of cold water on his “the protection wasn’t that bad because we were trying to get the ball downfield” explanation. But 18 of his passes took longer to get off than Stafford’s average. Brady did have five get-off times over 3 seconds, so the Patriots were definitely trying to take some shots down the field.