Although the New England Patriots own one of the top run defenses in the NFL this season, they still struggle in certain areas against the run. It's been evident over the last two games that they need to strengthen the edges of the defensive line.
Through 11 weeks, the Patriots are allowing 84.7 rushing yards per game, which ranks first in the NFL this season. In that time, they've only allowed two running backs to run for at least 50 yards against them, and it was during the last two weeks (Sean Tucker- 53, Breece Hall- 58).
The problem isn’t that New England had two 50-yard rushers against them in the last two weeks, it’s how it seems to be happening that’s concerning. Teams are scheming run plays to the outside in hopes that they’ll be able to beat the Pats’ edge defenders to round the corner for a positive gain.
Patriots Need to Shore Up Run Defense Along the Edges
In fact, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said in his postgame press conference on Thursday night, after defeating the New York Jets 27-14 for New England’s eighth win in a row, that his defense doesn’t have the speed to run with the fast quarterbacks and they need to do a better job of defending that. The same can be said for the running backs going to the outside against them.
“The quarterback tonight, you know what I mean?… we couldn’t, [he’s] faster than most of the guys we got and [we] didn’t do a good enough job. So, we recovered a little bit, but we’ll have to try to continue to be better there.”
New England’s defense ranks near the bottom of the league in pressures, hurries, and blitzes after starting the season near the top, and has slowly declined each week. A lot of it has to do with the edge defense led by veteran starters Harold Landry and K’Lavon Chaisson.
While Landry and Chaisson lead the team in hurries, sacks, and pressures, they both have struggled in those metrics as of late. That said, Landry hasn’t made a sack in four weeks, and Chaisson has only recorded more than two tackles in a game twice this season, and he’s only made one tackle in three of the last four games.
With the way the Patriots' defensive system is designed, it’s reliant on the edge defense and defensive line to wreak havoc in the backfield and attack the quarterback. However, that has declined in recent weeks.
- 22.4% Blitz Percentage (20th)
- 5.7% Hurry Percentage (23rd)
- 18.5% Pressure Percentage (24th)
- 7.5% QB Knockdown Percentage (23rd)
It’s worth mentioning that Landry and Chaisson have both been managing ankle injuries during the last few weeks. With the Patriots being thin at the edge position, they’ve needed to lean on undrafted rookie Elijah Ponder, who’s recorded a sack in each of the last two games, and with veteran Anfernee Jennings, who is a great run defender and recovered a fumble on Thursday night.
The Patriots had the opportunity to add to the edge during the trade deadline, but elected not to and instead traded Keion White. I thought it was odd at the time that White was traded and there wasn’t a corresponding addition to the position made, but the Patriots have players in the pipeline that they feel comfortable utilizing when it’s needed.
It’s worth mentioning that the rotation system for the defensive line has been proven to work, being able to pull Christian Barmore and Milton Williams during a series to give them a quick break while Joshua Farmer and Cory Durden fill in for a few plays. Perhaps the Pats need to do that more often at the edge position to maybe get more out of Landry and Chaisson during a game.