Everyone knows the Patriots preseason defense is vanilla ice cream. You’re not going to unveil some revolutionary new tactic or formation when it doesn’t matter. And Bill Belichick is never one to tip his hand if he has something interesting brewing.
It seems like every season everyone gets so wrapped up in 3-4 vs. 4-3, who’s standing up, etc. that we get confused trying to figure out something that is far less complicated than we’re all making it out to be.
Here’s the biggest thing to remember — the Patriots were in sub defense for 84 percent of the snaps in 2016. They’ve been trending that way since 2009. So any discussion of 3-4 vs. 4-3 applies to less than 15 percent of the snaps. And the truth is that the techniques in both these defenses are the same. Just because one guy is standing up or has his hand down doesn’t make much difference.
For all the talk of “Ninkovich is playing linebacker!!”, here he is, playing linebacker in the 4-3 under in 2011, just like McClellin was doing last week.
So here’s a look at the vanilla base schemes the Patriots defense ran against the Saints, using the plays right out of Bill Belichick’s 1997 Jets playbook.
4-3, 4-3 Under, Nickel and Dime
First, we have BB’s 4-3. We’ve seen this formation going back to 2009 and now in the preseason we’re seeing it again. It’s quickly recognizable because of the front seven, only the middle linebacker is not on the line of scrimmage. McClellin is on the strong side, Collins is on the weak. Again, yes McClellin is at SLB, but the Pats might be in this defense 10-15% of the snaps, so it’s not worth reading too much into this one. That’s Patrick Chung standing next to Hightower, waiting for the tight end in man coverage.
Next the Pats shift to a 4-3 Under, which frees up Collins to make plays because he’s protected by blockers in front of him. McClellin stays on the end of the line as a the strongside linebacker. He can rush, he can drop into a zone or he could even cover the tight end though we didn’t see any of that against the Saints.
Finally we get to the nitty gritty, the sub packages that the Patriots will be spending the majority of their time in this season.
Let’s start with the nickel package. This is a front we’re used to and this one has some run protection that you’d expect on 1st-and-10 with Kuhn and Knighton in the middle. The defensive ends are Sheard and McClellin and both are primarily pass rushers in this situation, but because it’s first down and the threat of the run is real, they’re standing up so they can set the edge if they need to. If it was third-and-long they’d have hands down ready to scream around that edge.
Collins and Hightower are in the same spots they’ve been for most of the last three seasons. The tackles can be mixed and matched depending on the situation, but generally I’d expect Malcom Brown to be one of the guys inside on any important play.
Now let’s look at a dime front. This is where things get fun. Hightower is now at defensive end, a spot where we haven’t seen enough of him in recent years in my opinion. Sheard and Long are inside, while McClellin is the other rushing defensive end. This leaves Collins to cover the flat with his crazy athleticism. Hightower will jam the tight end, then release him to the waiting cover man.
Obviously there are a ton of possibilities here. That’s where the Pats will get creative during the regular season. Hightower or Sheard could drop (standing up puts that in the offense’s mind), Collins could blitz. The offensive line will have a ton to figure out.
We’re not going to get a taste of any defensive gameplan until September. And even then the Patriots historically start off with simple schemes and slowly build the complexity as the season progresses. That’s when we’re start to see more Collins/Hightower Double-A Gap blitzes and things like that.
But what’s apparent now is the athleticism on this defense and their ability to mix and match players on important third downs is near unprecedented. They have great depth for the most important down in football and should build on their 10th overall third-down defense they had in 2015.
