CLNS Media
  • Home
  • NBA
  • NFL
  • MLB
  • NHL
  • Betting
  • NBA History
  • Podcasts
    • podcast
      • A List Podcast
      • Bruins Beat
      • Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman
      • Cedric Maxwell Podcast
      • Celtics Beat
      • Celtics Lab
    • podcast
      • Celtics Postgame Live
      • Dome Theory with Bobby Manning
      • First to the Floor
      • The Garden Report
      • Greg Bedard’s Patriots Podcast
      • Patriots Beat
    • podcast
      • Pucks with Haggs
      • Patriots Postgame Show
      • Pats Interference
      • Poke the Bear
      • Patriots Daily
      • Red Sox Beat
      • Winning Plays
      • View All Podcasts
  • About
    • About CLNS
    • Our Sponsors
    • Talent
    • Job Opportunities
    • Join Our Network
    • Advertise With Us

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

What's Hot

Bengals Beat: Joe Burrow Questionable Monday, AJ McCarron Returns, Ja’Marr Chase Talks It Out With Brian Callahan

09/23/2023

Three Best Bets for Sunday: Patriots vs. Jets Props

09/23/2023

Remembering Celtics Legend Red Auerbach + Marcus Smart Wedding

09/23/2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube TikTok
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube TikTok Discord
CLNS Media
Subscribe
  • Home
  • NBA
  • NFL
  • MLB
  • NHL
  • Betting
  • NBA History
  • Podcasts
    • podcast
      • A List Podcast
      • Bruins Beat
      • Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman
      • Cedric Maxwell Podcast
      • Celtics Beat
      • Celtics Lab
    • podcast
      • Celtics Postgame Live
      • Dome Theory with Bobby Manning
      • First to the Floor
      • The Garden Report
      • Greg Bedard’s Patriots Podcast
      • Patriots Beat
    • podcast
      • Pucks with Haggs
      • Patriots Postgame Show
      • Pats Interference
      • Poke the Bear
      • Patriots Daily
      • Red Sox Beat
      • Winning Plays
      • View All Podcasts
  • About
    • About CLNS
    • Our Sponsors
    • Talent
    • Job Opportunities
    • Join Our Network
    • Advertise With Us
CLNS Media
Home » Patriots Game Plan: How Will Bill Belichick Slow Down Dak Prescott & Cowboys?
NFL

Patriots Game Plan: How Will Bill Belichick Slow Down Dak Prescott & Cowboys?

Evan LazarBy Evan Lazar10/15/2021Updated:10/15/20219 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Share
Facebook Twitter Email

The Patriots (2-3) will have their hands full when the Dallas Cowboys (4-1) bring the number two scoring offense to Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

For our money, the Cowboys led by quarterback Dak Prescott have the most challenging offense to defend in the NFL due to their incredible balance in both the run and pass game. 

Prescott is a dual-threat quarterback playing at an MVP level. Dallas has a potent rushing attack with two talented backs who can also catch the ball and three receivers who destroy man coverage and line up all over the formation. Stop one thing, and they’ll beat you with another. 

The Cowboys can also play a smash-mouth style out of 12-personnel with a power running game and play-action or spread you out in 11-personnel.

Trending
Could Kristaps Porzingis Trade Backfire on Brad Stevens?

The blueprint for slowing down Prescott and the passing attack is to play two-high safety shells like cover-two or quarters structures. Playing single-high against the Cowboys is asking to give up big plays, as Prescott averages a ridiculous 10.9 yards per attempt with an EPA per play of 0.63 when the defense plays either cover-one or cover-three. 

The #Cowboys offense might be the hardest offense to defend in the NFL. Averaging nearly six yards per rush vs. two-high shells and one-high/man gets you beat like this. Truly a pick your poison game for the #Patriots defense. pic.twitter.com/9cu1NmYYUP

— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) October 13, 2021

Most defenses don’t have the talent in the secondary to match up in man coverage against all of Dallas’s weapons.

Prescott’s efficiency significantly decreases when defenses play with two-high safety, forcing Dallas to dink-and-dunk down the field in the passing game rather than getting it all in one play. 

The catch is that the Cowboys are averaging 5.8 per rush attempt when the defense plays out of two-high shells, so you need to prepare yourself to play a man down in the box. Oh, and you can’t blitz Prescott either (108.3 passer rating, league-high nine TDs versus blitz).

The game plan defensively for the Patriots should be to force the Cowboys to string together long drives and win as many third downs and red zone sequences as they can. 

Dallas’s offense is terrific, but they’re 19th in red-zone scoring efficiency, meaning this will likely be a bend-don’t-break special from New England’s point of view. 

With that said, Bill Belichick isn’t a big fan of two-deep safety coverages because it leaves you vulnerable versus the run and limits what you can do from a pass-rush standpoint. Although the Pats do it at times, usually the strategy comes against teams that don’t have a rushing attack on Dallas’s level, like the Chiefs, for example. 

https://www.clnsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ZekeRun.mp4

Here is what happens when you play with two-deep safeties against the Cowboys; a healthy dose of Ezekiel Elliott right down your throat with one of the league’s best offensive lines.

Our theory is that the Patriots will play their brand of early-down coverage with an extra defender in the box to stop the run and compete in the secondary with man and cover-three coverages. Ideally, that’ll get Dallas into obvious passing situations. 

Sure, you might give up a big play on an early-down pass against single-high, but if you can limit the damage through the air and get off the field on third down, you have a chance. If you let Zeke go off, Dallas stays ahead of the chains with their running game and keeps you off-balance.

Last week, the Giants tried to play soft two-high coverages to prevent explosive pass plays, and the Cowboys ran for 201 yards and threw for another 324 because Dallas was calling whatever it wanted. 

Hopefully, by stopping the run on early downs, Dallas will become one-dimensional on third down so the Pats can unleash their exotic coverages. 

One of those exotics will surely be some form of a man-match coverage where DBs pass off receivers to leverage crossing routes downfield. 

https://www.clnsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/GiantsOneCross.mp4

Above, the Giants play a great rep of one-cross where the original “rat” overtakes the underneath crosser, the boundary corner cuts off the deep over, and the number three CB becomes the new “rat” and helps to the dig route. 

https://www.clnsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DoubleRobber-1.mp4

Another long down-and-distance option for Belichick is his cover-one “double” robber scheme. In this eight-man coverage, the Pats have two defenders read the quarterback on each hash at the sticks and a post-safety in the middle of the field to help man coverage defenders.  

https://www.clnsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Drop8Barmore.mp4

Lastly, when they’re in shorter down-and-distances, expect to see New England’s simulated pressure package again where they show blitz and back off at the snap. By threatening a blitz, they should get a one-on-one somewhere on the defensive line (for either Judon or Barmore) and drop defenders into low zones to take away easy conversions over the middle.

Bill Belichick’s game plan and New England’s defensive personnel did an excellent job against Tom Brady’s Bucs, who are in the conversation for the NFL’s best offense. 

But the matchup against Prescott’s Cowboys is different because of Dak’s mobility, and Dallas’s rushing attack is more dangerous than Tampa Bay’s.

Plus, Belichick knew that Brady would read the defense inside-out from a coverage standpoint, and taking away the underneath throws over the middle would cause him to hold the ball and allow the rush to get home.

The only way to slow down the Cowboys’ multi-dimensional offense is to play great early-down defense, where Dallas is second in EPA per rush and rushing success rate this season. 

If the Cowboys find themselves in favorable down-and-distances, it will be a long Sunday evening for the Patriots defense; their only hope is to cause Dallas’s drives to stall.

The two-high safety structures mitigate the damage with Dallas’s passing attack, but they’re averaging 34 points per game because the Cowboys’ offense is staying ahead of the chains, opening the playbook for OC Kellen Moore. 

As Pats defensive tackle Davon Godchaux likes to say, “stop the run and then have some fun.”

WHEN THE PATRIOTS HAVE THE BALL 

Although Dallas’s defense is significantly improved this season, the matchup for Mac Jones and the Patriots’ offense is good if the Pats can avoid turning the ball over. 

Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn comes from the Seattle coaching tree, but he overhauled elements of his coverage system after getting fired by the Falcons last season. 

“The foundation of it is similar. I wouldn’t say it’s quite the same,” Belichick told CLNS Media. 

The new wrinkle for Quinn with the Cowboys is more man coverage and less Seattle-style cover-three. Dallas’s most-called coverage is now cover-one (34.4%). Although the Seahawks do their fair share of this, Dallas is playing a lot of “three buzz” and one-robber where they start in a two-high shell then rotate one of those safeties down into a middle of the field zone. 

The Cowboys are holding up well on the outside, and star cornerback Trevon Diggs is a turnover machine (six iNTs through five games). 

But the good news is that their middle-of-the-field coverage defenders are vulnerable, and the linebacker level led by rookie Micah Parsons struggles in coverage. 

In the first five games of the season, the Cowboys defense ranks 22nd in DVOA against passes to the middle of the field and is 31st in Football Outsiders’ rankings at defending tight ends. 

To put it in simpler terms, get ready for a heavy helping of man coverage beaters with Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, Jakobi Meyers, and Kendrick Bourne working between the numbers. 

https://www.clnsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BunchRubs.mp4

 

Based on what worked for the Giants and Bucs, expect offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to dial-up various rub routes and stress Dallas’s man coverages with bunch and stack alignments. 

https://www.clnsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PatsPAInCuts.mp4

Plus, this should be another big play-action week for the Patriots where they try to hit in-breaking routes against out-leveraged DBs with the second level stepping up to play the run. 

The best possible matchup for the Pats is a pass defense that’s vulnerable in the middle of the field, so they have that going for them this week.

KEY MATCHUPS

1. Pats QB Mac Jones vs. Turnovers 

A little outside the box here, but a critical angle to this game. If Jones gives the Cowboys defenses as many opportunities to turn the ball over as he did against Houston, the Patriots have no chance. Dallas averages 2.4 takeaways per game, which is the second-most in the NFL. They won’t drop interceptions at the rate that the Texans did last week. 

2. Pats DTs Lawrence Guy & Davon Godchaux vs. Cowboys RG Zack Martin 

Martin is the best guard in the NFL, and the Cowboys are nearly unstoppable when they run behind him. How is this for a stat: the Cowboys run into Martin’s gap on 59% of their rush attempts and average 6.5 yards per carry, per SIS. Furthermore, they average 6.7 yards running into right tackle Terence Steele’s gap, which is likely a testament to Martin as well. This is an absolutely massive game for Guy and Godchaux. Better bring your hard hats, fellas. 

3. Pats DBs Kyle Dugger & Adrian Phillips vs. Cowboys TE Dalton Schultz 

Schultz is underrated. Prescott has one incompletion (15-of-16) throwing to Schultz against zone coverage, and the Cowboys’ tight end is second in the NFL in man-coverage grade (91.9). He’s a very savvy route-runner, and Pats safety Devin McCourty described Schultz as a “security blanket” for Dak. With all the attention on the wide receivers, Schultz is quietly leading Dallas in receptions with 26. Don’t be surprised if we see some “big” nickel with three safeties on the field on early downs. 

4. Pats CB J.C. Jackson vs. Cowboys WR Amari Cooper 

Cooper is a tough assignment for Jackson as one of the best route-runners in the NFL. He’s a similar cover to Stefon Diggs in that the key to stopping him is throwing off his timing. Although it’s easier said than done, Cooper is electric at the top of the route and will burn you if you don’t get your hands on him early in the route. Expect Jackson to play a physical press-man technique against Cooper on Sunday. 

5. Pats CB Jalen Mills vs. Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb 

Let’s hope that Mills (hamstring) returns for the Patriots this week. Otherwise, they have nobody to cover Lamb, who is too big for Jon Jones and too good for Joejuan Williams. Lamb lines up everywhere, is an excellent vertical route-runner and is great with the ball in his hands. It’ll be interesting to see what the plan is for Lamb if Mills can’t play. 

 

Bill Belichick cowboys Dak Prescott Mac Jones Patriots
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Evan Lazar
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn

Evan Lazar is the New England Patriots beat reporter for CLNS Media.

Related Posts

Three Best Bets for Sunday: Patriots vs. Jets Props

09/23/2023

Patriots vs. Jets Preview and Picks

09/23/2023

Will Patriots Defeat the Jets?

09/23/2023

Previewing Patriots vs Jets; Can New England Get Their First Win?

09/23/2023

Patriots Have Gut Check Trench Game vs. Jets

09/23/2023

NFL Week Three Games to Watch – Betting Odds, Previews, and Predictions

09/22/2023

Comments are closed.

Follow Us
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Youtube
Featured Videos
A List Podcast

Remembering Celtics Legend Red Auerbach + Marcus Smart Wedding

By Mackenzie Bruno09/23/2023

Welcome to episode 146 of the A List Podcast with A. Sherrod Blakely, Gary Washburn,…

Patriots vs. Jets Preview and Picks

09/23/2023

Will Patriots Defeat the Jets?

09/23/2023

Exploring the Best and Worst-Case Scenarios for the Celtics Next Season

09/23/2023
About Us
About Us

Your source for the lifestyle news. This demo is crafted specifically to exhibit the use of the theme as a lifestyle site. Visit our main page for more demos.

We're accepting new partnerships right now.

Email Us: info@example.com
Contact: +1-320-0123-451

Our Picks

Celtics-Pistons Game 2 Betting Odds, Preview and Predictions | BetOnline.ag

01/03/2021

Celtics-Pistons Game 2 Betting Odds, Preview and Predictions | BetOnline.ag

01/03/2021
New Comments
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube TikTok Discord
    • Home
    • NBA
    • NFL
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • View All Podcasts
    • About
    • Privacy Policy

    2022 North Station Media. Designed by J&R Marketing.


    At North Station Media, we don’t just celebrate diversity, we live it. North Station Media is an equal opportunity employer that commits itself everyday creating the most inclusive environment for all its employees and hiring the best and most qualified individuals. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.