Patriots are running a traditional offense with modern flair
The New England Patriots have blended tradition and innovation with their offense.
Coming into Sunday, few people knew what to expect from the Patriots offense.
Sure, we knew the difference between Tom Brady and Cam Newton. Brady is a surgeon, precise and deliberate. He’s also immobile outside the pocket. Meanwhile, Newton is a tight end who runs like a power running back. The catch is that he’s a less accurate passer, though far from incapable. Add in questions at receiver and a running back room that needs to prove itself, and it was difficult to know what to expect on offense.
What the Patriots ended up running was bully ball. They told the Dolphins, “We are bigger, stronger, and you can’t stop us.”
It is an old school, traditional approach, from a time when the game was simply about who pushes the other guy backwards. Since New England was successful at knocking Miami off the ball, this forced the Dolphins to crowd the offensive line. This crowding of the offensive line is what in turn set up the passing game. It created one-on-one matchups in the secondary, which the Patriots receivers desperately need this season.
Establish the run, or you’ll never be able to pass. It’s play calling 101. The most traditional of approaches to football.
Offenses like the Air Raid and the Run and Shoot have historically diverged from this offense by passing first, but that’s historically done to live by the “less is more” credo. They use route concepts designed to create space, and let the run become secondary. That’s a more modern approach, and still requires some balance with the running game.
The Patriots didn’t insist on using one of these modern approaches, but stuck with a traditional power run game — except there was a key divergence. Most traditional running games go to the running backs, and while the Patriots did hand the ball off plenty, they ran the quarterback in tons of unique concepts that come from a more modern, even collegiate approach to offense.
By running Newton 15 times, often on zone reads, the Patriots showed that they are willing to put their offense into whatever situation best fits the talent on the roster. It forces the defense to play 11 on 11 when the Patriots run the ball, whereas they never had to worry about Brady running in the past.
What the read option does is freeze the defender on the edge. Newton puts the ball in the belly of the running back, at what is known as the mesh point, and lets it sit there for a second. In that second he is assessing the edge rusher, who is left unblocked. He is left unblocked so the lineman on him can block a linebacker, and because that edge rusher can never be right against the read option.
The edge rusher is the ‘read’ in read option. He has a choice. Do I go after the quarterback or the running back? If he chooses the running back, the quarterback keeps it. Choose the quarterback, and the running back will have the ball. That read, once made by the quarterback, is signifying which option to choose.
Up until the past couple of seasons, the idea of running read option in the NFL was ludicrous, because it jeopardized your quarterback’s health. However, it’s worth doing for the added dimension it gives to your game.
Another act of modernity in the Patriots’ traditional ground and pound offense was the motion. Historically, motion has been used by quarterbacks to tell what the coverage is in the secondary. The Patriots used it to run the ball with a jet sweep to Julian Edelman to confuse the linebackers’ vision, and even threw out of it. The Patriots used motion at a shockingly high rate of 27%, second highest in the NFL.
As promised on today's Athletic Football Show, here are the four play designs that @FB_FilmAnalysis and I broke down.
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) September 16, 2020
The Patriots' use motion to create a numbers advantage for Cam Newton in the red zone. pic.twitter.com/uU05DIlx0v
Not that the Patriots threw often, but when they did, it was usually off play action. Defenses already looking for the run will bite hard on play fakes, giving receivers room downfield. It’s also easy to run bootlegs, and roll out the Newton’s strong side to throw out of play action. These rollouts not only give receivers unique route combinations to run, but also isolate linebackers. They can go and attack Newton, only for him to throw over them. They can play coverage and let Newton run downhill at them. Either way, they chose wrong.
This is how the Patriots offense will look going forward: a traditional offense with modern concepts. If Newton can stay healthy, the read option, quarterback power, play action, and rollouts are going to help New England control the flow of the game and win the division again.
