Patriots’ defensive plan vs Rams was as befuddling as it gets

The Patriots defense got shredded by the Rams and it’s clear why.

Silly us. We thought the one thing that could save the New England Patriots this year would’ve been the coaching, but as much as we hate to admit it, that’s probably been just as inconsistent as the product on the field.

Our latest piece of evidence comes from Thursday night after the team’s embarrassing 24-3 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Everyone knew the offense would have an extremely tough time against one of the league’s best defenses, but some had hopes the Patriots defense, which has been very good as of late, would find a way to make Jared Goff pay.

Instead, Bill Belichick and Co. just let the Rams run the ball down their throat all game. It was clear New England did all it could to take Cooper Kupp out of the game, but did the coaching staff forget that there’s an entire other element of an offensive game plan?

Rookie Cam Akers rushed 29 times for 171 yards. He had more rushing yards than Goff had passing yards!

On top of that? Two of the Patriots best defenders from the past few weeks barely played!

"“OLB Chase Winovich played a limited role with just 24 total defensive snaps (38.1 percent),” wrote Doug Kyed of NESN.com. “It was his lowest snap count since Week 8. OLB John Simon took on a bigger role because the Rams went so run-heavy, and the Patriots clearly don’t trust Winovich as a run defender. Simon has struggled this season, however, so it didn’t ultimately matter who was out there.”"

Fellow Michigan linebacker Josh Uche, who’s been emerging as a serious pass-rushing threat, played in just 25% of the defensive snaps. Cant somebody explain why? What kind of defensive game plan is this?

OK, we can at least understand the Patriots may have had a plan heading into the game, but you knew after two quarters that it wasn’t working. You already have a stacked secondary that’s more than capable of stopping the pass. Why not give Winovich and Uche more opportunities to stop the run after what you were rolling with was clearly failing?

https://twitter.com/PFF_Patriots/status/1336318724740149248?s=20

It doesn’t take a defensive coordinator to know that you need a strong linebacking corps to stop the run. Giving limited playing time to two of your most promising linebackers coming off a huge week against the Chargers, regardless of the game plan, was clearly not the right decision.

The Patriots have decent personnel. It’s nothing special, but at the very least the coaching staff needs to know how to utilize it, not limit it.

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