In one of the NFL’s marquee games of the still young 2026 regular season, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills squared off with reigning MVP Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams. The game more than lived up to the hype, with Buffalo edging the Rams, 37-34, in overtime at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams had no answers for Allen in that game — and in four-plus quarters, he only attempted 19 passes against Los Angeles’ elite secondary. The Bills leaned on Allen’s legs, using designed runs and scrambles to rush for 234 yards as a team. Allen had 10 carries for 121 yards and a touchdown.
Games like this happen around the NFL every week. Sean McVay is undeniably a top-five head coach in the league, but teams seldom have an answer for elite dual-threat passers like Allen when plays break down, especially when legs get heavy in the fourth quarter.
Through eight weeks, there’s been one exception to that rule — and that’s Mike Vrabel’s New England Patriots.
The top five rushing quarterbacks in football this year, including scramble yards and kneel downs, are Allen (270), Jayden Daniels (236), Malik Willis (225), Deshaun Watson (217), and Drake Maye (216). The Patriots have faced two of the top three — Allen and Willis — with Vrabel neutralizing their secret weapon in staggering fashion.
The Patriots held Allen to 4 net rushing yards on five attempts in Week 4. This past Sunday, New England limited Willis to one official rush attempt for 2 yards. They won both of those divisional games in tough, grind-it-out situations on the road.
Patriots are shutting down mobile quarterbacks with zone coverage
New England is currently hovering around the league median in terms of record (5-3), offensive efficiency (ninth in EPA per play), and defensive efficiency (17th in EPA per play). But Vrabel has figured out how to erase the crucial QB scramble yards that often crush teams in critical passing situations, and it’s giving the Patriots a major advantage entering a tough second half of the season.
When you zoom out on the total sample size through eight games, the Patriots have allowed quarterbacks to rush for a combined 53 net yards and one touchdown (a goal-line run by Allen and the Bills) on 18 attempts. That’s an average of 2.9 yards per rush.
Patriots Opposing QB by week | Total QB Rushing Yards Allowed |
|---|---|
Week 1: Sam Darnold | 0 rush attempts |
Week 2: Aaron Rodgers | 1 rush attempt, 5 yards |
Week 3: Trevor Lawrence | 4 rush attempts, 25 yards |
Week 4: Josh Allen | 5 rush attempts, 4 yards, TD |
Week 5: Kirk Cousins | 0 rush attempts |
Week 6: Geno Smith | 2 rush attempts, minus-1 yard |
Week 7: Caleb Williams | 5 rush attempts, 18 yards |
Week 8: Malik Willis | 1 rush attempt, 2 yards |
Totals entering Week 9: | 18 rush attempts, 53 yards, TD |
Elite stuff.
The Patriots have been one of the league’s most man-heavy defenses to start the year, which makes sense with high-end cover corners like Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis. But when facing top scramblers like Allen, Willis, and even Trevor Lawrence and Caleb Williams to an extent, they’ve morphed into a zone team.
The ugly Jaguars loss aside, it’s hard to argue with the results.
Per Patriots reporter Evan Lazar, New England played a season-high 73% zone coverage rate against the Dolphins on Sunday.
“It wasn't perfect, but one stat stood out,” Lazar wrote. “Dolphins QB Malik Willis had zero scrambles vs. the Pats defense.”
It definitely hasn’t been perfect. The Patriots’ zone looks got torched in losses to the Jaguars and Bears. But the ability to limit the quarterback’s rushing efficiency has been a constant. Lawrence is the only QB to hit 25 rush yards against the Patriots this season.
Going zone in these matchups makes sense, as in that Rams game, Allen routinely gained chunk yards on the ground when he saw Los Angeles’ defenders turn their backs to run with a receiver in coverage.
What sets the Patriots apart is their speed — especially on the second level with Christian Elliss and Robert Spillane. Both players are heat-seeking missiles who can run sideline to sideline. They are also among the most physical linebacker duos in the league. Quarterbacks aren’t only having a hard time finding scramble outlets, they’re likely thinking twice, as rushing lanes close in a hurry — and often end with a thud — against this Patriots defense.
The downside is that neither Elliss nor Spillane are great coverage linebackers, and Gonzalez’s elite skillset is negated when New England goes with a more zone-heavy game plan.
One thing Vrabel’s defense does as well — if not better — as any team in football right now is keeping the quarterback in the pocket. The Patriots are forcing opposing QBs to earn every yard and third-down conversion in the passing game.
With games against dangerous rushing quarterbacks like Kyler Murray, Justin Herbert, Bo Nix, and rematches with Allen and Willis still to come, this is an intriguing Patriots development that’s worth monitoring going forward.
As McVay would agree — Vrabel’s secret sauce might be the difference between winning and losing some big games down the stretch.
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