Patriots secondary leaves cause for concern in uneven win over Jets

Patriots coach Bill Belichick sat inside MetLife Stadium late Monday night taking questions about his first win in more than six weeks.

He looked dispirited.

The topic at hand was the play that sparked the Pats’ 30-27 comeback win over the Jets, J.C. Jackson’s deep fourth-quarter interception of Joe Flacco. Belichick used that question to instead talk about the team’s pass defense as a whole. He wasn’t pleased.

“Defensively, we didn’t play well in the passing game. Just wasn’t one of our better performances,” Belichick said. “Fortunately in the fourth quarter, we had the interception, had a stop, got the ball back, so kind of salvaged it a little bit. But we gave up too many yards and too many points in the passing game.”

The stat sheet wasn’t particularly kind to the Patriots. Flacco enjoyed the fifth-best game of his 13-year career by passer rating. He completed better than 70% of his passes for more than 10 yards per attempt. Both of those numbers were appreciably higher before New York’s final two drives, which resulted in its first turnover and three-and-out of the night.

At the start of those series, Jackson maintained proper depth on a deep post run by speedy rookie Denzel Mims. That left him in perfect position to cradle Flacco’s deep play-action throw, a rare play when the Pats pass defense scored a win against the longtime veteran. Jackson shared credit for the pick with the coaching staff and safety Devin McCourty, who’d made a pre-snap check moments before the snap.

“We had some good plays where we had those routes covered and then we obviously had some where we didn’t. But that’s what we wanted to do there, and J.C. did a nice job of staying over the top. And Terrence (Brooks) got a good break on it from the other side, so we played that play pretty well,” Belichick said. “We had a few others, but from an overall consistency standpoint, we’ve got to defend the pass a little bit better than we did tonight.”

Prior to that play, Flacco had beaten Jackson for two touchdowns and Jason McCourty for another. Later, the Patriots’ first and only sack of the game short-circuited the Jets’ last possession. Still, by halftime they’d already hit their game average for total passing yards and nearly matched their total points from the previous four games combined.

Belichick’s big-picture frustration was understandable. The Patriots’ secondary represents one of the team’s few remaining strengths. As it goes, so does the defense.

The good news is reinforcements should be on the way. All-Pro cornerback Stephon Gilmore participated in two consecutive practices last week after sitting out two straight with the knee injury that struck two weeks ago and is not considered a long-term problem. All players have been given Tuesday off.

The Pats will need every available body at home Sunday night against Baltimore. Reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson finished 10-of-10 in the Ravens’ recent win at Indianapolis on Sunday. A repeat performance in New England will surely doom the Patriots next weekend — especially considering what Jackson’s creaky, over-the-hill predecessor did to them on Monday.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/35egqNX