New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo changed his tune Monday, insisting the way his team beat the Chicago Bears — focused on good defense and staying on schedule offensively — was sustainable. It was a reversal from what he said about how the Pats beat the Cincinnati Bengals to kick off the season.
He lauded the defensive line and the way the secondary blanketed Chicago’s receivers. After some early struggles, the Patriots defense seems to finally be moving in the right direction.
Still, I couldn’t help but come away from Sunday’s game wondering how sustainable the defensive improvement is. How much of the defensive domination in the Patriots’ 19-3 win was because the defense has turned a corner under first-time coordinator DeMarcus Covington? And how much was just due to facing a dysfunctional team at the right time?
So much of the conversation around this team has centered on Drake Maye and the offense, but the defense has flown under the radar a bit despite some lackluster showings. Covington’s unit entered Sunday ranked 26th in yards per play allowed and 21st in points allowed per drive. Then it dominated the Bears, allowing only 142 yards of offense and one third-down conversion all afternoon.
To try to get a better sense of the situation surrounding the Patriots defense — whether it’s improving or just playing bad teams — let’s explore the schools of thought.
Couldn’t pick 1 so we got the WHOLE defense 😤 pic.twitter.com/icA4QSBkLN
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 11, 2024
The defense is getting better
This could be overstating the impact of one formation that was used only five times in one game. But with that massive caveat out of the way, the Patriots’ newfound plan to use Brenden Schooler as a late-game quarterback spy of Caleb Williams felt, well, rather Belichickian.
No coach was better at quickly morphing his defense for a specific opponent — even if it meant using a player at a completely different position, teaching him on the fly how to execute that role and watching him dominate. And in what could be a sign of growth from a young defensive coaching staff, Covington and company pulled off a similar feat, helping Schooler become a disrupting “linebacker” despite rarely practicing with the defense the past two years (the 27-year-old is listed as a defensive back but is best known as a special teams ace). The coaches even termed the defensive package “Longhorn,” a nod to Schooler’s alma mater, the University of Texas. It led to Schooler’s first-ever sack at any level of football.
99 + 41 = the 5th Pats sack today ‼️
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/ppqt8toDbk
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 10, 2024
So when looking for reasons this defense might be coming together and finding itself in the second half, let’s start with a nod to an impressive game plan Sunday that included new wrinkles.
“He’s fast, he’s athletic and he’s a football player,” Mayo said of Schooler. “We try not to put anyone in a box.”
But the reason for hope goes beyond Sunday, the nine sacks the defense delivered and the strong coverage in the secondary. The numbers suggest this is more than just a one-game trend.
Over the first six weeks, the Patriots ranked 24th in expected points added per play, 23rd in yards allowed per play and 26th in third-down percentage. Over the past four weeks, they’ve ranked 18th, sixth and 12th in those same stats.
Of course, even the improved numbers aren’t the same kinds of lofty stats long expected from a Bill Belichick-coached defense. But with the absence of so many starters, simply playing at a league-average level would be a meaningful improvement and offer an endorsement of what Mayo and Covington have going on that side of the ball heading into 2025.
Plus, though the nine sacks certainly aren’t sustainable and were aided by a bad Bears O-line and Williams holding on to the ball too long, the Pats are about to add a proven pass rusher to the mix. They claimed Yannick Ngakoue off waivers last week, and he’s expected to practice this week. He’s probably no longer at the level of his peak seasons (he has recorded at least eight sacks in seven seasons), but given the Pats’ crop of pass rushers, he’s probably already the second-best option they have behind Keion White. Jeremiah Pharms is looking like a quality player, Dell Pettus is improving and Jaylinn Hawkins has been decent as well. Safety Kyle Dugger also is nearing a return, and Mayo has hinted that Christian Barmore could play at some point, too.
They’re just playing bad teams
OK, let’s state the obvious. The Bears are bad. After Sunday, they might be on the verge of replacing their offensive coordinator, and the head coach could be following him out the door at the end of the season.
But the Patriots’ soft schedule wasn’t limited to Sunday. The team’s last four opponents — the ones against whom this defensive improvement has come — were the Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans and Bears. Those four offenses rank 19th, 17th, 29th and 25th in EPA per play. So it has been an easier stretch for the New England defense.
It’s also unfair to simply assume the pass rush has been magically fixed because of the Pats’ nine sacks. Three came with Williams holding on to the ball for longer than four seconds. No quarterback other than Deshaun Watson does that. The Patriots ranked 28th in sack percentage entering the game, and the dominating pass rush against Williams and the Bears feels like it says more about Chicago than New England.
Maybe Ngakoue will help that group, but it still needs a lot of pass-rushing help. The run defense was a big issue early, but that hasn’t been totally fixed either. Even in this four-game stretch of improved play, the Patriots still ranked 22nd in success rate against the run in weeks 7 through 10.
At the same time, you can’t control who you play. The Patriots knew from the beginning that their toughest stretch of the schedule came early.
Now, though, we’re likely to learn a lot more about the defense. The Sean McVay-led Los Angeles Rams come to Foxboro next week. Then the Pats head to the Miami Dolphins to see an offense getting back to its explosive ways with Tua Tagovailoa at the helm.
We’ll know more after that about whether this is a defensive coaching staff finding its groove or one that has benefited from a soft schedule in the middle of the season.
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(Photo of Dell Pettus and Jahlani Tavai: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
