Welcome to the Friday 5, postseason version!
Each week till the Patriots’ playoff run is over, I’ll drop 5 team-related ideas on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and sit up for kickoff.
Prepared, set, soccer.
1. Pop goes the deep ball
It’s been a quiet second half of the season for DeMario Douglas.
He hasn’t topped 40 receiving yards in a recreation in two months. He’s caught a number of passes simply as soon as for the reason that bye. Not even an prolonged harm to Mack Hollins or further enjoying time in blowouts has introduced a breakout efficiency.
So why would possibly Douglas pop off Sunday in opposition to the most effective protection he’s ever seen? He does what few Patriots wideouts can: burn man-to-man protection.
“On the finish of the day, we all know we’re going to get man protection,” Pats receiver Kayshon Boutte told reporters this week. “We’ve gotta beat it. It’s that straightforward.”
Final Sunday, Drake Maye completed 1-of-5 for seven yards, with three sacks and 39 speeding yards in opposition to man-to-man. Regardless of enjoying simply 26% of the group’s offensive snaps, Douglas has the second-most catches of any Patriots extensive receiver versus man protection with 10 receptions on 14 targets for 179 yards and a landing, per Professional Soccer Focus. Josh McDaniels has created a singular function for him as a situational deep menace the place Douglas usually takes off from the slot in apparent passing conditions.
The clearest instance of his utilization got here in wins versus New Orleans and Atlanta earlier this season, when Douglas caught deep passes, scored lengthy touchdowns and topped 100 receiving yards in each video games. Douglas doesn’t see the sphere as usually as he as soon as did, however his mixture of lengthy pace (4.44 within the 40-yard sprint) and elite quickness are distinctive to him amongst Pats receivers.
On Wednesday, Diggs outlined precisely what Douglas and the remainder of the wideouts should do to beat the Texans after they’re challenged 1-on-1.
“It’s gonna be big for us to run routes the correct means and be accessible for the quarterback,” Diggs stated. “There’s gonna be plenty of contested catches and issues like that, so simply play what you see.”
2. The No. 1 Maye play
Patriots quarterback coach Ashton Grant has watched, re-watched and damaged down all 1,050 snaps Maye has taken this 12 months.
Of these 1,050, he has a favourite.
Maye’s 33-yard landing cross to Kyle Williams late within the first half of the Pats’ 33-7 blowout of the Giants on Monday Night time Soccer is a spotlight, Grant stated, due to his execution all through the whole play.
“Simply because there’s plenty of stuff happening on the line of scrimmage that he was in a position to deal with and talk to the opposite 10 guys on offense,” Grant stated Thursday. “After which we had been in a position to hit an explosive, in order that’s one of many issues that stand out.”
The Giants protection confirmed man-blitz strain on the snap with no safeties deep, then spun right into a zone blitz look that left six gamers in protection. As soon as Maye had adjusted his safety to dam the 5 rushers, he stepped again calmly within the pocket and hit Williams down the sideline to beat single protection. Grant additionally talked about his 55-yard completion to Rhamondre Stevenson at Miami again in Week 2, when Maye slid up into the pocket to keep away from strain, stored his eyes downfield and put excellent contact on one other lengthy ball.
“I believe once I return on the finish of the season and type of grade the whole season as an entire, and begin to make the educate tapes and every little thing for subsequent 12 months, these might be two performs which can be on the forefront,” he stated.
3. Concord
On Sunday, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels will face his youthful brother, Ben, the Texans’ cross recreation coordinator and extensive receivers coach, for what he estimated would be the fourth time of their respective careers.
Patriots extensive receiver Stefon Diggs on Wednesday claimed the 2 have maintained an “older-little brother (rivalry) factor.” Diggs performed for Ben in Houston final 12 months and stated the expertise has been comparable underneath Josh this season.
“They’re rather a lot comparable in regard to how you’re employed, and the time that you simply put in and the way significantly they take it. They love soccer,” Diggs stated. “I can inform it’s a bit of brother rivalry there. We’ll see how Sunday goes, in the event that they throw the gloves off or one thing or discuss to one another.”
Ben is in his fifth season with the Texans. He initially entered the NFL as an assistant on Josh’s first workers as a head coach in Denver in 2009, then later made stops in Tampa Bay and with the Bears.
Even Maye has gotten in on the enjoyable, in accordance with Pats quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant, who says he’s been ribbing Josh in conferences.
“He’s attempting to get Josh riled up a bit of bit,” Grant stated. “Josh is a really aggressive particular person himself, so I believe Drake tries to nudge him a bit of bit, which is enjoyable for the room.”
4. All eyes on Autry
In one other Patriots period, Invoice Belichick would have spent a number of minutes this week waxing poetic about Denico Autry.
Autry, a veteran defensive lineman in his twelfth 12 months, has 14 profession blocked discipline targets, together with the Texans’ lone block this 12 months. Mike Vrabel is aware of Autry, having coached him in Tennessee for 2 seasons. This week, Vrabel described the 6-foot-5, 285-pounder as having an ideal knack for timing his rushes on discipline objective blocks, after which utilizing his size to both get straight up or swim previous a lineman to succeed in the backfield.
“We have now to do every little thing that we will to make it not be 15 (blocks),” Vrabel stated.
Particular groups coordinator Jeremy Springer stated Thursday the Patriots have a “very excessive” consciousness for the place Autry might be and the way he might disrupt Sunday’s recreation. Springer then cited his 14 profession blocked discipline targets.
“That ought to say sufficient proper there about how a lot I’m taking note of that man,” he stated.
5. Vrabel vs. Ryans
Each Vrabel and Texans coach Demeco Ryans performed within the NFL within the early 2000s, a time when analytics had a minor function in soccer decision-making.
Now, it’s revolutionized how coaches function on fourth down, the place Vrabel ranks among the many most aggressive within the league, and that aggression has paid off by extending a number of landing drives this season.
Ryans, however, appears caught in his enjoying days.
The Texans tried the second-fewest fourth downs throughout the common season, and Ryans ranked because the third-most conservative coach within the playoffs, in accordance with an analytical model that accounts for recreation rating and state of affairs when advising whether or not to go for it, kick a discipline objective or punt on fourth down. Final week, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh could have left factors on the sphere by kicking a discipline objective on fourth-and-two on the Patriots’ 3-yard line, the place if Los Angeles had turned the ball over, Maye and Co. would have been backed up.
Vrabel, however, has known as for the Patriots to go for it usually when in enemy territory with fewer than six yards to go. Some fourth-down tries have led on to touchdowns, together with a fourth-and-goal landing cross at Tampa Bay earlier than halftime; aggressive calls that would pay even greater dividends in opposition to Houston this weekend.
