MINNEAPOLIS — There’s no longer any doubt. The New England Patriots have the deepest secondary in the NFL.
The Patriots were missing two key cornerbacks on Sunday, and they still held Minnesota Vikings quarterback Matt Cassel to 202 yards with just one touchdown and four interceptions. Brandon Browner is serving a four-game suspension? Alfonzo Dennard has a last minute shoulder injury? No problem.
The Patriots’ secondary will carry the defense this season, but the pass rush was equally impressive in New England’s 30-7 victory over the Vikings in Week 2. The Patriots sacked Cassel six times on Sunday, and hit him eight more times. The Patriots made the Vikings’ offensive line look like — well, New England’s offensive line.
The defense was where the were stars on Sunday, but the Patriots’ offense didn’t look half bad either. Check out my five takeaways from the Patriots’ first win of the season.
DARRELLE REVIS SHUTS DOWN GREG JENNINGS
Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis held Vikings wideout Greg Jennings to just one catch for four yards. Revis wasn’t the only impressive cornerback on the field for the Patriots, however. Second-year pro Logan Ryan matched up on explosive wideout Cordarrelle Patterson and slot corner Kyle Arrington followed around Jarius Wright.
Check out the Patriots’ coverage charting stats.
LB Deontae Skinner — three catches on three targets for 50 yards
CB Logan Ryan — 3-6, 37 yards, interception, pass breakup
LB Dont’a Hightower — 5-7, 35 yards, pass breakup
LB Jerod Mayo — 3-3, 22 yards
CB Kyle Arrington — 2-5, 21 yards
CB Darrelle Revis — 1-5, 4 yards, interception
S Devin McCourty — 0-1, interception
S Duron Harmon — 0-1
S Patrick Chung — 0-1
CB Malcolm Butler — 0-1, pass breakup
DT Dominique Easley — interception
DONT’A HIGHTOWER IMPROVES IN PASS RUSH
Chandler Jones won the volume game on Sunday, but Hightower wasn’t rushing the QB on every play and still racked up four pressures. The Patriots mixed up their defensive alignment, allowing Jones to play a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker role. Hightower played inside and outside linebacker and put his hand in the dirt at times. Edge defender Rob Ninkovich played outside linebacker and defensive end.
Check out the Patriots’ pass-rush charting stats:
Chandler Jones — 2 sacks, 3 QB hits, 4 hurries (9 pressures)
Dont’a Hightower — 2 sacks, 2 hurries (4 pressures)
Rob Ninkovich — sack, 2 QB hits, 1 hurry (4 pressures)
Vince Wilfork — QB hit, hurry
Kyle Arrington — sack
Sealver Siliga — QB hit
Jerod Mayo — QB hit (1 pressure)
TOM BRADY MISSES ON DEEP BALLS
The Patriots’ QB threw just two passes over 15 yards on Sunday and missed on both of them. He over-threw Julian Edelman in the start of the third quarter and undershot Shane Vereen at the beginning of the fourth quarter while getting hit by Vikings defensive end Brian Robison.
Brady had five other incompletions on the night. He missed Rob Gronkowski as the tight end got caught up in traffic, wide receiver Aaron Dobson dropped a pass, one attempt was batted at the line, he over-threw Danny Amendola and fired it to Tim Wright while the Rutgers product wasn’t looking.
Overall, it was a solid day for Brady, though he did almost all of his work in the second quarter.
OFFENSIVE LINE KEEPS BRADY UPRIGHT
The Patriots allowed just one sack and two QB hits on Sunday. That’s a drastic improvement over last week, when they allowed four sacks.
It wasn’t a perfect performance by Nate Solder, Marcus Cannon, Dan Connolly, Jordan Devey and Sebastian Vollmer, but it was good enough. The Vikings sacked the St. Louis Rams quarterbacks five times last week.
ROB GRONKOWSKI NOT 100 PERCENT YET
Gronk still lacks mobility in his 6-foot-6, 265-pound frame, though he’s still tough to bring down by defenders.
Brady targeted Gronk just six times on Sunday — down from 11 last week — and completed four passes.
When Gronk is fully back, it will be easy to tell, but the tight end isn’t 100 percent yet.
