Matt Chatham: Patriots Didn’t Invent Anything New With Trick Plays

The New England Patriots are riding their offensive creativity all the way to the Super Bowl.

The Patriots have reached deep into their bag of tricks this postseason, aggravating and mystifying their opponents along the way. From the Julian Edelman-to-Danny Amendola touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens and the four-offensive lineman formations that infuriated John Harbaugh to Nate Solder’s first career touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts, New England has busted out all sorts of skulduggery in the past couple of weeks.

But they didn’t invent deception in football.

In Matt Chatham’s latest post for Football By Football, the former linebacker explains that while the Patriots have no doubt been creative in the playoffs, they haven’t concocted a groundbreaking new strategy — they’re just doing it better than most.

“Deception is the core DNA of nearly everything in football,” Chatham writes. “Offenses shift and motion around like crazy trying to confuse the defense or snap the ball before they can adjust. Good defenses disguise their every snap, whether it will be man or zone coverage, who is or isn’t going to pass rush, and on and on. For goodness sake, both sides huddle to purposely hide the upcoming play from the other team’s ears. Everybody is trying to trick everybody.”