Some final thoughts on New England’s 45-0 win over the Los Angeles Chargers as the Patriots turn their focus to Thursday night’s matchup against the Los Angeles Rams:
— Chase Winovich showed good instincts on his third-quarter interception, reading quarterback Justin Herbert’s eyes and undercutting a cross-body pass to receiver Jalen Guyton.
It was a poor decision by Herbert, sure, but also an excellent play by Winovich, who’s still a relative neophyte when it comes to pass coverage.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick broke the play down during his Monday afternoon video conference.
“On that particular play, they were trying to throw the ball out in the flat to our left,” Belichick explained. “They had a pick route called, and we covered that, so Herbert stopped and Chase had a good break on the ball. He saw the throw, made a good break on the ball and made a good interception in traffic. I think he got hit and had some contact as he was picking off the ball.
“It looked like Herbert was trying to come back to come off the initial read, and Chase read it well and made a good catch, which for a defensive lineman, that’s not something they do a lot of. But that was a good catch in traffic and a big play for us.”
The interception, which led to a N’Keal Harry touchdown that put the Patriots ahead 35-0, was the first of Winovich’s NFL career. In fact, it was his first since his senior year at Thomas Jefferson High School (Jefferson Hills, Pa.) in 2013.
That’s not particularly surprising, as Winovich is known more for pass-rushing than pass defending. He rarely dropped into coverage during his college career at Michigan and did so just six times as a Patriots rookie last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
He’s expanded his defensive skill set in Year 2, however. In addition to being New England’s top pass rusher, Winovich has logged 31 coverage snaps this season, per PFF, with 24 of them coming in the last five games.
During that span, he’s also begun seeing some opportunities as an off-the-ball linebacker, a position he hadn’t played since high school.
“(Playing in coverage has) been a big adjustment for Chase since he got here,” Belichick said. “He didn’t have much coverage at Michigan, and learning coverage responsibilities here — primarily on the line of scrimmage, but he’s been off the line of scrimmage, as well — that’s been something that he’s had to learn. But he’s worked on it. Chase is a pretty instinctive player. He has a pretty good sense of where to go and what to do. …
“But yeah, Chase has improved his coverage, and he works hard on that. He really does. (Outside linebacker) John Simon and those guys have helped him a lot, but he’s embraced it. He’s willing to do whatever he can to help the team, and sometimes that’s covering a man or filling up a zone.”
Winovich also landed two QB hits on Herbert, was in on two special teams tackles and played 52 defensive snaps, the most of any front-seven defender.
— We won’t pretend to be experts on every NFL special teams unit, but the Patriots have to have one of the league’s best trios of kick/punt coverage players in Matthew Slater, Justin Bethel and Cody Davis.
Slater and Bethel are elite gunners with seven All-Pro nods between them, and Davis has been quietly effective this season as the new Nate Ebner.
Davis’s six special teams tackles rank second on the team behind Bethel’s nine, and he delivered his first signature play as a Patriot on Sunday, blocking the 58-yard Michael Badgley field goal that teammate Devin McCourty returned for a touchdown.
“We’ve talked about it really all season,” McCourty said after the game. “Our coverage groups have played really well. We have three of the best cover guys you can find in the NFL with Slate, Cody and Just. They’re tough to block, whether it’s punt team, kickoff.”
Patriots safety Adrian Phillips laughed as he recalled attempting to block Slater, Bethel and Davis at different points in his career — and often failing.
“They’re all terrible matchups,” said Phillips, himself a former All-Pro special teamer. “You don’t want to block any of them. I went against Slate when I was with the Chargers in ’17, went against Cody last year, played against Bethel I can’t remember when, but it was all awful. So just having all three of them on the field at the same time, I feel sorry for the other side.”
Bethel, whom the Patriots scooped up from the Baltimore Ravens midway through last season, was in on three tackles Sunday, narrowly missed blocking the same field goal Davis swatted and helped down a Jake Bailey punt inside the 5 with what Slater called “one of the hardest plays in football.” His eight solo stops in the kicking game are tied for fourth-most in the NFL.
Slater, the emotional heartbeat of New England’s locker room, laid two of the several blocks that helped spring Gunner Olszewski on his 70-yard punt return touchdown.
Despite not meeting their own standards in the return game until recently, the Patriots rank fourth in the NFL in special teams DVOA, a Football Outsiders stat that measures overall efficiency. They’re fifth in yards allowed per punt return and eighth in opponents’ average starting field position.
— Olszewski had a punt-return touchdown called back last week for an illegal blindside block penalty. Sony Michel made sure that didn’t happen again.
Rather than throw an against-the-flow block that might have drawn a flag, Michel made the smart decision to set a pick as Olszewski galloped past him. The move had its desired effect, taking defensive end Isaac Rochell out of the play without risking a penalty.
That Michel was on the field at all in that situation also was notable. Before Sunday, the running back had played a grand total of two snaps on the punt return team in his Patriots career, one of which came last week.
Michel rarely played on special teams while he was New England’s top ball-carrier, but with Damien Harris now holding down that role and Rex Burkhead, a core special teamer, on injured reserve, getting Michel involved in other ways makes sense.
The 2018 first-round draft pick also played 22 offensive snaps against the Chargers, rushing 10 times for 35 yards and catching one pass for 23 yards. Harris didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter as the Patriots rested many of their starters.
— In 2019, the Patriots ranked second in the NFL with 89 passes defended (interceptions plus pass breakups). New England’s current defense, which returned much of last year’s secondary, has continued to produce interceptions at an elite rate but hasn’t registered nearly as many breakups.
The Patriots entered Sunday ranked in the bottom 10 in the league with just 36 passes defended through 11 games, well off their 2019 pace. But they were at their ball-hawking best against the Chargers.
New England defenders got their hands on a season-high nine passes in the win (two interceptions, seven pass breakups), surpassing their team total from the previous three games combined (eight).
Winovich and cornerback J.C. Jackson provided the picks. Linebacker Terez Hall broke up two passes. Adrian Phillips, Adam Butler, Jason McCourty, Stephon Gilmore and Byron Cowart finished with one PBU apiece.
“I just think we got up on them and we made it a one-dimensional game,” Gilmore said. “We made them start passing the ball and they gave us more opportunities to make plays on the ball, and I think if we do that, we stop the run, we play complimentary football, we get up on them, I think it plays into our hands and that allows us to make plays.”
The Patriots currently rank 20th in passes defended but second in interception rate and tied for second in total interceptions (14) behind the Pittsburgh Steelers.
— The lopsided nature of Sunday’s victory allowed the Patriots to empty their bench in the second half and give many of their younger players extended playing time.
Of the 21 players who appeared on defense for New England, 20 played at least 30 percent of defensive snaps. Defensive back Jonathan Jones, who suffered a neck injury in the win, just missed that threshold, playing 26 percent.
Rookies Josh Uche (36 snaps), Myles Bryant (33) and Rashod Berry (22) set career highs in snaps played. Anfernee Jennings (44) saw his largest workload since Week 7, and Kyle Dugger (56) remained firmly entrenched as a defensive starter. The versatile safety has played 70-plus percent of snaps in each of the last four games.
Backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham also got two series (plus a few kneeldowns) in the fourth quarter. He completed 2 of 3 passes for 61 yards with a 38-yard touchdown to Olszewski.
