New England Patriots fans likely aren’t clamoring to relive Saturday night’s messy loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
But the latest episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” — the long-running docuseries that, in a new twist, is chronicling the Colts’ 2021 season — provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at both the leadup to that primetime matchup and the game itself.
Here are six Patriots-related takeaways from the episode, which premiered Wednesday night:
1. The Colts clearly weren’t afraid of Mac Jones
Indy’s game plan on defense, as linebacker Bobby Okereke shared with reporters early in the week, was to stifle New England’s productive rushing attack and make Jones beat them with his arm. A key aspect of this plan, “Hard Knocks” revealed, was to generate a pass rush that could consistently make the rookie quarterback uncomfortable.
Head coach Frank Reich: “I’m just telling you, I know this is true: For us to go where we want to go, let’s make this rookie QB feel something that he hasn’t felt from a defense before. Let’s get after this rookie quarterback. I’m telling you, get after this guy. Compete against this guy. Figure out how to beat this guy. Figure out how to beat this guy together. It’s 11-on-1 every play. Let’s figure that out. This means a lot. Let’s get after him.”
…
Linebackers coach David Borgonzi: “I’m telling you guys, this quarterback … he’s a good player. Like, he’s accurate and everything, but he’ll make some — he’s a rookie, so he’ll do some things like this.”
Borgonzi played a clip of Jones nearly throwing an interception against the Tennessee Titans while under pressure from a safety blitz.
Borgonzi: “Just like that. That’s what I mean, guys. Like, man, this guy. You stop the run, make this guy play quarterback.”
…
Defensive line coach Brian Baker: “The quarterback gets rid of the ball once pressured. I mean, it’s, like, ridiculous. He’s No. 1 in the league under pressure getting rid of the ball.”
Assistant D-line coach Matt Raich: “He’s same as Tom Brady. Same coach. Stay healthy, get rid of it. Next play.”
Baker: “Exactly right, Raich. We really want this guy to be anxious about people in his face. It’s to pressure him. It’s to make him hurry up everything. He’s got to feel this anxiety the entire game, guys. This is the key to eliminating their passing game, OK?”
The plan worked. The Colts’ defense held the Patriots to 81 rushing yards — just 39 of which came from running backs — and pressured Jones on 31.9% of his dropbacks, his highest rate since Week 6, per Pro Football Focus.
Jones threw interceptions on back-to-back possessions, including one in the red zone just before halftime, before composing himself to lead a late comeback bid.
2. The Colts were expecting a more disciplined Patriots team
“If you notice New England, they are so friggin’ disciplined,” running backs coach Scottie Montgomery told his position group. “That’s going to be the matchup this week: their discipline against our discipline.”
The Colts won that one in decisive fashion. They committed just two penalties for 13 yards New England’s eight for 50, and many of the Patriots’ were highly detrimental. Four of them came in the red zone, one wiped out a missed Colts field goal, and they were flagged on back-to-back plays twice.
The Patriots also committed the two aforementioned turnovers — they’re 2-5 this season when they turn the ball over more than once — and had a punt blocked and returned a touchdown. Which brings us to …
3. Bubba Ventrone predicted that blocked punt
Ventrone, the Colts’ special teams coordinator, is a former Patriots player and assistant. During a mid-week team meeting, he told linebacker Matthew Adams that Adams would be able to exploit a weakness in New England’s punt coverage team.
“We’re going to have a shot on ‘Money,’ ” Ventrone said. “Matt Adams, you may end up leaking through that B-gap on the ‘Money,’ too. This is going to be extremely good for us. That’s going to be great.”
He was right. Adams shot between Jakob Johnson and Jamie Collins — the exact gap Ventrone pointed to — and swatted down Jake Bailey’s punt. E.J. Speed fell on the ball in the end zone to put Indy ahead 14-0.
It was the third blocked punt the Patriots have allowed this season, and it set off a wild celebration by Ventrone. The ex-Pats special teamer’s reaction was so exuberant that it became a topic of conversation between running backs Jonathan Taylor and Nyheim Hines on the sideline.
4. Ventrone knows Bill Belichick to a T
Having played for Belichick off and on from 2005 through 2008 and then coaching under him from 2015 to 2017, Ventrone is well-versed in the Patriots coach’s game-week playbook. He explained what Belichick likely was telling his players last week, beginning with overwhelming praise for the Colts.
“Well, first off, he’s telling them to give us as many compliments in the media as possible,” Ventrone told the HBO cameras. “He’ll be like, ‘Tell them how good they are. Just give them compliment after compliment after compliment.’ And then by the end of the week, he’s going to show them our deficiencies and where they feel like they can attack us and things that they can capitalize on to give them the edge in the game. … He’s talking about not making penalties, playing with good decision-making and playing with discipline. And those are the things that we need to be able to do to win the football game, as well.”
Ventrone was the star of the episode, with him and his family receiving more screen time than anyone else in the Colts organization. The folks at NFL Films dug up archival practice footage from the 39-year-old’s Patriots tenure, plus clips of him making a special teams tackle against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI.
“Ultimately, (Belichick) prepared me for the job that I’m doing right now,” he said.
5. The Colts disagreed with Michael Pittman Jr.’s ejection
Pittman and Patriots safety Kyle Dugger both were ejected from the game after a third-quarter scuffle. The Indianapolis sideline wasn’t happy about that.
“11 (Pittman) didn’t do anything,” a mic’d up Reich told the side judge. “… 23 (Dugger) threw a punch.”
Linebacker Darius Leonard also was shown pleading to an official during a timeout, to no avail.
Belichick had a different issue with the discipline handed out for that scrap: He later said Colts wideout T.Y. Hilton should have been tossed, too, for pushing an official away from the pile.
The post-whistle encounter did produce a funny line from Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, who yelled to New England’s defense: “Bill about to make y’all run after the game, I swear!”
6. Despite the comeback, Reich viewed this as a dominant win for his team
Trailing 20-0, the Patriots rattled off 17 fourth-quarter points before Taylor ended things with a 67-yard touchdown run. Though the Patriots prevented a blowout — final score: 27-17 Colts — Reich believed his squad was clearly superior in every phase.
“Tonight, we went up against the No. 1 seed in the AFC,” the coach said in his postgame locker room address. “We know where we want to go, and we’ve got to beat teams like that. We’ve got a lot of respect for that team. That’s a good football team. But I’ve got to say, we dominated in all three phases. We dominated. We simply dominated in all three phases. You’ve just got to call it like it is sometimes.”
