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By Ted Nguyen 2h ago
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick knew the Cowboys’ offense would present his defense with challenges last week. After the 35-29 overtime loss to Dallas, he said this:
“We mixed those calls in all day. Again, I don’t think you just want to sit in one thing against the Cowboys all day. I don’t think that’s really a good idea.”
Going against a Dallas offense that leads the league in explosive plays, the Patriots tried to keep quarterback Dak Prescott — he’s playing the position as well as anyone in the NFL — off-kilter with exotic disguises. Although the Patriots were only 2-3 going into the matchup, their defensive expected points added (EPA) against the pass ranked seventh in the league (3.25). The Patriots play sticky man coverage and their pressure schemes are difficult for offenses to deal with. This was a tough test for Prescott on the road and he aced it with flying colors, passing for 445 yards and three touchdowns, while completing 70.6 percent of his passes.
When you watch a Belichick defense, you know it is going to play fundamentally sound, its defenders are going to play tight on routes with man or man-match coverages, it isn’t going to give you anything easy, and it’s going to disguise. Against the Cowboys, the Patriots constantly switched up their coverages and took their disguising to the extreme, often changing to completely different looks after the snap. Prescott was poised, saw through their disguises and made sure the offense was in the right protection and play for most of the day. When the defense looked like it fooled him, he made plays with his legs.
9:18 remaining in the third quarter, first-and-10
This play is an example of one of the Patriots’ more exotic disguises. Before the snap, they showed a one-high look with safety Adrian Phillips lined up as an overhang to the open side of the formation.
After the snap, the defense rotated into a Cover 2 zone but with an inverted Cover 2 look to Phillips’ side, meaning the corner played the deep half, while Phillips played underneath the receiver.
The defense held its disguise until after the snap and Prescott had his head turned to execute the play fake, so he didn’t see the defense shift into Cover 2. He looked a little surprised but scrambled and hit Ezekiel Elliott for a first down. However, the play was called back because of an ineligible man downfield.
On the next play, the Patriots gave Prescott a simpler look but it ended with the same result.
9:09 remaining in the third quarter, first-and-14
The Patriots called Cover 1 (man-to-man with one deep safety and a robber), but they had linebacker Jamie Collins (the robber), mug the center to get the offense to get into man protection, which would leave Dallas susceptible to stunts.
The offense lined up Elliott outside to help Prescott unravel the defense. Linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley left the box to line up over Elliott and that clued in Prescott that the defense was in man coverage.
The offense was in empty but when Prescott saw Bentley drop, he knew he had time. He calmly dropped to the proper depth, making life a little easier for his tackles. He knew he wanted to go to Elliott because he had a mismatch on Bentley, who weighs 255 pounds, but Prescott kept his shoulders vertical and stayed patient. Elliott needed time to run past the robber into open space.
Prescott stepped up into the pocket like he was going to take off on a scramble. This movement baited Collins into stepping up and left Elliott open.
Prescott had to throw from an awkward position but he was still able to hit his running back in stride and Elliott had room to run after the catch and gained 18 yards.
Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore trusted Prescott to operate out of empty close to their own goal line and although the play looked like a simple short pass to Elliott, Prescott’s poise, footwork, eyes and deceptive body language made it work. The play was a key drive starter that got the Cowboys out of danger. Later in the drive, Prescott threw a touchdown pass to receiver CeeDee Lamb to give the Cowboys a 17-14 lead.
After trading touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys were down 29-26. They got the ball back with 2:05 remaining and had to convert a fourth-and-4.
1:40 remaining in the fourth quarter, fourth-and-4
The Patriots showed a possible Cover 1 look with one safety lined up close to the line of scrimmage and the corners playing head up. In Cover 1, depending on where the slot is running his route, the nickel corners could play with outside leverage to funnel the receiver toward their inside help.
Initially, cornerback Jonathan Jones lined head up on receiver Cedrick Wilson in the slot.
Right before the snap, Jones stepped inside to play Wilson with inside leverage and the safety behind him backed up to play a deep half. This was significant because Wilson had an out route. With the coverage shift, he would have a leverage advantage on Jones.
With a safety over the top of him, Jones played with inside leverage and trailed Wilson. Prescott seemed to have read the coverage and knew its weakness because he looked to Wilson right after the ball was snapped.
He put the ball in the perfect location to beat the coverage. Because Jones was trailing he had to throw the ball high. Wilson jumped up and made a spectacular catch for the first down.
Later in the drive, the Cowboys had to convert a third-and-25 situation. This time, Moore dialed up Lamb’s number on a play that was perfectly designed to get Lamb open.
0:31 remaining in the fourth quarters, third-and-25
The Cowboys lined up in an empty 4 x 1 formation with Amari Cooper singled up to the left and Lamb outside to the right.
The defense had a “cut” bracket on Cooper, meaning if Cooper went inside the safety would take him and the corner would fall off and play zone. If he went outside, the corner would take him and the safety would zone off.
They played off-man on everyone else with a deep safety over the top.
Cooper ran a shallow inside so the safety came off the roof to cover him, while the cornerback zoned off. This was significant because the corner was farther away from Lamb, giving him more space to work the middle of the field.
Also, the crosser by the tight end held the corner outside of the numbers while the seam route by Wilson kept the safety deep. This left a huge void for Lamb in the middle of the field.
Lamb was supposed to run a dig but he drifted upfield to open space. Prescott hit Lamb but threw the ball a little behind him. Because he had to pirouette to catch the pass, the corner was able to recover and tackle him a yard short of the first-down marker.
Though they didn’t convert, the pass got them into field-goal range. Mike McCarthy made the conservative choice and elected to kick a 49-yard field and take the game into overtime.
The Cowboys lost the coin toss but the defense got the ball back for the offense. Prescott drove the Cowboys right down to the Patriots’ 35-yard line. Because the Cowboys were already in range and only needed a field goal to win the game, the Patriots got aggressive to try to create a negative play. Instead of playing scared and just running the ball, Moore called play-action to put the game on Prescott’s arm rather than the kicker’s leg.
4:21 remaining in overtime, first-and-10
The call was a boot to the right. Both Cooper and Lamb were lined up to the left. Cooper was used as a decoy on the play in case the Patriots wanted to bracket him again. Lamb had a deep crosser but he would usually be an alert, meaning Prescott wouldn’t look to him if he liked the pre-snap look. Usually, the first read on this type of play is to the flat.
Initially, the Patriots showed one-deep safety with safety Devin McCourty in the middle of the field.
Right before the snap, McCourty moved over to the offensive right to cover the tight end. The Patriots had a corner blitz called.
Prescott might have seen McCourty move right before the snap because he knew exactly where to go with the ball.
Running a boot into a corner blitz is risky business. When Prescott got his head around, he saw the corner coming. Instead of panicking and quickly throwing the ball to the flats, he knew Lamb would be wide open with no deep help in the middle of the field.
The corner wasn’t aggressive enough coming off the edge, which allowed Prescott to take his time and launch a perfect pass to Lamb, who strolled into the end zone for the walk-off touchdown.
Beating the Patriots at home is no easy task — ask Tom Brady and the high-powered Buccaneers’ offense, who only scored 19 points in New England a couple of weeks ago. Belichick and his staff gave Prescott their best shot from a schematic perspective but Prescott either stayed a step ahead with his brain or gained an advantage with his legs. Moore and Prescott have this offense playing like a juggernaut. They have the tools to beat teams with different styles and can morph from week to week.
