The Patriots have a bye in Week 10 and it sounds like it’s the perfect time for the team to take some time and self-scout.
Mark Daniels of MassLive.com reported Colts linebacker Shaquille Leonard was calling out New England’s offensive plays during the Patriots’ 26-3 victory, which head coach Bill Belichick was asked about during his Tuesday press conference.
Belichick said there were “for sure” instances where Leonard was able to correctly predict what New England was going to run. The same thing happened with Jets linebacker CJ Mosely in Week Eight.
“We definitely want to prevent that,” Belichick said, via Zack Cox of NESN.com. “Yeah, I thought that there were two or three plays for sure that Leonard really got a big jump on and stopped us, basically, on those plays. Mosely got a couple of those a couple weeks ago in the Jets game. Mosely almost looked like he heard the play in the huddle he was on it so fast, and Leonard had a couple like that, too. So whether that’s something we were giving away or just something that he anticipated based on whatever the keys were that he might have picked up, we certainly want to try to prevent that. But I thought definitely Leonard for sure did it, and I thought Mosely had a couple plays like that, as well.
“But that’s what good defensive players do. They anticipate things, and they are able to sometimes get a read on what they think that’s going to happen. They’re not always right, but sometimes they are, and they can certainly make you look bad offensively.”
Belichick noted that the offense strives for balance and tries not to give things away. But the scheme is also, in theory, designed to have complementary plays.
“That’s kind of the game within the game there,” Belichick said. “Obviously, if a player or a team is stopping one thing, and you have something complementary to go to, then you can offset that.
“We certainly had that situation come up as well, too, where we were able to take advantage of whether it was a player thinking he knew what the play was or the defense trying to play a certain play but not defend another play. You have to kind of strike that balance. That’s what it looked like to me, too.”
After Week Nine, the Patriots rank 16th in points scored but just 26th in yards this season — their first with Matt Patricia as the offensive play-caller. The club will have to make some adjustments before facing the Jets for the second time in three games in Week 11.
