It’s hard to pick just one negative defensive play that encapsulates why the Patriots failed to win Super Bowl LII, but the Eagles' first drive in the third quarter is a good start.
Eagles quarterback Nick Foles picked on Johnson Bademosi, Jordan Richards and Marquis Flowers on third down. All three players gave up receptions, including the final touchdown. The drive served as a microcosm of New England's problems this season — a makeshift group of defensive players who [...]
It’s hard to pick just one negative defensive play that encapsulates why the Patriots failed to win Super Bowl LII, but the Eagles' first drive in the third quarter is a good start.
Eagles quarterback Nick Foles picked on Johnson Bademosi, Jordan Richards and Marquis Flowers on third down. All three players gave up receptions, including the final touchdown. The drive served as a microcosm of New England's problems this season — a makeshift group of defensive players who probably shouldn't have been on that stage in the first place.
Richards gave up two third-down receptions for 74 yards. He was faked out of his shoes by Zach Ertz, who hauled in a 19-yard gain. He lost position on Corey Clement and missed a tackle en route to a 55-yard pass play.
Bademosi, a special-teams player who was in the game instead of Malcolm Butler, gave up a third-down reception and missed a tackle that resulted in a 17-yard gain by Nelson Agholor.
Flowers, another special-teams player who rarely played defense since coming over from Cincinnati, got beat by Clement for a 22-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
It didn’t start or end there.
Eric Lee, a player who was on the Buffalo Bills practice squad earlier this season, was out of position and allowed a touchdown reception by Foles on a trick play in the second quarter. Elandon Roberts, an undersized sixth-round pick, was pushed out of the way on LeGarrette Blount's 21-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
The defense squandered Tom Brady's Super Bowl-record 505 passing yards. In the end, these moments, where Foles took advantage of the Patriots defense, were a stark reminder of the harsh realities of the regular season.
The defense wasn't Super Bowl-caliber because it didn't have the quality of players of the last two championship teams.
Last year’s front seven had Chris Long, Rob Ninkovich, Trey Flowers, Jabaal Sheard and Dont’a Hightower terrorizing quarterbacks. This year’s group was made up of Flowers, Kyle Van Noy, James Harrison, Lee and Deatrich Wise. It was also a far cry from the 2014 season when Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins, Hightower, Ninkovich and Vince Wilfork helped to win a championship.
There are reasons for the lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball.
When it came to replacing Long and Sheard, who were lost in free agency, the Pats traded for Kony Ealy and drafted Wise and Derek Rivers. When Ealy didn’t work out, the team traded a fifth- and seventh-round pick for Cassius Marsh. Both the Ealy and Marsh trades failed to help. The fact the team never truly replaced three veteran defensive ends hurt the Patriots when it mattered most.
The Patriots never sacked Foles on Sunday. Trey Flowers and Harrison were the Patriots' two best pass-rushers, finishing with four of the team’s five quarterback hits. Of course, when a 39-year-old who joined the team in Week 17 is one of your best pass-rushers, it only illustrates the problem.
The defense was also hurt by a lack of depth at linebacker.
Not long ago, the Patriots linebackers were Jerod Mayo (first-round pick), Brandon Spikes (second round), Hightower (first round) and Collins (second round). In a position that the Patriots once used to stock, they suddenly left the cupboard dry.
The injuries to Shea McClellin and Hightower hurt, but in the past three drafts, they’ve selected three linebackers - all after the fifth round. Roberts is the only one left on the team. Last offseason, the lone free-agent signing was 33-year-old David Harris, who was inactive for the playoffs.
The problems were obvious on Sunday. Not playing Butler was a big one, but Bill Belchick did himself no favors with the group of players his staff assembled. As the saying goes, defense wins championships and this group didn’t look championship-caliber.