In recent weeks, the New England Patriots have become more of a zone coverage team. For example, against Sam Darnold and the Carolina Panthers, the Patriots ran Cover 3 on 32 plays, and Cover 2 on 10 plays. On just eight passing plays were the Patriots in Cover 1, which is where Bill Belichick has traditionally constructed his defenses.
In the early going against Baker Mayfield, that trend is continuing, and it led to a big interception from second-year safety Kyle Dugger.
After the teams traded touchdowns to open the game, the Cleveland Browns faced a 3rd-and-7 on their opening possession. With Mayfield in the shotgun, the Patriots showed a pressure look up front, before dropping off into zone coverage. Mayfield tried to target tight end David Njoku on an out route, but Dugger read the play perfectly, undercutting the route for a big interception:
Patriots INT on Baker throwing into traffic. Looks like late roll to cover 2 pic.twitter.com/Fohn3SxASJ
— SyedSchemes (@syedschemes) November 14, 2021
From the end zone angle you can see Dugger read the play to perfection.
Patriots beat reporter Evan Lazar, who covers the team for CLNS Media, outlined how the zone coverage trend is continuing this week against the Browns:
The #Patriots defense is using a similar formula as recent weeks. Early down mix of cover-three and cover-two zone. Then man coverage on third down.
— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) November 14, 2021
The Patriots would capitalize on the interception and good field position, with a touchdown run from Rhamondre Stevenson to take a 14-7 lead.
With results like this, you might see even more zone coverages schemes from the Patriots as the season rolls on.
