Patriots Defensive Backs Talking Trash About Stefon Diggs is a Bold Strategy
It's certainly fair to say the Patriots did a good job of containing Stefon Diggs in what could be a season saving win yesterday. He had six receptions on targets. He had 58 receiving yards, his lowest output so far and just the second time all year he's had less than 100 in a game. Despite his touchdown, that represents a big improvement for a Patriots team against whom he's averaged 6.7 receptions and 94.8 yards per game over the previous six regular season meetings.
Diggs didn't appear to take it well. After Josh Allen's early interception, the TV cameras cut to him on the sideline in a spot we've seen him before, standing in front of Allen seated on the bench giving him some combination of mentoring, admonishment and WTFwereyouthinkingishment. Then add to that frustration, the fact Allen missed him when he had three full steps on bracket coverage:
... and his drop at the end:
And you can see where it would be a rough day all around for Diggs. And he would have none of it:
What's a little harder to process is what some of the guys charged with covering Diggs had to say while he was at his locker not talking to anyone:
Not a problem for us. Banging. Gets out of it. Well, OK then.
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It's not the most "Patriots Way" approach we've heard out of Patriots defensive backs. Traditionally around here we've seen the pass coverage built around the Quiet Confidence type. Silent Assassins. JC Jackson, Malcolm Butler, Stephon Gilmore, Darrelle Revis. Even Christian Gonzalez had his critics in the draft who thought he was a little too quiet, suggesting that was a sign of him lacking confidence. But before he got hurt he was proving how perfectly he fits into the tradition in Foxboro. But Jack Jones and Jabrill Peppers are just built different I guess.
According to Pro Football Focus, here's how the coverage responsibility on Diggs was distributed:
Jones: 2 targets, 2 receptions, 22 yards
Peppers: 1 target, 0 receptions
Jackson: 5 targets, 2 receptions, 32 yards, 1 TD
Kyle Dugger: 2 targets, 2 receptions, 4 yards
Adrian Phillips: 1 target, 0 receptions
Jalen Mills: 1 target, 0 receptions
So all in all, just what Jones and Peppers indicated. A good group effort to keep an elite receiver from too much damage in terms of yards. And defying an opponent to beat them when they take away its best weapon.
They showed their secondary with some cover skills, despite dealing with major injury problems. Who went in with a game plan and executed it well, making all the right calls on double teams and being on the same page with pass-off rules to avoid any major breakdowns. Good on them.
But I guess when you're as frustrated as the Pats have been over the last month, you celebrate whenever you get the opportunity. It's understandable.
It's just that, if we've learned anything over 20-plus years of the Patriots listening to other teams talking shit about them, it rarely goes well. This team didn't invent the art of using Bulletin Board fodder to gain a competitive edge, but they did perfect it. The stool samples of their Dynasty are full of chunks of guys on lesser teams who ran their mouths about how they had this Patriots player all figured out or this one on lock down. And the subsequent rematch almost never went well for them.
For Stefon Diggs, who strikes me as one of the league leaders when it comes to listening to the noise, his next shot at all these guys, Jones and Peppers especially, comes in Buffalo on New Year's Eve. If nothing else, it's going to make that game all the more electric. And it'll be worth it to make this rivalry great again.