Hey everybody. Since I’m more well-acquainted with football than baseball anyway, I decided to throw together some stuff to look out for in today’s game. It’s going to be mostly scheme-related stuff from last week. Will New England continue to do the same things they did last week against the Steelers?

The Patriots used what looked like a nickel base against Pittsburgh. That means that they exchanged a member of the front seven (linemen and linebackers) for an extra defensive back. Usually, this means taking away a linebacker and replacing him with a cornerback to cover an extra wide receiver. The Patriots did this, but they also stood their defensive ends (usually Rob Ninkovich and Chandler Jones) up in a two-point stance, like this:

Depending on how you use it, this gives you the power of a typical four-man defensive line or the versatility of a 3-4 look.

The other thing that New England did with this alignment was bring in an extra safety instead of a cornerback. They did rotate corners in, of course, when the Steelers brought an extra receiver onto the field. But New England stayed in its “nickel” look for virtually the entire game, even when Pittsburgh went with a heavier look. Against these heavier personnel groups, Patrick Chung came into the game and played near the line of scrimmage, looking for all the world like an outside linebacker.

Despite the Patriots’ lack of typical defensive linemen in the game, they were still able to cram the box with bodies when they brought Chung into the game, as seen here:

Despite the Patriots use of only two linemen with their hands in the dirt, they showed a look that discouraged the run and encouraged a pass. And with so many bodies to keep track of, Donta Hightower was able to sprint past the center to sack Roethlisberger and put Pittsburgh in a third-and-long from deep in its own territory.

I would’ve liked to do a better job with this, but I’m kind of in a rush. Next week this’ll be top notch I’m sure.