FOXBORO -- It's not a coincidence that the Patriots came into Thursday night having won 18 consecutive games against first or second-year quarterbacks. They take advantage of inexperience. Bill Belichick and his defense seem to salivate at the opportunity to confound younger opponents.
They did it again at Gillette Stadium against the Giants and their rookie passer Daniel Jones on Thursday night. The quarterback Belichick called a "very impressive young man" recently went 15-for-31 for 161 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions as his team fell, 35-14.
What did Belichick's defense do to encourage that kind of implosion on national television? They changed things up on him. And never was the variable nature of their defense more apparent than on Jones' third pick of the night.
For the vast majority of the game to that point, the Patriots played their favorite coverage of the last few years: Cover 1. That meant they went man-to-man across the board, with one safety in the deep middle portion of the field.
The Patriots appeared ready to play that coverage on a first-and-10 play with less than three minutes off the clock in the second half. Duron Harmon played the deep middle, and the rest of the defense appeared to be in man coverage. Cover 1. Or so it seemed.
At the snap, slot corner Jonathan Jones bailed to the deep portion of the field and Harmon shaded over. They turned their single-high safety coverage into a two-high safety coverage. What looked like man-to-man pre-snap was actually zone. What looked like Cover 1 was actually Cover 2.
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Jones was in trouble. Maybe he didn't see Jonathan Jones slowly start to back away from the formation and into the deep part of the field. That might've indicated zone.
He certainly didn't see what Gilmore was up to.
Gilmore bumped Cody Latimer about two yards off the line, and then instead of running with Latimer's crossing route -- which Gilmore would've done had the Patriots been playing their usual Cover 1 -- the veteran corner sagged into his Cover 2 zone.
Jones was locked onto his tight end Rhett Ellison, who he thought had a step on Dont'a Hightower, and floated a pass to the sideline thinking Ellison would run under it easily. Instead, Gilmore was waiting, and he picked the pass as if it was intended for him.
"Just a bad read," Jones said later.
Another young quarterback befuddled by Belichick.
"I think he thought we were in man," Gilmore said. "We just disguised it. We were playing zone and I was able to make a play on the ball."
That disguise resulted in a turnover, but the Patriots didn't only keep Jones guessing by occasionally altering their coverage.
They also "mugged" the A-gaps with linebackers -- meaning they walked their linebackers up to the line of scrimmage on either side of the center -- to try to confuse Giants protection schemes.
Were the Patriots sending extra rushers? Were they bluffing? Those pre-snap looks seemed to have the dual effect of messing with offensive line assignments as well as playing with the clock in Jones' head.
On New York's first third-down attempt of the game, Jones saw five potential rushers at the line. Only three came, and he threw incomplete.
On a second-and-seven play on the following drive, the Patriots mugged the A-gaps, and it looked like they'd be sending six rushers. Only four rushed, but Jones hurried as if there were more coming. He held the football for less than two seconds and tried to squeeze a throw into a tight window to Golden Tate that was deflected (by Gilmore) and intercepted by John Simon.
One drive later, the Patriots rushed five on third down and forced Jones into a hurried throw that was (once again) deflected by Gilmore.
Here are the number of rushers the Patriots deployed on third-down passes Thursday night: three, four, five, four, five, three, five, five, three, four. (On the last snap, the Patriots sent a whopping eight rushers initially, but four quickly backed out to take the shallow part of the field away from Jones.)
All night the Patriots moved around their linebackers, walking them up to the line, feigning rushes and then dropping into coverage. They also rushed at times when they showed rush, then allowing an outside linebacker to drop into coverage. They also moved their safeties around occasionally to play with Jones' eyes pre-snap.
The result was a 20 percent conversion rate on third down, just 5.0 yards per pass attempt for Jones overall, and three picks.
The Patriots -- the oldest team in the NFL when training camps broke -- have now won 19 straight against first and second-year signal-callers. After seeing the likes of Jones, second-year Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Jets rookie Luke Falk, they're allowing a league-worst opponent quarterback rating of 42.6 through six weeks.
"Our safeties do a good job, our linebackers do a good job of disguising," Gilmore said. "That's what you have to do against those guys. They haven't seen a lot.
"Daniel Jones, he's a good quarterback. He's gonna be good. But that's one thing you have to do against those guys is disguise. Anybody, really. That makes it hard on them."
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