Typically we'll use the Big-Play Breakdown to take a closer look at one of the plays that helped decide the previous weekend's Patriots game. But because Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and their teammates played on Thursday, we've already moved on to looking ahead to the Week 2 matchup between the Bills and Patriots.
If you're interested in reading more about the X's and O's that went into Thursday's 28-21 win by the Patriots, head here to see just how effective Gronkowski was when lined up as a wide receiver, or head here to check out why the Patriots defensive line shifted just before a Steelers goal-line snap in the fourth quarter.
Now let's take a look ahead at something the Patriots may see when they take on the Bills in Western New York on Sunday . . .
During a conference call on Tuesday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked about Bills defensive lineman Marcell Dareus given that Dareus -- perhaps the most talented member of Buffalo's dangerous front-four -- will return from a one-week suspension against the Patriots.
"Marcell is a really good football player," Belichick started. "I think he does everything well. He’s stout in the running game, he’s instinctive, he can rush the passer, he runs well, he makes plays in pursuit and screen passes and things like that. For a guy his size, he’s a very active player."
Belichick noted that Dareus and fellow defensive tackle Kyle Williams usually stick to their usual spots on either side of the center -- Dareus on the right and Williams on the left -- but that under Rex Ryan, they may move around.
As part of the discussion on Buffalo's defensive line, Belichick got into an interesting wrinkle that the Bills threw at the Colts to help frustrate quarterback Andrew Luck.
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Against Indianapolis in Week 1, Belichick explained, Ryan used a variety of different fronts. And in certain variations, Williams -- who at 6-foot-1, 303 pounds is built like a boulder -- actually lined up well off the line of scrimmage.
"Particularly in the Indianapolis game [Ryan had] defensive linemen kind of, on a chalkboard, lined up at weak safety if you will," Belichick said. "There are some unusual looks there. He moves everybody around, so I think you’ve got to put Dareus in that group. He moved Kyle Williams around a lot last week, but we’ve seen Mario [Williams] and [Jerry] Hughes and all those guys in different spots, so we’ve got to be ready for that."
A defensive lineman at safety? Belichick was asked to explain what he meant by his "weak safety" assessment.
"Sometimes they line their linebackers up in the line of scrimmage and back defensive linemen off the ball, so they’re kind of at a linebacker depth -- four to five yards off the ball," Belichick said. "Then they move from there. Sometimes they move back up. Sometimes they wait until the ball is snapped and run whatever stunt they have called.
"Normally if you’re an offensive lineman, you’re blocking a defensive lineman, but when the defensive lineman is standing behind a linebacker or behind another defensive lineman your role now changes a little bit. You can’t let the linebacker go and go block the defensive lineman so you’ve got to take the guy in front of you and now the defensive lineman ends up again really as a linebacker or depending on the look, he could technically be a weak safety or a strong safety based on how you ID the defense."
A closer look at the Bills performance from a few days ago showed just what Belichick was talking about. In certain passing situations, the Bills used an amorphous alignment of their defensive front in order to confuse their opponents.
It popped up for the first time with 7:27 left in the first quarter and the Colts facing a third-and-10 situation.
Both Kyle Williams and Hughes were lined up off of the line while Mario Williams and linebackers Nigel Bradham and Preston Brown hovered near the line of scrimmage in two-point stances. After Luck signaled to his teammates, and as the play clock wound down, both Hughes and Kyle Williams shifted closer to the line of scrimmage on the defensive right side.
When the ball was snapped, Kyle Williams got through almost untouched, forced Luck to his right, and helped contribute to an inaccurate throw.
The result: An incompletion and an Indianapolis punt.
With the noise inside Ralph Wilson Stadium, and with the Bills defense requiring some level of communication between players, it was clear that defenders occasionally had a difficult time figuring out what the calls were. But it was tougher for Luck, who tried to process the unusual sight of linemen dropped into the second level of the defense before the snap.
The Bills broke out that look again with 13:05 left in the first half. This time defensive linemen Corbin Bryant and Stefan Charles essentially swapped spots with Brown and Bradham pre-snap. Bryant is 6-4, 300 pounds, but it appeared as though he actually tried to hinder Luck's view by crouching low.
Luck assessed the front, signaled with his hands to his teammates, and with the play clock ticking down, Bryant took his place between Mario Williams and Bradham.
Luck pointed out Bryant's new starting spot so that the offensive line could account for him, but at the snap, the Bills sent safety Aaron Williams into the fray. Using just three blockers to take on four Bills on the defensive left side of the line, the Colts protection broke down, and Bryant and Bradham met at Luck for a sack.
As Belichick discussed in the call, Bills defensive linemen who were lined up as linebackers -- or in-the-box safeties -- sometimes returned to spots on the line of scrimmage just before the snap. But sometimes they ran stunts, rushing in behind the linebackers they had aligned behind.
It doesn't always work, though. Here, they rush seven, with Kyle Williams trailing Brown into the 'A' gap, Luck gets rid of the ball quickly, and the Colts pick up 15 yards.
More often than not, though, these amorphous defensive formations that identified their intentions late in the play clock benefited the Bills.
With 2:50 left in the second quarter, they ran another on a third-and-10 play for Indianapolis. Luck attempted to identify to his line what the defense was doing to ensure that he would be protected. He had time to get a quick throw off, but the slant was overthrown, which forced the Colts to try a 52-yard field goal that missed.
In all, Ryan appeared to deploy these kinds of hard-to-decipher formations eight times. They resulted in three completions, three incompletions and two sacks.
The Patriots could see variations of the same thing on Sunday, when those Bills formations will likely be bolstered by the presence of Dareus, a First-Team All-Pro last season.
"It’s just ways that Coach Ryan uses to try to confuse the offense and try to change the protection or the identification of the defensive personnel," Belichick explained. "Is a tackle a tackle or is he an X and an O? And then you get mismatches."