It’s clear the Patriots lack Belichick’s defensive genius

“I thought Matthew (Stafford) was in charge all day,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “Incredible work. I thought he saw the field very well.

The game was the most glaring example of a trend that has been building all season: The Patriots, 3-8 heading into Sunday’s game at Miami, really seem to be missing Bill Belichick on defense.

The defense was supposed to be the backbone that would keep the Patriots in games while quarterback Drake Maye developed. It was supposed to be the stable side of the ball.

While the offense has new coaches, systems and quarterbacks, the defense has many of the same players and coaches as last year. The only major change was Mayo replacing Belichick and DeMarcus Covington being promoted from defensive line coach to defensive coordinator.

But the defense was one of the biggest disappointments. The Patriots rank 18th in points allowed (22.5 per game), which would be their lowest ranking since 1995. They rank 20th in yards (345.2 per game), down from seventh the last year. They also rank in the bottom half of the league in most rushing and passing stats.

Significant problems arose throughout the season. From Weeks 4 through 9, the Patriots allowed a record 163.8 rushing yards per game, at 4.75 yards per carry, prompting Mayo to call his team “soft.”

Now the pass rush is almost non-existent; the sack totals over the last five games are 0, 1, 1, 9 and 0. And the Patriots can’t create any turnovers, with just one takeaway in those five games.

Their performance against the Bears two weeks ago, in which the Patriots allowed 3 points and compiled nine sacks, feels like an outlier against a dysfunctional opponent, and not the start of something great.

“We have enough talent in our locker room to be a really good football team,” Mayo said. “We just have to be able to put it all together.”

Would the Patriots have the same woes with Belichick running the defense? Maybe.

But his loss was no small matter. The Patriots finished among the top 10 defenses in 18 of Belichick’s 24 seasons. Few coaches in NFL history were better at finding the right personnel for his schemes or coming up with the right game plans to slow down his opponents. And no one was better at adjusting tactics and fixing problems mid-game when something wasn’t working.

Belichick’s absence was especially noticeable in the loss to the Rams. The game plan was questionable and the adjustments were either worse or non-existent.

The Patriots went blitz crazy, sending at least one extra rusher to Stafford on 63 percent of throws (17 of his 27 dropbacks). This was the highest blitz rate of any team in Week 11 and the third highest blitz rate of any NFL game this season.

All this blitz earned the Patriots… bupkis. They pressured Stafford on only 7 of those 17 blitzes. They didn’t record a sack or force a takeaway and only hit him four times. Stafford was pretty much perfect against the blitz, completing 12 of 17 passes for 217 yards, with three touchdowns and a passer rating of 152.6.

The Patriots blitzed all-out seven on the second play after halftime, and Stafford delivered a 69-yard touchdown to Cooper Kupp. Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones fell and had no one to help him.

“That play against Kupp definitely hurt us as far as momentum and things like that in the game,” Mayo said.

It’s curious that Mayo and Covington felt the best way to attack the Rams was to launch a barrage of blitzes. Only one of Stafford’s seven interceptions this year has been thrown against the blitz. The week before, the Dolphins beat Stafford on just 18 percent of throws and kept the Rams out of the end zone in a 23-15 victory. The Rams are now 4-1 in the five games where Stafford has been blitzed the most, and 1-4 in the games where he has been blitzed the least.

It’s even worse that Mayo and Covington failed to adjust during the game. The Patriots continued to blitz and continued to get shredded by Stafford.

Mayo and Covington may have been trying to take advantage of a makeshift Rams offensive line that was missing both tackles. Instead, they were taken to school by Rams offensive line coach Ryan Wendell, the Patriots’ starting right guard in Super Bowl XLIX.

And to top it all off, Mayo blamed the players for not executing the blitzes, not the coaches for calling them.

“We thought it was a good time to start that blitz,” Mayo said of Kupp’s touchdown. “It’s just that we didn’t get there in time and the outside coverage was bad.”

It’s no surprise that the Patriots are 3-8 or that their offense is ranked 30th in points scored. It was widely expected in the preseason as they entered the year with a rookie quarterback, new coaches and a roster lacking top-tier talent.

But the defense was supposed to be better than that. With so much continuity on that side of the ball, it’s hard not to conclude that they really miss Belichick.

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Ben Volin can be contacted at [email protected].