THREAD: #Patriots Defense had lowest 3rd down conversion rate of all time

1/ In my latest video breakdown, I looked at how the Patriots accomplished this feat:
- Cover 1 Robber
- Stephon Gilmore
- Execution + Simplicity

2/ Cover 1 Robber was the #Patriots most used coverage on 3rd downs in 2019. They allowed a 21% conversion rate, 3.6 yards/attempt, and -0.6 ANY/A. Simply incredible execution.

Stephon Gilmore was a HUGE part of that.

3/ Seriously, Stephon Gilmore is insane. #Patriots

- Off-man coverage
- Reads the slant route by Latimer
- Already at his hip by the time the ball even left Daniel Jones' fingertips
- This should have been an interception.

4/ Here's Stephon Gilmore breaking up a fade route thrown to Sammy Watkins by Patrick Mahomes. #Patriots

Great hand timing to strike the ball away.

5/ The #Patriots were excellent in man coverage all season. Their zone coverage on these downs was also excellent as well.

6/ Here is my hand tracking of their use of Cover 1, Cover 2, and Cover 0. Extremely effective at Cover 1 (mainly Robber). #Patriots

7/ Here's how each quarterback fared against the #Patriots defense. Only three did actually well - Watson, Roethlisberger, Jackson. Rest were below average or just plain awful.

8/ Deshaun Watson was the only one that REALLY did some serious damage on the #Patriots defense. He kept plays alive with his feet and the team as a whole was less aggressive at attacking him in the pocket.

9/ Stephon Gilmore vs DeAndre Hopkins - Press Coverage vs a Box Slant

Watch Hopkins ran this route attacking Gilmore's outside shoulder before rolling his hips back inside. Perfect route running. #Patriots

10/ Outside of these QBs tho, the #Patriots defense shut down pretty much everybody else. It was amazing to see.

They did such a good job of pairing their pass rush to the secondary playing man coverage that it allowed them to do this.

11/ To end this thread - #Patriots defense was excellent against vast majority of teams allowing lowest conversion rate on 3rd down of ALL TIME.

It was damn impressive. Came down to execution and simplicity. Fundamentals were a lot of fun to watch!