Jeff Howe On Toucher & Rich: How Can Patriots Fix The Secondary?
BOSTON (CBS) -- There are a lot of questions surrounding the Patriots defense following a poor performance against the Seahawks on Sunday, but the primary concern centers around their secondary.
Russel Wilson and company had a field day against the Pats' secondary in their 31-24 win in Foxboro, with the Seattle QB throwing for 348 yards and three touchdowns, all to top receiver Doug Baldwin. It seemed as though any time the Patriots needed a stop, their defensive backs were getting beat on big plays.
The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Tuesday to discuss these defensive woes, and wonders if the Patriots would be better off going back to man coverage in the secondary after the Seahawks ripped apart their zone defense on Sunday.
Howe highlighted the struggles of Logan Ryan, who he had giving up four completions on nine targets against the Seahawks, including Baldwin's third score of the game to put Seattle up 31-24.
"He gave up four completions, and they were to four different players," Howe said of Ryan. "I've spoken to him in the past, and he's said that he seems to play his best when they show up on Wednesday and the coaches say 'You're in charge or DeAndre Hopkins' or 'You're in charge of Demaryius Thomas.' You have this one guy, and Logan Ryan can devote his entire week toward learning everything about that wide receiver.
"I wonder if it's a matter of going back to that formula, to say, 'Logan, you have this player.' It doesn't have to be that No. 1 guy, but if the matchup is right give him one player, give Malcolm Butler one player and let those guys do what they're best at, and that's playing man coverage," said Howe. "A lot of the mistakes [Sunday], in the secondary in particular, were because there were holes in their zone coverages. When you have Butler, Ryan and [Patrick] Chung, players who are better at man coverage than zone coverage, I wonder if it's as simple as going back to that type of fix."
Listen to the full interview, including Howe's thoughts on the absence of the New England pass rush:
