Patriots ran into an old problem when Lamar Jackson and Ravens tweaked numbers in their favor

The Patriots have one of the best defenses in the NFL, and there has been a lot of talk that it’s one of the best of all time.

Jamie Collins is playing fantastic football. They have Devin McCourty. They have Dont’a Hightower. They have players all over the place, all three levels. They have Bill Belichick designing the defense.

So what happened last week in that 37-20 loss at Baltimore?

It’s a numbers game.

It’s also something the Patriots have struggled with, all the way back to when the Miami Dolphins first dropped the Wildcat formation on them. That was 2008. The Dolphins came out and ran the ball with Ronnie Brown, a running back, from the quarterback position. They had Brown and Ricky Williams in the backfield and rolled up more than 450 yards, beat New England 38-13, and the Dolphins were 0-2 at the time and coming off a season they were just 1-15.

The Wildcat (and running quarterbacks in general) is successful because it makes the run game 11 on 11.

In a traditional offense, the quarterback is a spectator as soon as he hands the ball off, making it 11 on 10. And when playing a team like the Patriots, who have talent, who have a great coach, they find ways to get that extra run-support player down in the box and make him unaccounted for.

But when the offense has a player like the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, the quarterback is now part of the run game and defenses have to account for him.

The Patriots have consistently had issues with quarterbacks who can break down the pocket – Colin Kaepernick, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson to name three. They’ve all played well against Belichick in the past and it’s because they’re quarterbacks who can run.

Those QBs nullify that extra body at the line of scrimmage.

That really messes with a defense’s rules and run fits, where to show up in the defensive scheme. Sunday night in Baltimore, there was one play where the Patriots had three linebackers in the “A” gap. We broke it down on the postgame show. They were all in one gap and Jackson kept the ball and went a different way for about 8 yards. Belichick was scribbling notes like crazy. You could almost hear him say, “OK, if we play these guys again in the playoffs, we better have an answer for this.”

There’s a good chance they will see the Ravens again.

Year of the backup QB

Brandon Allen and the Broncos beat Cleveland, Matt Moore and the Chiefs beat Minnesota, Kyle Allen and the Panthers beat Tennessee, Mason Rudolph and the Steelers beat Indianapolis. These backup quarterbacks keep on winning.

I’ve come off the bench before and I can say it’s not easy ... but these guys are making it look easy. Former NFL QB Brady Quinn was doing a radio show and he was tripping out on the same thing, saying, “I remember this being difficult.”

A couple of backups have done well, but the one that I’m most impressed with is Allen. We’ve talked about how well he fits in Norv Turner’s offense, but it’s more than that. A lot of times you don’t know about a guy until he gets in and you see him play, you see him make the reads and the throws. The thing that stands out really early with guys who “get it” is the anticipation that they throw with, and Allen has shown great anticipation and understanding of the offense.

For a young guy to go in there and have command of Turner’s’ offense and connect with Curtis Samuel and the other receivers who were kind of just floating out there is impressive.

Those receivers started playing with a lot of confidence and Allen is making throws. That gets guys fired up to go out there and win on their routes. Couple that with Christian McCaffrey and they’ve done a good job in Carolina just letting that offense shine.

Defense wins championships, and fantasy leagues

Carr was talked into joining a fantasy football league a few years ago by his brother, Darren. He won it. His strategy – picking a defense off the waiver wire each week that had a chance to score points based on its matchup.

Kansas City is probably not a defense a lot of people have picked up, but the Chiefs are playing the Titans this week and the Titans like to run the ball.

The Chiefs defense is interesting there because Chris Jones is back at the 3-technique and last week these guys really stifled the Vikings’ running game. Minnesota had won four in a row rushing for 165.0 yards a game, but couldn’t get anything going against KC.

The run game, that’s really all Tennessee has going for it. If Tennessee is not able to run the football it’s going to struggle in the passing game. I don’t know that the Titans have enough to keep up with the Chiefs, and I don’t know that they’re going to be able to run the ball as effectively as they think they are.