FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — It is always challenging for the first opponent to face a team coming off a coaching change.
The Patriots are in that situation Monday night, as the Giants arrive at Gillette Stadium with a new defensive coordinator.
There is no track record for the Patriots to study to anticipate how Charlie Bullen will approach his sudden promotion.
Bullen, in his second year as the outside linebacker coach, was elevated to defensive coordinator last week when Shane Bowen was fired by interim head coach Mike Kafka, who is in his role because Brian Daboll was fired 10 games into the season.
Bullen has extensive experience working under Vance Joseph, currently running the Broncos’ defense.
Maybe there are some hints there as to how Bullen will tweak the Giants’ defense.
It is unlikely he can make significant alterations this late in the season.
“I mean, if they can change the defense in a week — I don’t know — they’re better than we are,” Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said. “Maybe he pressures more, maybe he plays more Cover 2. Maybe they — I would have no idea. But I think the structure has got to be somewhat the same. I mean, he may want to pressure more. I think that the calls that they have, those can always change. … It would be really hard to completely change from an under front to an over in base. But then, they were pretty multiple before. I think we’ll just always have to be prepared for things that they could do, and maybe that there’s more pressure on early downs, less pressure on third down or whatever those things have been. But I wouldn’t have any idea how he would plan on calling it…. We’ll have to just see and make sure that we’re prepared for anything that could come up throughout the game.”
While insisting — repeatedly — that “I don’t want to put him in a box,” Kafka said Jaxson Dart has to be more aware of protecting himself as he returns after missing two games with a concussion.
“I think there’s just a balance,” Kafka said. “There’s a balance when you put together the game plan you have a balance and a thought process for all the players, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are and where we can put those guys and Jaxson is definitely a huge part of that conversation as well. I think he knows it, I think he understands it, he’s learned it, he’s seen it, he’s heard it from everybody and I think he’s a smart player who would do that.”
“You saw the signs, which I thought was really cool, in Chicago when he scrambled out and he got dinged on one one of ’em but you saw the scramble when he slid a couple of times and made those right decisions.”
Dart has a rushing touchdown in five consecutive games.
That is the longest streak ever for an NFL rookie.
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