Callahan: The Patriots’ 4th-down dominance, play-calling wisdom and more Week 12 thoughts

Welcome to the Friday Five Each week during the NFL regular season I ll drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff Ready set football th-down dominance As a band with middling to above-average talent sustaining a season like the Patriots have requires the proverbial little things Winning the field position battle Limiting pre-snap penalties Mastering clock management Going for it on fourth down at the exact right places and times Since Mike Vrabel s hiring the Patriots have evolved from one of the NFL s the majority conservative teams on fourth down to one of its the greater part aggressive That aggression informed by Vrabel s feel for the meeting and his staff s use of analytical models on tournament day has paid off in spades No unit is better on fourth down than the Patriots who have converted a league-leading of the time including a defensive pass interference penalty Mack Hollins drew in Week Of their conversions nine have either sustained a scoring drive or scored a touchdown One such conversion powered one of their biggest wins of the year a - escape at Tampa Bay Trailing with two seconds left before halftime Drake Maye lobbed a pass for Stefon Diggs on fourth-and-goal snap at the Buccaneers -yard line that resulted in a go-ahead touchdown and a major lift heading into the locker room Without that figure the Pats likely lose in Tampa Bay where Maye endured one of his toughest games of the season On fourth down though Maye s been money He s -of- for yards and two touchdowns plus two scrambles this season Behind Maye s success which includes targeting Diggs half the time is sound play-calling from offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels On Thursday McDaniels explained there s a balance between holding on to his best plays for fourth down and calling them when the time is needed which can sometimes mean critical third downs in the first half It s a tough thing McDaniels stated It s tricky if you have something you love not to use it early in the challenge But hopefully what we re trying to do at the end of the week is have enough things we like in that situation that if we end up with two or three third downs or what have you and then a fourth down comes up in the second or third quarter we have enough there where you say You know what I like five calls in this situation and I m going to use the next one that comes up Thus far there s been a clear method to Vrabel s madness Of the Patriots fourth-down attempts have come in opponents territory and none have attempted to cover more than seven yards In fact just two fourth-down plays have attempted to pick up more than four yards Basically if it s a manageable distance and the Patriots find themselves on the other side of the -yard line it s go time Counters to the counters With Bengals star receiver Ja Marr Chase sidelined for Sunday s challenge it s reasonable to expect the Patriots will shadow Bengals No wideout Tee Higgins with shutdown corner Christian Gonzalez Higgins is a towering receiver with two -yard seasons to his resume and seven touchdowns this year He s averaging yards per catch thriving as both a deep threat and intermediate target Lately the Pats have used Gonzalez to neutralize top-flight receivers more often than they did earlier in the season This of lesson the Bengals know So understanding Cincinnati will try to free Higgins from Gonzalez s sticky coverage with different schemes the Patriots defensive staff must come prepared with counters to the motions formations and course concepts Bengals head coach Zac Taylor likes to use Defensive play-caller Zak Kuhr hit on a scant of those concepts Thursday They do a good job of building bunches and stack formations certain rub routes getting to audibles when they feel that whether it be selected mesh concepts criss-crossing routes or it may be Taylor s a creative dude He s got various great answers in the pass encounter chosen new stuff you might not see week to week Kuhr revealed What might the Patriots counters to those counters be Kuhr could opt for double-teams zone match coverage or switching man-to-man schemes that might take Gonzalez off Higgins but keep a defender tight to Cincinnati s best receiver whenever he s in motion The meeting within the encounter Play-calling wisdom Legendary Celtics coach and GM Red Auerbach used to say sometimes the best trades are the ones you don t make New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels addresses the media during a press conference at Gillette Stadium Mark Stockwell Boston Herald On Thursday Josh McDaniels took that idea and applied it to play-calling while explaining that in-game flexibility is one of the more critical lessons he s learned late in his coaching career Sometimes it s what you don t call that s as vital as what you do call and having enough confidence in yourself and your staff and your group in the middle of the first or second quarter to cross off seven plays because of what s happening in the contest or how it s going McDaniels reported And not be so bullheaded about Well I liked this on Tuesday or Wednesday and by gosh I m going to call it no matter what ' Patriots quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant went into further detail on McDaniels play-calling later on Thursday He has answers to the tests before they come up Grant declared He s been in his system for a super long time and he has experiences and he knows where every skeleton is laid and what can hurt every single play in his system And he knows what the complement or the answer to that is which is impressive As soon as a defense shows something he knows exactly what to do next to combat that Awards season During his weekly press conference Patriots special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer revealed his midweek meetings after wins involve more than film research and tournament plans How about awards We do different things Springer noted Not to elaborate too much on it but guys that are reaching the highest speed or make the greater part majority tackles or MVP of the week the soldier of the week things like that Springer shared he hands out awards in an answer about special teams captain Brenden Schooler latest a double-team during last week s win over the Jets Schooler has also been recognized after wins for his sprint speed having been clocked at faster than MPH this season according to Springer Related Articles How Patriots assistant coach reacts to being listed as head coach candidate Josh McDaniels gushes about Stefon Diggs influence on Patriots Will Joe Burrow play Sunday Patriots unsure as they prepare for Bengals Patriots get more good news at Thursday practice before Bengals championship Callahan The boring secret behind the Patriots - start Vrabel-Flacco history It s been almost years so you re forgiven if you forgot Joe Flacco ended Mike Vrabel s playing career In January the Ravens rolled into Kansas City for a Wild Card playoff tournament and never stopped rolling en road to a - win Flacco sizzled amid freezing conditions going -of- for yards two touchdowns and zero interceptions That loss capped Vrabel s second and final season in Kansas City Six months later he entered the coaching ranks as an assistant at Ohio State Flacco continued playing through the start of Vrabel s head-coaching career in the NFL and went - against the Titans during Vrabel s time there In fact Vrabel is - all-time versus Flacco with his only win coming as the Texans linebackers coach in This week Vrabel remembered a young Flacco being similar to the quarterback he s studying on tape this week ahead of Sunday s challenge in Cincinnati About the same Vrabel announced I mean big talented strong likely ran a little bit more So just the longevity I ve got a lot of respect for him as a person and as a athlete