Here's another one, and I'm going to title it "why Deonte Skinner sucks". This was actually the play immediately after the one I previously posted (third play from scrimmage of the game):
3rd and 10, the Vikings have 11 personnel out on the field, trips right with their tight end (Rudolph) lined up left.
Pats are in a nickel formation. Technically 3-3, but much like in the last play, one of the OLBs (Hightower, in this case), is right up on the LOS, while the other OLB is inside the DE, making this for all intents and purposes four down linemen. Ninkovich is the SDE (7 technique), Easley is NT (0 technique), and Jones is the WDE (also 7 technique).
Revis is matched up on Jennings in the inside slot, Kyle Arrington on Jarius Wright, and Logan Ryan on Cordarelle Patterson out wide. The safeties aren't in the frame here, but Harmon is on the strong side and McCourty is on the weak side.
For the LBs, Mayo is lined up on the strong side inside Ninkovich, Skinner is on the weak side, and Hightower is up on the LOS on the weak side. To be totally honest, I think Cassel identified exactly which mismatch he wanted at the LOS, and this is probably what Norv was scheming for in the first place.
Deonte Skinner can't cover Kyle Rudolph. Based on what we saw, in fact, I'd be willing to bet that Deonte Skinner can't cover anybody.
Pats send 4: the three down linemen, plus Mayo. Hightower initially shows blitz, but drops back to cover the RB coming out of the backfield.
Kalil (Vikings LT) seems like he might be lost here. It looks like he was initially going to block Hightower, who was briefly engaged by Rudolph before Rudolph released into a shallow crossing pattern. But with Hightower rolling out to cover the RB, there's nothing for Kalil to do except try belatedly to double Chandler Jones. But he's too late: see how easily and quickly Jones splits that double team here. Against a lesser athlete, Kalil might've been able to recover and afect hte play, but Jones is just too strong and too quick; he's already blown past the LG by the time Kalil commits to helping.
Also note that Easley has steered the center outside to the right, opening up the left side A gap for Mayo. This leaves Mayo unblocked as he rushes the QB up the middle while the Vikings' RG (Brandon Fusco) stands around with nothing to do.
More ominously, note that Rudolph already has a full step on Skinner, even after chipping Hightower, while both inside receivers are crossing to the weak side and Patterson is running what looks like a post route (kinda hard to tell on the TV feed). The effect of all of this is that it clears the secondary out from the strong side and creates room down the right sideline for Rudolph to run.
A few things to notice here. First, as the ball is leaving Cassel's hand, Mayo is already hitting him and Jones is a half-step away. Just a great job by Cassel standing in there and delivering a perfect throw.
Second, notice how wide open Kyle Rudolph already is. Skinner is going over Wright/Arrington, and he's a solid step and a half behind Rudolph. Keep in mind, Rudolph is anything but a speedster. Coming out of college, he was basically billed as a poor man's Gronk: same size, but significantly less explosive and just generally slower. Rudolph is a good player, but it's really inexcusable that a starting LB would be so overmatched in this situation.
Rudolph catches the ball with a vast expanse of open field in front of him. This is what the trips formation was for (pulling the strong side defense upfield), and Rudolph has beaten Skinner so thoroughly that Skinner is effectively a nonentity on this play.
Skinner flails helplessly at Rudolph 2 yards past the first down marker, while Harmon comes up to limit the gain to 15=20 yards or so. Rudolph steps out of bounds moments after this screenshot while absorbing a hit from Harmon.
All in all, I think this play is really illustrative as well, for several reasons: