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I went back to the video of the game, and looked a little more closely at the defense.
What surprised me was just how often the Patriots brought Ebner onto the field specifically for third downs. I don't know if he was there for every third down, but he certainly was there on at least a majority of them.
Obviously, he had the two third-down stops that we saw (one a beautiful solo open-field tackle). But he also had pretty good coverage on a number of other third downs, taking away checkdown options short of the third down line. The Pats even let him blitz Carr on the Ryan "PI" play in the fourth quarter.
Not bad for a rugby player.
What surprised me was just how often the Patriots brought Ebner onto the field specifically for third downs. I don't know if he was there for every third down, but he certainly was there on at least a majority of them.
Obviously, he had the two third-down stops that we saw (one a beautiful solo open-field tackle). But he also had pretty good coverage on a number of other third downs, taking away checkdown options short of the third down line. The Pats even let him blitz Carr on the Ryan "PI" play in the fourth quarter.
Not bad for a rugby player.