Patriots Make Key Adjustments In Win Over Colts
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Posted Under: 1999 Patriots Season
HOME > Patriots Blog > 1999 Patriots Season
FOXBOROUGH — If you think about it, the Patriots could very well have won today’s game 52-0. Or worse.
Instead of a huge homecoming feast, Patriot Nation was treated to a classic, broken-finger-special today at Foxborough Stadium. The Patriots, now wearing a shield of armour made of cool, poise and composure, overcame first half deficits of 21-0 and 28-7 to catch the vastly-improved Indianapolis Colts at the wire, 31-28. Another neat new item on the apparel of the Sons of Pete is a 2-0 record and a share of the lead in the AFC East.
The comeback was scintillating. It was awesome. It was total. The game became way too big for the young and shellshocked Colts in the second half. In the big picture of today’s game, the Colts took the game from the Patriots, but then gave it all right back.
And the Patriots go home tonight knowing once again that they are in every game they play as long as Drew Bledsoe stays healthy. Bledsoe was able to overcome a sloppy, out-of-sync first half to pick the Colts’ secondary clean in the second half. With John Elway now hawking beer instead of Bronco wins, and with Dan Marino reportedly applying for AARP, sooner or later NFL sages have to start looking closer at the great comeback talents of our own number 11.
But if you break down the game into its component parts, the key to the Patriot win today clearly came at halftime.
The adjustments that were made were simple, effective beyond a shadow of a doubt, and perhaps could have been made much earlier. Like maybe in the first quarter instead of the third. But they were made, and the coaching staff paved the way towards this comeback win.
Four key areas were killing the Patriots in the first half.
When the Jets incurred more penalties last week than the Patriots, many thought that Pete Carroll had finally instilled the necessary discipline this team badly needed over the years. That thinking took a major hit in the first half.
On the Patriots’ first offensive drive, Tony Carter committed the dumbest penalty of the game, and of this new year. Carter was flagged for a late hit just after Bledsoe hit Terry Glenn with a first down pass at the Colts’ 40.
This killed the drive, and Indianapolis responded with a 42-yard touchdown strike from Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison to make it 7-0 Colts. The touchdown was preceded by an illegal contact call on Lawyer Milloy on a 3rd and 5 play near midfield.
The Pats got the ball back, but went three and out. Lee Johnson booms a 63-yard punt, downed at the Colt 3. But Larry Whigham was flagged for an illegal touch, and Johnson had to re-kick. To his credit, Johnson kicked another great one which Terrence Wilkins had to faircatch at his own 12.
Undaunted, the Colts drove 88 yards for a touchdown. The key play on this drive was a pass interference call on Ty Law, which covered 24 yards. Harrison, who was receiving soft coverage from Law all during the first half, then promptly caught two passes for 23 and 10 yards, the latter making it 14-0 Colts.
The second quarter featured a sequence that seemed to indicate that the Pats were coming completely apart at the seams. Manning scrambled for nine yards, but Law was flagged for illegal contact on the play. Pete Carroll went ballistic and stormed out on the field, incurring an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Colts went from their 21 to the Patriot 35 on one run and two penalties. Manning cashed that in with an 8-yard TD pass to Harrison, again barely touched by Law.
All told, the Patriots incurred eight penalties for 105 yards in the first half. They looked like a bunch of Ulf Samuelssons out there.
Law was burned for three touchdown passes by Harrison in the first half. Law was playing Harrison very softly, sometimes five to ten yards off of him. Steve Israel was doing much the same thing to E.G. Green on the other side. Harrison had six catches for 100 yards in the first half. It was perhaps the worst half of football in the great career of Law.
Bledsoe was out of sync the entire first half. The Colt zone blitz was killing the Patriot offense. Four Bledsoe passes were batted at the line of scrimmage. Bledsoe was hurried practically every play, such that twice he underthrew wide open wide receivers which in both cases would have been good for ten or more yards and first downs.
And Kevin Faulk still hasn’t come close to his preseason promise. He left the game early in the third quarter with a sprained ankle. Terry Allen now had to play, perhaps more often than he cared.
Penalties. Soft secondary coverage. A deadly zone blitz. Still no running game. Down 28-7 in the locker room. Four key areas of problems. Time for Pete, Ernie and Steve to do their thing.
And do it they did. While the penalties never quite went away, the Patriots incurred no further crippling penalties the rest of the way. Ernie Zampese figured out how to solve the zone blitz, and Steve Sidwell told Law and Israel to find out what flavor of bubble gum Harrison and Green were chewing.
Result: A 24-0 shutout for the Pats in the second half. A complete Colt breakdown. Most important, a victory.
Law began to pummel Harrison mercilessly, allowing only a three-yard completion the rest of the way. In the fourth quarter, Law exploded on backup tight end Marcus Pollard, and the resulting blast jarred the ball loose. Tedi Bruschi recovered and the Pats were off on a touchdown drive. Law made two more key breakups of pass attempts in the fourth quarter, one on a key 3rd and 3 play, the other late in the game during the Colts’ final, futile drive.
Zampese set to work on conquering the zone blitz by directing Bledsoe to run more quick slants. This helped get the ball off before the pass rushers hit, and it got the passes out of the lanes where the front four were knocking passes down. Suddenly, Glenn, Shawn Jefferson, Ben Coates and Troy Brown were getting open, and Bledsoe was able to find them in the zone seams with regularity.
Glenn had the most spectacular catch of the day, a 24-yard gem early in the fourth quarter which featured a huge shake-and-bake deke on Jason Belser. That put the ball at the Colt 3, and Bledsoe hit Coates on the next play in the end zone.
Coates was once again proven to be Bledsoe’s “Mr. Reliable”. Coates later caught a ten-yard touchdown pass that knotted the score at 28. Coates caught that ball in double coverage at the goal line, and muscled his way into the end zone.
Allen was another key to the second half offense. He was able to find the holes up the middle that Faulk could not find. He carried 15 times for 74 yards, and caught a 7-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter. His 12-yard run up the middle for a first down during the winning rally in the fourth quarter forced the Colts to burn timeouts early, and it gave the Patriots a key power run that isn’t seen around these parts very often.
With Law and Israel shutting down Manning’s passing game completely, the Colts went to rookie Edgerrin James. Despite gaining 118 yards on 32 carries, he was at the center of the most devastating play of the day for the Colts.
With the score tied 28-28 late in the fourth quarter, the Colts had the ball at their own 31. On second and 10, James ran off left tackle, and had the ball stripped from him by Tebucky Jones. Brandon Mitchell, who one play earlier looked like a Colt lineman and knocked down a Manning pass, fell on the loose football, and the Pats set off on their game winning drive.
As much as the Patriots lost their cool in the first half, the Colts were worse in the second half. They committed three turnovers on the afternoon, and the Patriots cashed each one for a total of 17 points.
The Colts also stuck themselves with two key penalties in the fourth quarter. Right after the Patriots tied it at 28-28, a 45-yard kickoff return by Wilkins was called back thanks to a holding penalty on Ratcliff Thomas. And during the final drive towards the winning field goal, Jeff Burris was caught holding Jefferson over the middle on third and 3, keeping the important drive alive.
All this adds up to another wild win by the Patriots. Again, like last week, they’ll take the win. They can perhaps do without the “wild” part, but they’ll take it.
One has to wonder what the Colts must be thinking. After totally dominating the Patriots in the first half, the Patriots inflicted far worse on them in the second half. The youth of the Colts shone through today, as did the coaching savvy of New England.
And the Foxborough boo-birds now know that they had better never leave a blowout game early. The parking lot party will be loud, long, and awfully joyous tonight. Folks may not get home until 11:00 tonight, and I doubt that they’ll care.
And across tonight’s dinner tables in Patriot Nation, we’ll hear this toast: Here’s hoping that Ty Law never plays a receiver soft ever again. Raise your glasses, people of New England.
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