The New England Patriots (6-6) face an Arizona Cardinals (4-8) team that has struggled mightily this season in a Monday Night matchup at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
If the Patriots wish to make any noise this season, or to even make the playoffs, they’ll need to win the majority of the games remaining. However, they face a gauntlet of QBs and a few mobile QBs who could give them issues.
Matchups against Kyler Murray, Tua Tagovailoa, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and Derek Carr offer issues for the Patriots due to their current offensive woes.
This week, the Patriots will need to contain Murray and capitalize on one of the league’s worst red zone defenses. Let’s take a look at some key positional matchups the Patriots need to win if they wish to control this game.
Kyler Murray vs Jabrill Peppers
Murray is an elite athlete, and the Patriots have always had issues with mobile QBs. This past offseason, the Patriots revamped their defense by adding closing speed across the board. Outside of Kyle Dugger, there weren’t many high-end athletes until the offseason.
Mack Wilson, Raekwon McMillan, and Jabrill Peppers were added specifically with the intention of stopping running QBs. They needed speed.
Peppers will likely be playing the majority of the game in the box, similar to Dugger, but this game will see more of him attempting to contain Kyler Murray.
This week should see more nickel defenses due to the weapons Arizona currently possesses, and Peppers has an opportunity to have his best game as a Patriot.
Cardinals receiving core vs Patriots DBs
Speaking of offensive weapons, the Cardinals, on paper, have multiple game-breakers.
DeAndre Hopkins, Marquise Brown, and Rondale Moore all possess skills that will give the Patriots’ secondary some trouble. They’ll be facing a New England secondary without starting corner Jalen Mills.
So this week, Jonathan Jones and Jack Jones will have their hands full trying to hold off those receivers. As the Patriots likely play more nickel in this game, the corners will need to play a lot better in coverage against another elite wideout group.
The Cardinals haven’t been anywhere near as explosive as their talent suggests, but the Patriots will need to play great in coverage if they hope to contain Kyler Murray and the Cardinals in primetime.
Mac Jones vs Budda Baker
Mac Jones has been just fine. We have talked about blocking and scheme leading to team struggles, and this week should serve as a good test for the second-year signal caller as he looks to lead the Patriots back over .500 win percentage.
Budda Baker is one of the best safeties in the league and often makes QBs regret targeting him. He is great at capitalizing on QB mental lapses and possesses great athleticism to close on some of the shorter concepts the Patriots have been running.
Jones will need to be on top of his game this week, and he’ll have a good chance of doing so against one of the league’s worst defenses, particularly in the red zone.
The Patriots will likely need Jones to put the offense on his back, as the current scheme and blocking has led to issues all year. Winning this game will come from Jones and not the Patriots’ scheme—something that was atypical over the last 15 years where Bill Belichick-coached teams were competitive regardless of talent.
