COMMENTARY
Cam Newton’s career as a New England Patriot got off to a fast start in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins, as Newton and the new-look Patriots offense led the team to a 21-11 victory against the visitors. Newton was 15-of-19 with no passing touchdowns or interceptions, but had a great deal of success on the ground, rushing 15 times for 75 yards and two touchdowns.
Newton’s debut as a Patriot couldn’t have gone much better, all things considered. While he struggled a couple of times with failing to change the play call at the line of scrimmage, resulting in negative plays, the former NFL MVP showed a solid overall grasp of the New England offense, and was a major reason why the Patriots’ running game executed at such a high level on Sunday.
While it’s clear that Newton is still working on nailing down the finer intricacies and play calls of the Patriots offense, the biggest takeaway from Newton’s Week 1 performance is the evolution of the New England offense, and how Newton’s presence on the field unlocks a completely different playbook for Josh McDaniels to call plays from.
As has been forecast throughout the preseason, New England relied on a smash-mouth, bully-ball run game to emerge with the win on Sunday. But how they went about using Newton in the run game was the interesting part, with McDaniels dialing up an assortment of plays like zone read, speed option, power read, QB sweep, and more. To explain how Newton’s athleticism and mobility are so crucial in unlocking this new iteration of New England’s breakdown, let’s take a look at some key plays from Sunday.
Newton’s first touchdown as a Patriot came on a QB sweep play that Newton executes with ease. But to execute a play like this, you need a quarterback who can turn the corner on a defense and outrace defenders.
With New England in “11” formation (1 RB, 1 TE), and with three receivers to the left of the formation and one on the right, Miami counters with a nickel defense. Miami played a lot of man coverage on Sunday, and that’s the case here, too.
The key to this play is James White motioning from right to left before the snap. The single high safety for Miami follows White to the outside, essentially clearing the way for Newton to walk into the end zone.
Why you ask? Because that puts New England in an advantageous situation on the right side of the formation, with four Patriots having to get through three Dolphins. If White stays put, the safety responsible for him would be in position to get to Newton.
Instead, Ryan Izzo in a tight split next to right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor blocks down the line at the scrimmage, taking the edge defender who is over Eluemunor. Eluemunor kicks out wide, and essentially serves as the lead blocker, taking out Dolphins safety Eric Rowe, who was covering Izzo.
Here again, New England uses pre-snap motion to give Newton and his teammates a leg up on the Miami defense.
With James White motioning out wide again, this takes another would-be run defender out of the picture for Miami. McDaniels wreaked havoc with the Dolphins’ defense all game long with these pre-snap motions, as the defense had no choice but to follow the motioning players out wide, away from the box.
Newton is keeping the ball the entire time, running QB power, with Joe Thuney pulling across the line to take on the defensive end, while Eluemunor and Shaq Mason double team one Miami linemen to open up a hole for Newton to burst through for the first down.
If Newton’s second touchdown looked familiar to you, you’d be correct. The naked bootleg play run by New England here was identical to the play run by Jacoby Brissett when he started for New England on Thursday Night Football against the Houston Texans back in 2016.
Again, New England gets things started with some pre-snap motion, bringing Rex Burkhead from out wide this time, so that Newton can fake the handoff to Burkhead before taking off to the right on the naked bootleg. With Izzo clearing out his man and then blocking him downfield, all Newton has left to do is beat Miami safety Budda Baker to the pylon in a footrace, which he narrowly accomplishes.
In the passing game, Newton was not asked to do a whole lot, but did have some encouraging plays that bode well for the rest of the season.
One of the shortcomings of Newton’s game coming from Carolina was his execution of play-action fakes. Coming to an offensive system in New England that uses play-action a lot, Newton was going to need to polish that part of his game. Against the Dolphins, Newton displayed progress in this facet of his game.
The above play is a New England staple under McDaniels, and one that Rob Gronkowski got a lot of catches as a result of. “Charles Barkley” is the name of this power play-action, where the tight end pretends to block, and then runs a deep crosser, with the hopes that the defense is too busy defending the run to notice the tight end streaking downfield.
On this play, Miami’s Budda Baker diagnoses the play correctly, however, and picks up Izzo. Newton sticks with the play though, and is rewarded, as Izzo breaks off his route in the middle of the field, to present an open target for Newton, who hits Izzo for the 22-yard catch-and-run.
And finally, one more play that shows just how much fun this Patriots offense will be with Newton in charge in 2020.
The speed option is one of the most effective methods of attacking the edge of a defensive line with an option play. The concept is simple, and as long as you have a legitimate running threat at quarterback, is highly effective.
The speed option can be run from a variety of formations, but here, New England runs it from a single back look with James White, who motions in before the snap, loops around Newton, and runs back out at the snap.
Emmanuel Ogbah of Miami is the edge rusher left unblocked on this play, and is the read for Newton to make. If Ogbah stays home on Newton, he simply pitches the ball to White; conversely if he widens to stay with White, Newton can keep the ball and run ahead with a full head of steam. Here, White goes for 8 years, as Ogbah sticks with Newton.
The New England offense still has some kinks to iron out. It’s reliance on the run game could come back to bite them in games they are playing behind. But for now, for one week, the early returns were promising, both for Newton, and the offense as a whole.
With Newton replacing Tom Brady, McDaniels figures to have no shortage of creative plays and concepts to throw at opposing defenses. On Sunday, Newton passed the first test thrown at him.
