That's a different story; the main thing was missing JJ Watt and Mercilus.
When a DC has a full complement of players, he can afford to do anything he feels like getting the best results for his team.
I'm not so sure about Crennel running more zone - not sure I want to spend time to go back.
The things I'm sure of is that:
1. Wade Phillips is always match-man (or pattern matching that results in man coverage) predominantly over the years, and a fair-to-good amount of blitzing.
2. The Patriots were predominantly a cover 2 for a long while (until recently) - at least from the day that they drafted McCourty.
..........................
Besides the point:
On TT here, some of us had a big dose of arguments/discussions about how KJax busted and McCourty was a star.
The funny thing is that after that first year, the Patriots started playing McCourty some at safety, and in 2014, he was moved there permanently (you can see the listing at Profootball Reference.)
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/McCoDe99.htm
But that's not necessarily bad for him (he didn't go there to die).
Even with the move to safety, he resigned with the Pats in 2015 for a big-value contract.
Some people, like MrTex, is of the opinion that because a guy is bad at CB, he was moved to safety; but the reality is that every situation is different.
For example, I had brought up Charles Woodson, who made the move to safety and played at a high level;
Some guys just have the ability to learn and read the defense better than others, so the move to safety is for the benefit of the team overall - if you can just find a decent CB to take his place.
That guy doesn't have to be better, because he will have proper help.