Bouye's game against NE:
NE 2nd possession: Called for 30 yard pass interference along left sideline against Hogan. He never turned his head and grabbed Hogan. Next play, Bouye is beat by Hogan along the right sideline for 22 yards. Sets up NE at 13 yard line, they score on the next play. This drive took 3 plays and Bouye gave up 52 yards on it.
NE 3rd possession: On first play, Bouye gets beat on slant by Floyd, he was wide open, but Floyd drops it and it ricochets forward into Bouye's hands. It would have been an easy 1st down, instead it's an interception. At this point, the Pats have run 7 plays and 3 have targeted Bouye.
NE 6th possession: Beat easily by Hogan on a play action out route for a first down and 7 yards. This is in the red zone and he tackles Hogan out of bounds at the 2. Not sure why he's back peddling so far here. Next play, NE runs play action and looks right, while Bouye is playing other side of field. Nobody immediately runs into Bouye's area so he runs toward middle of field and runs straight into Hal. Not sure what he is doing on this play as he covers nobody and no zone for almost the entire play. Lucky, as Brady runs up middle and is tackled at 1. Nice tackling by other defenders on a play action to their FB and then run by Blount forces FG.
Halftime.
NE 7th possession: Bouye jumps a slant route and almost intercepts it on the first play. Excellent break on the ball and he read Brady's eyes it looked like. This is where he excels, on short routes, as long as he isn't packpedding like crazy right away as he was earlier in the game. Coaching adjustment? Interesting to note on this play, Kareem Jackson was playing deep safety in what looked like cover 1. He started as the nickel corner on the same side as Hal, but when Hogan went into motion, Hal came down on Bennett to line up at LB death and then KJ dropped back and motioned to Moore, who came down on Hogan when Hogan became the slot receiver on the opposite side of the field. Really cool to watch the defense communicate and move on this play. I actually think that Brady got a bit confused on this play and stared down Floyd. Pressure on 3rd down forces Brady to try to throw to a covered crosser, incomplete.
NE 8th possession: Pats are again attacking Bouye downfield along the sideline. Edelman runs a real loose, kind of lazy, go and Brady throws it quick to the outside shoulder and Bouye touches him out of bounds. 1st and 18, Hogan runs a 20 yard out on Bouye. I think Moore was supposed to be covering the intermediate area along the sideline and Bouye was supposed to drop deep on this play. I'd put this one on Moore. Regardless, Hogan catches it and runs out of bounds for a first down. NE ends up scoring by isolating Lewis on McKinney and Moore just doesn't have the range or play recognition to even get close to getting there to help McKinney.
NE 10th possession: 2nd and 6, Brady throws quick right at LOS to Floyd, as Bouye was playing 12 yards back, then breaks Bouye's tackle and runs for first down. Very nice play by McKinney to end this drive by laying out to deflect a pass over the middle and Hal intercepts it. Also, Merci got quick pressure on that play.
NE 12th possession: Pats take over in red zone and run a pitch left to Bouye's side. Bouye does an excellent job of avoiding the left tackle, who was pulling out to block him, but then misses the tackle on the running back when he breaks down to stop him, Pats stopped at 1. Next play, TD run by Pats.
NE 13th possession: Another aside, Texans run that same cover 1 look with KJ at deep safety a lot during this drive. Pats break run through to third level at one point and KJ comes up and makes an excellent tackle 1 yard short of the first down. On 3rd and 10, Pats run pitch to Bouye's side and he comes up and forces a fumble, but nobody is there to recover it.
Granted, Bouye has had better games, but this is kind of what you see when smart teams have tape on a player with specific deficiencies. There's plenty of tape now on Bouye to understand how best to attack him, and he didn't perform very well under those circumstances.
Just an aside, we would really benefit on defense from better safety play. Moore and Hal both aren't very good in the run game and neither has great range. Both can't tackle all that well and they take poor angles. Hal does have range at times, but I'm not sure his play recognition is very good on most plays so it usually doesn't matter. Moore is not a starter, he should stay a backup. Also, Jackson got worked by Edelman in this game.
