3 Matchups To Watch in Patriots' Week 5 Game vs. Broncos
The New England Patriots’ Week 5 matchup with the Denver Broncos is still on, even if it was pushed back a day.
Continued COVID-19 concerns caused the league to delay the game until Monday night, the second week in a row that has happened to New England. Cam Newton’s status is still up in the air, as is Drew Lock’s, meaning both sides will be facing uncertainty at quarterback heading into the delayed primetime contest.
PatriotMaven is breaking down the three most important matchups before every game all season long, with Sunday’s game against the Broncos next up on the slate.
Isaiah Wynn vs. Bradley Chubb
Von Miller is one of the best pass-rushers of the last decade, but he is out until December at the earliest due to an ankle injury.
That leaves Chubb as the Broncos’ most elusive edge rusher, and he had a career game against the New York Jets in Week 4. After failing to record a sack through his first three appearances in 2020, Chubb picked up 2.5 last Thursday night, along with five total tackles and five quarterback hits.
The bounce-back performance was reminiscent of Chubb’s rookie season, in which he started every game and racked up 12 sacks, 21 quarterback hits and 14 tackles for loss.
Chubb made his return to form against left tackle Mekhi Becton, who had been struggling with a shoulder injury before the game and only entered the contest when Chuma Edoga went down with an injury of his own. It remains to be seen if Chubb can replicate that performance against Wynn, but Wynn’s own inexperience and injury history could work against him come Monday night.
Wynn and Chubb were both first round picks in the 2018 NFL Draft, but the former missed his entire rookie year due to a torn achilles. Wynn has started each of the Patriots’ games so far in 2020 – taking the field for over 96% of the team’s offensive snaps – but he has appeared on the injury report with a calf injury in recent weeks.
Chubb has proven he can take full advantage of hobbled young tackles, and whoever gets the start at quarterback for the Patriots on Monday could wind up with a dirty jersey if Wynn doesn’t get back to full strength as soon as possible.
Adrian Phillips vs. Melvin Gordon III
Monday will mark the first time Phillips and Gordon have ever gone head-to-head on the gridiron.
The two were teammates on the Los Angeles Chargers from 2015 to 2019, where Phillips racked up 251 tackles in 64 games and Gordon recorded 6,113 yards and 47 touchdowns from scrimmage in 67 games. Both were named to a Pro Bowl in 2018 and left Los Angeles this past offseason.
Phillips has been the key to the Patriots slowing down the run so far in 2020, since the team’s losses at linebacker have yet to be replaced. A safety by trade, Phillips has been forced to line up in the box as a linebacker regularly this season, and Monday’s game should be no different.
With Lock still nursing an injury, Brett Rypien and Jeff Driskel are the Denver’s other options at quarterback. That means they could be relying more on their ground game than an air attack, as was the case when Gordon went for 118 yards on 25 touches against the Jets last Thursday.
Gordon has been hit-or-miss so far in 2020, averaging 4.9 yards per carry with three touchdowns in Weeks 1 and 4 while averaging 3.6 yards per carry with zero touchdowns in Weeks 2 and 3. His best all-around performance of the season came against the Jets, which was also the only time he averaged more yards before contact per attempt than yards after contact.
Phillips and the Patriots’ interior defensive linemen will have to get to Gordon early, creating contact at the line of scrimmage so he doesn’t have time to find holes and break off big gains downfield.
If Phillips – New England’s leading tackler so far this season – can keep Gordon in check, the Broncos will struggle mightily to move the ball at all Monday night.
Patriots vs. COVID-19
The biggest obstacle standing in the way of a New England victory Monday night isn’t anyone on the opposing sideline, it’s the virus that has flipped the entirety of 2020 on its head.
The Broncos struggled to beat the 0-4 Jets, and their offense ranks in the bottom third of the league in points scored for the fifth year in a row. Under normal circumstances – even with Newton and Gilmore out – the Patriots would be heavy favorites and expected to come away with an easy victory.
These are far from normal circumstances, however, as the last two weeks have been dominated by the coronavirus in Foxboro.
All tests came back negative for the third day in a row Friday, but that doesn’t mean the Patriots are out of the woods just yet. The incubation period for the virus is still not fully understood, and players who had contact with Gilmore before, during or after Monday’s game against the Chiefs could still test positive ahead of the Broncos game.
A cancellation or postponement is not off the table just yet, and New England should be crossing its fingers that nothing else goes horribly wrong over the next few days.
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