Going up against a rookie quarterback making his third career start last week, the New England Patriots defense dominated. Brady Cook completed only 19 of 33 passes for 159 yards and an interception as his New York Jets got blown out 42-10.<\/p>\n
Given last Sunday\u2019s success, it would be easy for the Patriots defense to expect a similar day at the office in Week 18. After all, another rookie passer making his third career start awaits.<\/p>\n
However, they know that taking the foot off the gas will not cut it against the Miami Dolphins and Quinn Ewers.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuinn\u2019s looked good coming in. He\u2019s got a lot of arm talent, can make a lot of throws,\u201d said Pro Bowl cornerback Christian Gonzalez this week. \u201cIt\u2019s another challenge like it is every week. We\u2019re excited as a defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ewers joined the Dolphins as a seventh-round selection in this year\u2019s draft, and began his career as the third-string QB behind starter Tua Tagovailoa and backup Zach Wilson. By Week 7, however, he had been moved up into the second spot on the depth chart and later that week made his NFL debut late in a 31-6 blowout loss.<\/p>\n
With Tagovailoa continuing to struggle and the Dolphins eventually getting eliminated from playoff contention, head coach Mike McDaniel decided to make a change. Tagovailoa, who had signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension the previous summer, was benched in favor of his rookie backup.<\/p>\n
In the two games since, Ewers has gone a combined 34-of-52 for 432 yards with two touchdowns and interceptions each. While his stats do not jump off the page, acting Patriots defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr has seen a capable player \u2014 one not overwhelmed by the unfamiliar challenge he is facing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he has any fear. He got thrown to the fire and I didn\u2019t see him bat an eye at it,\u201d Kuhr said. \u201cHe was a gunslinger in college. You still see some of that in the game tape. He\u2019s not afraid to try to fit a ball in a window. He doesn\u2019t play hesitant. You can tell he\u2019s still getting the reps. It was kind of late when he started, but definitely he feels like he has all the confidence in the world in himself and his arm. He\u2019ll fit a tight window, he\u2019ll let his guys make a play even when maybe it\u2019s not open. He\u2019ll throw it up and give his guys a shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s handling the situation pretty well for this late in the season as a rookie.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Going up against a rookie quarterback making his third career start last week, the New England Patriots defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-648340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115826114340922407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}