Does defensive playcalling deserve some questioning?

Josh McDaniels has seen some recent criticism for his conservative yet predicable offensive playcalling this season. But should the defensive playcalling be questioned as well?

Although it is not clear who is in charge of calling defensive plays, whoever is calling the plays have low-key nearly costed the Patriots in the last few (meaningful) games.

For example, In the Texans game midway through the 3rd quarter. The Texans had the ball at their own 42 yard line, while up 14-3. At that point in the game, you'd be fine with the Texans at worst getting a field goal, with a whole 4th quarter left. What you DON'T want is a touchdown. What do they do? They call cover 0 blitzes on 3 straight plays. They give up a 20 yarder to Kenny Stills, while putting Jonathan Jones in a terrible position as the slot corner with no safety help against a very good receiver. Then they give up the 35 yard TD to Will Fuller, which gets ruled incomplete. Then they call the exact same play again and get beat for a TD to Kenny Stills. Now it's 21-3, the game is practically over. No need to be that aggressive.

In the Chiefs game, there was a drive where Kansas City had a 3rd and 19 where the Patriots are playing Cover 1 man to man with a single high safety, they let Tyreek Hill come in on an in-cut and convert the 3rd and 19. Then on the same drive Kansas City had a 2nd and 25 where the Patriots are once again in cover 1 and they gave up TD. If you're in a cover 2 or cover 3 instead, you can let them catch the ball and make the tackle. Instead they gave up a touchdown on 2nd and 25. That was probably the defense's worst drive of the year.

In this past game vs Buffalo, it's near the end of the first half and the Patriots just failed on 4th down. They didn't have great field position and even had an incompletion on 1st down. But on 2nd down the Patriots play man coverage and had Jamie Collins as a spy on Josh Allen. Buffalo blocked Collins well and while everyone had their backs turned from playing man, Josh Allen runs for an easy 16 yards and now their in business. Then on 1st and 10 at the 23, Allen>Beasley for 9 yards on an easy out route. Then Allen to Knox for a TD. You're just trying hold them to a field goal, why are you being so aggressive and risking these touchdowns?

The Patriots haven't been doing these cover 0 blitzes with no safeties stuff for that long. That trend started last season after the bye week. They decided to be more aggressive in their playcalling last year and it was super effective. It's been effective for MOST of this season, right up until they started playing better teams and better quarterbacks. There's a ton of film of the Patriots doing this stuff and teams are more ready for it now. Quarterbacks like DeShaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes that are prepared for the Patriots to be in this coverage and know where to go on the hot read.

A solution? The only real solution is to mix up the playcalling and mix up the coverages a little bit. Because being predictable in those situations like the Patriots have been for most of this season, it's not working against these good quarterbacks.