Hours Before Kickoff: Week 14

What should had been a blowout of a clearly inferior team became an embarrassing one score win over the Indianapolis Colts as the defense gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Two of those scores came at the expense of CB Devin McCourty. Colts RB Donald Brown swatted McCourty away with a stiff-arm en route to a 5-yard TD run. Less than eight minutes later, WR Pierre Garcon got behind McCourty and caught a 12-yard TD over McCourty’s head. McCourty lunged to no avail to stop the completion, beaten so badly that he couldn’t even look back to find the ball.

No one has an answer to what has happened to McCourty this year. Theories include the reduced off-season stunting his development, playing with an injury, the dreaded sophomore slump, opponents knowing how to get after him after viewing a season’s worth of film, to Devin switched places with his twin brother Jason for the season.

(Patriot fans probably wish they had Jason instead of Devin right now. Jason has 87 tackles, eight passes defended, two interceptions, a sack, and a forced fumble for Tennessee. That’s dramatically better than Devin’s output this year of 63 tackles and three passes defended.)

Pointing a finger to any one explanation doesn’t fully rationalize such a dramatic decline in Devin McCourty’s play. He’s gone from best corner since Ty Law to consistent burn victim a la Chris Canty. How does a former first-round pick go from one extreme to another in one off season is a mystery.

McCourty isn’t a Darius Butler case. Butler was an athletically gifted corner drafted in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft. Butler improved gradually and earned more playing time during his rookie season, and was starting by the end of the year.

But success got to Butler’s head. He began his second by freelancing instead of playing within the team. This quickly irked head coach Bill Belichick and Butler was benched during a week two game against the New York Jets.

By the end of the season Butler regained some of Belichick’s trust and was a serviceable third/slot corner. Butler couldn’t secure a role with New England through three preseason games and was cut before the season, landing in Carolina with the defensively inept Panthers.

Unlike Butler, McCourty didn’t let his Pro Bowl rookie season change him. By all accounts McCourty is doing as told and is working hard. Belichick would had benched McCourty long ago if McCourty was having delusions of being the next Deion Sanders. Belichick would rather take his chances with a lesser player who listens over a talented one that doesn’t.

The faith in McCourty hasn’t been rewarded, though. Teams don’t fear McCourty and they benefit for it. McCourty has been victimized repeatedly for big plays and it doesn’t look like he’s turning the corner anytime soon.

Whether his confidence is shaken at all is unknown. Often a coach would demote a young player so they face lesser competition on the field to rebuild that confidence. Another option is outright benching a player so they can take a step back and see the whole picture.

Belichick doesn’t have either luxury with McCourty right now. Injuries have depleted the secondary. Belichick had to use WR Julian Edelman at slot corner for a couple of times and WR Matthew Slater started at safety once against the Colts.

And with players going through the secondary like there’s a revolving door (14 different players have taken a snap in the secondary this year), Belichick can’t afford to remove a player with McCourty’s familiarity with the defense from the field.

13 weeks into last season McCourty had 13 of his 17 passes defended and six of his seven picks. New England is hoping that McCourty returns with four weeks left in 2011.

A couple of things I’m looking for:

Give ‘em Helu: Washington head coach Mike Shanahan likes a physical run game and found the hard-nosed back to carry the load in Roy Helu. He eclipsed 100+ yards in two straight games.

Draft Revenge: Still in need of pass rush help, LB Ryan Kerrigan was picked one spot before New England’s selection. N.E. finds out what they’re missing first hand.

Lesson Learned: Start fast, finish strong. New England failed to do that last week. They don’t want to do it again. Washington has scored on their opening possession 15 weeks in a row.

The Patriots won’t sweep the NFC East, but they will finish with a winning record thanks to a tougher than expected win over the Redskins.