The Patriots walked into their Week 5 matchup with the Raiders missing a whole chunk of their cornerback room, and they still came away with a defense that held up when it mattered.
New England listed six cornerbacks on the active roster in its final injury report Friday, but four of them were ruled out before kickoff: starters Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis, plus backups Channing Canada and Karon Prunty. That left Marcus Jones, Charles Woods and recently promoted Kindle Vildor to carry the load, with big nickel safety Jaylen Reed also helping patch things together.
The group didn’t shut everything down - Jones drew the early Brock Bowers assignment, and the Raiders were able to work that mismatch at times - but the Patriots kept the damage from snowballing against a Las Vegas offense that entered Week 5 ranked seventh in scoring.
Woods made his presence felt with two pass breakups and a tackle for loss. Vildor added a breakup on a third-down throw to Bowers and later forced a fumble against the tight end. Both players also held up in man coverage when New England brought pressure and left its corners on islands.
“Next man up mentality,” linebacker and defensive captain Robert Spillane called it after the Patriots’ 45-17 win. “Oftentimes in this league you’re an opportunity away from showing people that you deserve to be on the field. There are so many guys that stepped up huge for us, especially on the defensive side of the ball today.”
Spillane was especially vocal about how Woods and Vildor handled the spotlight. With the Patriots blitzing, those corners were frequently exposed in one-on-one situations, and they came through by making plays on the ball and helping force key stops.
“They showed up huge,” said Spillane. “When you blitz those corners are out there solo dolo a lot of the times, and they really stood up not only making the plays but helping us get off the field on numerous occasions, or getting the ball out, turnovers.
Just really proud of all of those guys. At the end of the day, we knew they were going to step up.
They prepared to be starters their whole careers.”
Head coach Mike Vrabel said the Patriots never got caught up in the injuries.
“We try not to panic. We just try to get the next guy ready,” said Vrabel.
“We ask everybody to be ready to prepare as a starter. It’s a credit to the football players.
The guys on this team and the guys we’ve tried to bring in here, and they realize that when you get an opportunity and you do something with it, you’ll get more opportunities.”
What happens when Gonzalez and Davis return is still to be determined, but Woods and Vildor at least showed the Patriots they can be trusted if called on again.
That, Spillane said, was the whole point.
“We trust each other as a team. We trust whoever’s on the field to do their job,” said Spillane.
“They’re one eleventh. We had a bunch of guys step up and really provide huge plays for us.
Kindle getting that ball out on the turnover, solidifying that game - I just thought overall so many guys stepped in today and really did a good job for us.”
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