RO
BIN
ALAM
/ICO
N SPO
RTSW
IRE/GETTY IM
AGES (AM
UKAM
ARA); JO
HN
W. M
CD
ON
OU
GH
(SU
PER BO
WL)
BEARING
FRUIT
Amukamara (left)
led the NFL’s top
defense—one
that gave the
Patriots a few
ideas for how
to shut down
the Rams.rince Amukamara sat
inside Mercedes-Benz
Stadium watching
Super Bowl LIII.While
Patriots fans applauded their
defense for shutting down the Rams’
supercharged offense, the second-highest
scoring unit in the league, the Bears’cornerback dwelled on one thought: New England is using
our blueprint.
Eight weeks earlier, Amukamara’s defense had held L.A. to
just six points, its lowest total of the season. The Rams arrived
for their game in Chicago having scored 30 or more in 10 of
their 12 games. Vic Fangio, who was then the
Bears’ defensive coordinator, and his talented
bunch of players had found the solution to
containing the Rams’ offense. They played
aggressively against L.A.’s wide receivers.
They sent pressure to quarterback Jared Goff.
And they confused the Rams’ offense with
matchup-zone coverage, a combination of
man-to-man (in which each defender is
assigned to a specific receiver) and
zone (in which defenders cover a
certain area) that requires subtle
communication among the defensive
players as they shift all over the field.
As any NFL coach or player will tell
you, it’s a copycat league, and Amukamara
smiled as he recognized the Patriots’ strategy.
Even though he was watching the Super Bowl and
not playing in it, he was proud that his defense had
accomplished one of its goals that cold December
day when they played L.A.
“It’s like, Oh, no one can stop this team?”
Amukamara says. “We want to be the team that
shows the league, O.K., this is the blueprint. We
felt like we did that for New England, selfishly,
when they played the Rams in the Super Bowl.
They saw what we did and they used that.”