The Patriots took just about everybody in the NFL by surprise on Monday when they shipped talented linebacker Jamie Collins to Cleveland for a measly third- or fourth-round draft pick.
It was noticeable in Sunday’s 41-25 win over the Bills that Collins wasn’t playing as much as usual. He played 48 of 78 snaps overall, and often was out of the game on first and second down, replaced by rookie Elandon Roberts.
So we kept a close eye on Collins when rewatching the game, and we noticed a player who seemed to make more mistakes than impactful plays.
Right off the bat, on the second play of the game, Collins appeared to be responsible for Mike Gillislee breaking off a 28-yard run. Collins took a bad angle to the ball carrier, slipped, and allowed Gillislee to get the edge. Dont’a Hightower and Eric Rowe also couldn’t get off their blocks, and Devin McCourty also took a bad angle to Gillislee. Patrick Chung saved the touchdown.
Later in the first quarter, Collins and Chung both followed Reggie Bush on a fake end-around action, leaving Brandon Tate all alone on the real end-around action, resulting in a 14-yard run on third and 7. Was it Collins or Chung at fault? Impossible to know without being inside the huddle. But it was a busted play that shouldn’t have happened.
Early in the second quarter, on second and 9, Collins appears to get caught between spying on Tyrod Taylor and covering Bush out of the backfield. Collins was two steps too late getting over to Bush, who caught the short pass and turned it into an 18-yard gain. Fortunately, the play was wiped out by an illegal formation penalty on the Bills.
Collins got completely flattened by Gillislee on the running back’s 3-yard touchdown run. Collins was stonewalled by left tackle Cordy Glenn on a pass rush. Collins slipped on another catch to Bush, allowing an 8-yard gain on second and 6.
And was Collins supposed to blitz on Taylor’s 26-yard touchdown run in the third quarter? The Patriots blitzed six on the play, their only six-man rush of the day. Collins was definitely held on the play — the touchdown should have been negated by a holding or facemask penalty on Bills center Eric Wood — but was Collins supposed to blitz, or was this part of the “freelancing’’ that former Patriots executive Michael Lombardi mentioned was common from Collins?
None of the plays were so egregiously bad that the Patriots had no option but to trade Collins. There clearly was more going on behind the scenes that we’ll ever know. But for a player with freakish abilities, Collins’s play was decidedly average Sunday.
Other observations after rewatching the tape:
When the Patriots had the ball
■ Not a great day for the offensive line, which struggled against a big, physical Bills defensive front. The running backs averaged 2.9 yards per carry, and the quarterbacks were sacked five times and hit nine times. Rookie Joe Thuney especially struggled against veterans Kyle Williams and Marcell Dareus, which isn’t too surprising considering they’re among the best in the league. Thuney allowed QB hits to Williams and Dareus, pressures to Williams and Shaq Lawson, and a sack on Jimmy Garoppolo, although that sack was more about great timing on a delayed blitz by Zach Brown. Williams also almost had a kill shot on Tom Brady early in the game after beating Thuney cleanly, but David Andrews saved the day at the last second.
■ The Bills didn’t attack too often — we only counted three true blitzes on 34 passing plays, plus three zone blitzes. They rushed three a handful of times and dropped eight into coverage, and mostly relied on a four-man rush up front. But the Bills twisted and stunted the Patriots to death, and they struggled to block it. Williams’s sack technically came against Nate Solder, but Lawson deserves an assist for twisting and getting Solder off balance. The only one of the five sacks allowed that was a clean sack was Lawson beating Solder to the outside. Two of them were coverage sacks.
■ James White also struggled on his blitz protection, whiffing badly on safety Corey Graham coming around the edge and missing a block on Stephon Gilmore. But White displayed some great cutbacks on a 6-yard screen pass late in the second quarter, and made a heady decision to get out of bounds to stop the clock and help the Patriots get into field goal range, so we’ll let him slide.
■ The few times the Bills did blitz, it worked well — an incomplete screen pass, a 1-yard pass to Martellus Bennett, and an end-around for Julian Edelman for 0 yards. And the Bills were hit and miss when they sat back. Danny Amendola’s touchdown came on a three-man rush, as did Rob Gronkowski’s toe-tapping catch for 18 yards. And Chris Hogan’s 53-yard touchdown came on a four-man zone-blitz, as did another 19-yard catch for him in the second quarter. But Brady also had to double- and triple-clutch often when the Bills dropped seven and eight into coverage, and took some big hits.
■ So what happened on Rob Gronkowski’s TD? The Bills showed a big blitz but backed off, and showed quarters coverage, or four deep. Gronkowski beat Nickell Robey-Coleman off the line of scrimmage, but the key was the safety sitting down on Julian Edelman’s hitch route instead of following Gronkowski deep. Once Gronk got to the inside of Nickell-Robey, it was all over. Brady delivered a perfect throw, as well.
■ Brandon Spikes only played 17 snaps, but Brady managed to find him. Spikes has always been terrible in coverage, and Brady found Gronkowski for 18 yards along the sideline with Spikes in coverage, and hit Martellus Bennett over the middle for 16 yards with Spikes on him.
■ Tremendous situational football at the end of the first half, with James White getting out of bounds, Danny Amendola converting a third and 4, and Gronkowski catching a 7-yard pass with three seconds left to get Stephen Gostkowski into field goal range.
■ Not surprisingly, Brandon Bolden didn’t play a snap on offense, a week after making a bad drop and a bone-headed play on special teams against the Steelers. Andrews sat out the final four snaps of the game (along with Brady and other starters), the first four snaps he has missed all season. Thuney played all 69 snaps, leaving him as the last member on either side of the ball to play in 100 percent of the snaps this season. We wrote last week that he missed one snap against Pittsburgh, but it was actually a scorer’s error, and the NFL fixed it.
When the Bills had the ball
■ Roberts played 28 snaps, and mostly was in the game for Collins whenever the Bills used fullback Jerome Felton. But this wasn’t always the case, as Roberts was in the game in the third quarter when the Bills were in a shotgun, five-wide formation with no fullback. When Roberts was in the game, he played middle linebacker, Hightower was on the strong side and Rob Ninkovich was on the weak side. Roberts had a nice downfield attack and tackle of Gillislee for a short gain, and also covered Bush out of the backfield on a couple of plays.
■ Let’s give it up for defensive tackle Alan Branch, who had a monster game on Sunday. He’s been excellent against the run all year, but he generated consistent pressure against Wood, as well. Branch had a pressure, QB hit, and a run stuff in the first quarter alone, and added two more pressures during the game.
■ Ninkovich’s useage continues to increase as he returns from a suspension and a torn triceps — 24, 46, 56, and 62 snaps in his four games. But he isn’t providing much so far. He did have two pressures in the fourth quarter, though he went unblocked both times. On the stat sheet, he only had two assists, he whiffed on a sack attempt on Taylor, and looks weak at the point of attack. The optimist says he’s still regaining his strength following his triceps injury. The pessimist says he’s not the same player after getting busted for PEDs.
■ The Patriots were the more aggressive defense on Sunday. They continually played eight defenders in the box, and I counted at least 10 true blitzes, plus a handful of zone rushes. Taylor’s touchdown came on a six-blitz, but otherwise the Bills only hit a 20-yard throw to Robert Woods and a couple of 12-yarders to Robert Powell. The Bills also had a couple of bad drops.
■ Rowe was a stud against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, but a dud against the Bills. Playing mostly man coverage, Rowe officially only allowed one catch for 7 yards against Justin Hunter (on third and 2), but was also busted for a 29-yard pass interference and an illegal contact penalty against Hunter. Also, it’s Justin Hunter. Rowe was taken out of the game after the second penalty, replaced by Justin Coleman and Logan Ryan. I would bet on Ryan regaining his starting role soon, as he’s a much better tackler in run support.
■ Hightower had a couple of good pressures — he’s been a much better pass rusher than Collins all season — and a huge thump on Gillislee early. But the Bills rushed for 167 yards on 6.4 yards per carry, and Hightower struggled to get off some of his blocks, as did several of his teammates. Hightower was also lucky that he twice avoided flags for late hits on Taylor.
Special teams
■ Teamwork makes the dream work. We counted nine great blocks by the Patriots on Amendola’s 73-yard kickoff return, made all the way down the field. Amendola returned the favor by making a perfect cut block two plays later to help Edelman get the edge and into the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown.
■ Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. It was tough to see on the tape, but at least two, and maybe three of Gostkowski’s seven kicks banked in off the goal posts. His 51-yard field goal was a knuckleball, but it stayed true long enough.
■ Shea McClellin made a heads-up play to recover Matthew Slater’s fumble on the Patriots’ first kickoff return after the Bills took a 3-0 lead, and Slater redeemed himself with a huge hit on Bush on the Bills’ second kickoff return.
■ A 16-yard run by the punter simply can’t happen. Even if the punt return is on, someone has to watch the punter actually kick the ball. And Bush took a kickoff all the way back to the 40 in the third quarter.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin
