Bill Belichick exposed Derek Carr’s weakness with a hilarious defensive strategy

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick loves to take away what an offense does best. And often, that means taking away a quarterback’s top option. But Derek Carr presents an interesting challenge.

His top option is generally tight end Darren Waller. But Carr is also a huge fan of checking down the football. At times, that’s his go-to pass-catcher: whoever is closest to him. It’s not exactly what every coach wants out of his quarterback (and perhaps that’s in part why the Raiders’ Jon Gruden is so non-committal to Carr), but that’s simply the truth with Carr, whose yards per attempt average is 6.9 for his career.

So in response to Carr’s habit, the Patriots decided to double his check down on a third-and-7 in the second half of the Raiders’ 36-20 loss.

New England certainly put a lot of effort into limiting Waller, who drew coverage from a number of Patriots defensive backs. They were paying close attention to his whereabouts, and when cornerback Joejuan Williams committed a pair of holding penalties on Waller, the Patriots put safety Kyle Dugger on the tight end.

The wrinkle above — while comical in pointing out Carr’s heavy propensity to throw short of the first-down marker — wasn’t exemplary of the team’s game plan as a whole. But it was a weird eccentricity that New England put together with the specific intent of stopping Carr. And for the most part, the Patriots did well in limiting him, particularly in the second half. His biggest production came during a garbage-time drive. Otherwise, they forced him to hold the ball too long, which led to two sack-fumbles.

It was a good game plan from Belichick — this wrinkle included.