Super Bowl Playbook: The Patriots' First-Down Edge Throughout the week, Mike Tanier will be looking at the New York Giants and the New England Patriots by the numbers. For all of their empty-backfield, no huddle, pass-happy shenanigans, the Patriots are surprisingly conservative on first down. Their favorite strategy is to line up with a single running back and hand off. The Patriots run from a single-back formation 36.4 percent of the time on first down, not counting goal-to-go situations. They use this straightforward tactic more than one-third of the time because they are very good at it, churning out a dependable 4.5 yards per rush while opponents worry about their passing game. As you might expect from a team with two great tight ends, the Patriots use a single-back, two-tight end, two-receiver set 35.8 percent of the time on first down. That number rises to 42.0 percent when you include plays in which Aaron Hernandez or Rob Gronkowski line up on the outside as wide receivers (when tight ends line up in the slot, they are still considered tight ends for this analysis). The Patriots use some form of single-back set 75.5 percent of first downs, deploying empty backfield formations 19.0 percent of the time. The old-fashioned two-back set comes in a distant third, and when it is used, Hernandez, Gronkowski, or a spare offensive lineman serves as the "fullback" more than half the time. The following breakdown shows the Patriots" eight favorite first-down tactics, plus their average yards per play on each play. For this analysis, a Screen-Swing is any pass behind or to the line of scrimmage, a Short pass travels 1-10 yards in the air, a Medium pass travels 11-20 yards, and a Deep pass travels 21+ yards. Sacks, spikes, and other oddities are not counted. Patriots" First-Down Tendencies Formation Play Frequency Yards per Play Single Back Run Single Back Short Pass Empty Backfield Short Pass Single Back Medium Pass Single Back Screen-Swing Single Back Deep Pass Empty Backfield Medium Pass Two Backs Run If you are wondering about the nature of those runs: 41 percent came between the tackles, 23 percent went off tackle, and 36 percent were sweeps around left or right end. A tiny percentage were draws or reverses, but 19.5 percent of them came in no-huddle situations, as the Patriots used their running game to jab away at tired, disorganized defensive lines. As you can see, deep passing is not a big part of the Patriots" first-down playbook. Tom Brady is only 7-for-22 when throwing more than 20 yards downfield on first down. The Patriots" offense is not about taking chances on early downs, but about spreading the field and finding safe yards, whether they come on the ground or from a wide variety of short-to-mid-range passes. By contrast, let's look at the Giants" favorite first-down plays. Again, goal-to-go plays are excluded so we can get a good look at what the team does in non-specialized situations. The Giants only use empty backfields 2.1 percent of the time on first down, and as the table shows, they are much more likely than the Patriots to both deploy two-back formations (almost always some variation of the I-formation) and to take a shot deep. Giants" First-Down Tendencies Two Backs Deep Pass Two Backs Short Pass Scan the "yards per play" columns above, or watch a few quarters of the Giants" and Patriots" offenses, and you can see that the Patriots are a more efficient team on first down. The Patriots average 6.7 yards per play on first down, the Giants 6.2 yards per play, and much of the Giants" production came from a handful of big plays. If the Giants hope to keep the Patriots from dictating on offense, they will have to find a way to slow them on first down. Being ready for a running play from a single-back formation is a good start. All statistics courtesy Football Outsiders