At the snap...

Buffalo is in a somewhat unique set here, with Taylor in the shotgun, a TE (O'Leary #84) flanked to his right, a RB (Gillislee, #35) directly behind him, and TE Charles Clay (#85) splitting the distance between Taylor and the O-line.

Patriots counter with a fairly typical spread of a 4-2 Nickel, which almost masks as a 2-4 with Sheard (#93) and Long (#95) both standing up at their DE positions. Collins and Hightower are the 2 linebackers, with McCourty off to Hightower's Left, and Chung behind them both. Rowe and Butler are the 2 CBs, Harmon is off screen. 4 Lineman, 2 LBers, 2 CBs, 3 safeties by my count.

Taylor takes the snap and turns...

Taylor receives the snap, and immediately turns to Gillislee behind him. Taylor turns to his right, indicating run right, and the FB seems to sell that as well as he heads right. Clay and the RG, however, start pulling to the offenses left.

Hightower is in the middle of the field, and is pinching up, and Collins is also moving towards the line. Sheard can be seen on the end squaring up, preparing to "set his edge". He is a key factor in this play soon.

Gillislee takes the handoff...

It ends up being a ounter run, heading back to the offense's right. Sheard has gone into the backfield (though arguably not deep enough) and engaged the pulling guard. Hightower was met by a lineman in the middle of the field, and Collins can be seen (next Patriot to the left of Sheard) getting sucked in to the line, and inside where the tackle lined up. Clay (#85, Bills, is working down the line, looking for someone to block.

Collins shoots through a hole...

But it was the wrong one. Gillislee is able to easily cruise around Collins, leaving him sliding to the turf as he looks to get around the corner, with Clay leading the way. Rowe is fighting off a cut block, and Hightower has done a fantastic job shedding his blocker. Now both these men, Rowe and Hightower, are trying to fill the hole that Collins created. On the video below, you'll see Clay take a half-step inside to meet Collins, but quickly realizes he won't be a factor, and moves on to his next responsibility.

Gillislee turns upfield...

Hunter (WR #17, Bills) does a good job keeping Rowe out of the play. Here we can see Clay made it to Hightower, and gets just enough of him to create a crease. Other than Collins, I think Sheard should have gotten farther upfield (as Ninkovich often does, sometimes to extreme degrees) to force Gillislee inside a little sooner. Collins shooting a middle gap when he was playing outside, combined with Sheard setting a weak edge, led to...

Gillislee shoots the gap...

Neither Rowe, nor Hightower could do quite enough to cover up the mistake, and Gillislee is able to dart through the hole, and pick up 28 yards. This is the play Michael Lombardi referenced when talking about Collins freelancing. It seems fairly obvious he was here. Had he "stayed home", the play would have been funneled directly to him for a minimal gain. He took a high risk, medium reward approach, and got burned. I can't say for certain if this was happening a lot, as I haven't gone back to look, but I find it interesting that Lombardi was tweeting about this play literally minutes after the news broke.

Check out the entire play below, and judge for yourself. Obviously no player is traded based off of one play, but if this was becoming more and more common, I understand why the coaches would have felt they needed to make a change. The Patriots, on both sides of the ball, demand very disciplined play from their players, and one guy freelancing can cause the entire thing to collapse, as it did on this play. We will all start to find out in 2 weeks, when Seattle will present a legitimate challenge that should give us all a little glimpse of what may be to come from New England's defense.