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Patriots cut defensive end Cassius Marsh

Cassius Marsh was acquired from the Seahawks for fifth- and seventh-round picks in next year’s draft.Butch Dill/Associated Press

The Patriots released veteran defensive end Cassius Marsh and signed defensive end Eric Lee off the Bills’ practice squad Tuesday.

Marsh, whom the Patriots acquired via trade from the Seahawks in September, has played in nine games this season and started one. Marsh had one sack, a forced fumble and 16 combined tackles as a Patriot.

Marsh only played two defensive snaps Sunday against the Raiders, and he failed to contain Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch on one of them. Lynch got outside for a 25-yard gain in the first half.

Ultimately, the Patriots didn’t get much in return for the fifth- and seventh-round draft picks they gave up in the trade.

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Lee, originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Texans in 2016, has spent most of this season on the Bills’ practice squad. The 6-foot-3-inch, 260-pounder out of South Florida has appeared in one game.

Playing the pass

If you were surprised to see Elandon Roberts running stride for stride with a Raiders running back on a wheel route in the second half Sunday, it wasn’t the Mexico City smog making your television fuzzy.

Roberts, much better against the run than the pass, turned in one of his better performances in coverage as a Patriot. Derek Carr threw at Roberts three times and completed only one of those passes, and Roberts didn’t allow any yards after the catch. And, OK, the ball bounced off Roberts’s helmet on one play, but he was in position.

“I think Elandon in particular is a guy who works very hard at understanding our zone- and man-coverage concepts and along with the run game,” defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said on a conference call Tuesday. “[He’s] someone that works really hard to know where his help is in both situations, whether it’s leveraging a run play or leveraging a pass play.”

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The Patriots know Roberts is a heat-seeking run stuffer who is comfortable playing downhill. But Patricia complimented Roberts’s improvements in coverage, as well as the improvements of the other linebackers.

Along with Roberts, Kyle Van Noy, David Harris, Trevor Reilly, and Marquis Flowers were asked to cover Sunday.

“That’s part of the process as you go through the year and understanding your opponents and what they like to do from the standpoint of plays,” Patricia said.

The Patriots’ defense doesn’t have the personnel to collect gaudy sack totals. Their focus is on pressuring the quarterback enough to make him uncomfortable and, above all, keeping containment. Instead of blitzing heavily, the Patriots have kept more players in coverage, even if it comes at the expense of pressure and run defense.

The Patriots allowed 4.2 and 5.2 yards per carry to the Broncos and Raiders, respectively, in the past two games but allowed only 18 and 8 points, tightening up in the red zone.

“Just trying to work on our fundamentals, and individual techniques, and try to work each week on our opponent, and their tendencies, the way they do things to match it up against,” Bill Belichick said. “Those guys [the linebackers] work hard at both of those areas. That’s, hopefully, the key to improving and being more successful.”

Line holding up

The Patriots’ offensive line already has a young interior when healthy, with third-year center David Andrews, third-year right guard Shaq Mason, and second-year left guard Joe Thuney.

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On Sunday, the line held up with even less experience, as second-year backup center Ted Karras got rare playing time with Andrews out sick. Karras allowed just one pressure and played all 60 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

Belichick said last week he didn’t “think that, in general, college offensive linemen are particularly well prepared for the National Football League game, period, with the exception of a few offenses, but not very many.”

On Tuesday, Belichick credited Dante Scarnecchia’s coaching for the line’s ability to adapt seamlessly.

“There’s so much communication, and identification of different looks and being able to handle movement after the snap with all of the linemen that it’s a real credit to the way they’ve worked together,” Belichick said. “For the last couple of weeks with LA [LaAdrian Waddle] and then this past week with Ted in at center, that’s changed a couple of the pieces of that line and they’ve continued to work hard and be able to operate efficiently.”

Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels also addressed the challenges of coaching linemen from spread offenses, but he said the Patriots don’t change their tactics for individual players.

“I would say this: All the players we get, whether it’s offensive linemen or another position, they’re coming from different backgrounds and different experiences, and none of them have really been subjected to all the things that they’re going to be subjected to here,” McDaniels said. “None of them have probably been asked to do all the things that we’re going to ask them to do to help us win and to play their position and fulfill their role here.

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“So, where some guys might be a little ahead because they played in a system that asked them to do a few more things like we do it, or something maybe totally opposite of that where they didn’t do much — like Shaq Mason didn’t do a whole lot of this stuff at Georgia Tech — the process is the same.”

Audition time

The Patriots had linebacker Darnell Sankey and wide receiver R.J. Shelton in for tryouts . . . The New England Patriots Foundation teamed with Goodwill to distribute baskets of turkeys and other Thanksgiving foods to 220 families in need at the Patriots-Goodwill Thanksgiving-in-a-Basket event at the Goodwill headquarters in Roxbury. Patriots players and owner Robert Kraft were on hand to pass out many of the baskets.


Ben Volin of the Gloobe staff contributed. Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.