BionicPatriot

Ok, instead of 80 they probably gave up a complete 60 something. Yeah, so solid.

__________________
Defense, defense, defense

dhamz

Stats are really a baseball thing where everyone plays everyone else repeatedly, face every pitcher, hitter, etc. They mean so much less in football where you play less than 1/2 the teams in the league.

Is there any disputing that holding the Saints (avg 316) to 200 yards passing is more impressive than holding Oakland (avg 140) to 175? The stats say no.

The defensive numbers this year look better as the schedule hasn't been full of stellar offensive teams - 8 of the 12 games the Pats have played are against teams in the bottom half of the NFL in scoring. The only opponent in the top 10 in scoring to date has been the Jets.

Deus Irae

Again, how many points came after turnovers?

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

Deus Irae

The offense started out at the bottom of the barrel and, while inconsistent, has been improving over the course of time:

17
10
13
30
10
41
23
15
20
31
48
10

This means that the offensive rankings are on the rise, but started from a low point.

The defense, on the other hand, has shown a clear collapse since Thomas went down.

34
28
33

That's an average of over 30ppg since Thomas went down. The question is whether that's causation or correlation. However, before Thomas went down, this defense was actually getting the job done for the most part, so whether it's coincidental or not, it's clear that something impacted the defense.

My personal guess is that the Thomas injury was the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back. An already suspect defense, built with a safety pair that hadn't really worked together and a #2 cornerback who's probably not an NFL quality corner anymore, and stocked with rookies in the very middle of the linebacking corps simply couldn't bounce back from yet another hit.

Hopefully it won't be too late to reverse the problem, and the combination of Thomas, Colvin and (possibly) Seau will settle the front seven and make it easier for the front of the defense to cover for the struggling safeties and inadequate #2 corner (and you can toss inadequate nickel corner into the mix as well).

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

BradyManny

I agree - but I think his loss is huge in its own right, even without the context of all the other injuries and issues. I'd say its a toss up between Sey, Wilfork and AD who was playing the best this season, but AD might be the defensive MVP simply b/c of his versatility.

Woods has seemed to do a pretty decent job filling in, but the packages and looks they can give are limited. In Sunday's game, when the Steelers went 3 wide, the Pats went to a nickel and brought Woods off the field in place of a DB, the Steelers ensued to run the ball right over the Pats. By contrast, in the Indy game, the Colts ran a lot of plays with 3 wides, (including Clark as a wideout lined up in the slot) - and the Pats stayed in the 3-4 and just lined AD up on Clark in the slot to start the play. I think the Pats would be in a zone coverage, so its not like AD was going man on Clark, but the point remains, he has the speed to cover in zone, enough that the Pats could stay in the 3-4 and not go to the nickel, and not be susceptible to the run. Compare to Sunday's game against the Steelers where spreading the defense out was very problematic for us.

Warren's injury only makes it worse, of course.