mgteich

Belichick had a pretty good defense in 2009. Look at the points allowed; look at how times the defense allowed teams into the red zone. The defense was a successful bend and don't break defense, giving up lots of yards between the 20's.

But the 2009 defense failed at precisely the wrong times. Belichick identified that the defense needed lots of his personal attention this year. To me, this is thinly velied comment on the quality of coaching in 2009. belichick's personal help should greatly help the defensive schemes and also greatly help the development oif the youngsters. Finally, details will be addressed before they become a crisis. The issue I am thinking about was last year's problem with signal-calling when Sanders wasn't playing. That should NEVER have happened.

The team defense didn't allow many points last year. We have lost Green, Burgess, Springs, Seau and Thomas from that defense. We have added Warren (and/or Lewis), Cunningham, Spikes, McCourty and McKenzie.

Obviously, the issue is that most of the new arrivals are inexperienced.

Also, Mayo is healthy. And also, we hope that some of last year's rookies and new arrivals will step up this year.

IMHO, this defense is only one player away from being a top defense. Consider how we would do if Cunningham was DROY as Mayo was. I am not suggested that he is that good. I am just trying to show how close we are.

PATRIOTSFANINPA

I don't quite understand how you say we are ONE good player away from being a top defense yet you HOPE the rookies of 2009 and 2010 play a role in this years team.

We are far closer to HOPING that these youngsters work out than we are of being ONE player away from a top tier defense.

HOPE is the word here - We HOPE they pan out or we will need much more than 1 guy

We don't have Bruschi,Seymour,Harrison and Vrabel around anymore to say we are ONE good player away from a top defense - at this time we are stuck HOPING that Belichick finally has drafted the right players which has been missing for a few years.

We don't have anywhere near the foundation we had years ago - The pieces of the foundation are there in Wilfork,Meriweather and perhaps Warren but you need more than a few pieces to build a strong building

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BradyFTW!

I don't think those two points are totally mutually exclusive. Provided that Mayo recovers fine from his injury, I think you can reasonably say that we're 1 player away (Cunningham) from being good, and 2 players away (+McCourty or Butler) from being really good. If they both develop notably well, then we're in pretty good shape. mgteich probably exaggerated the case a bit, but right now I'm more optimistic about the defense's long-term prospects than the offense's.

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Deus Irae

If that one player is good enough to dominate at RDE, ILB, LCB and OLB, all at the same time, I agree with you.

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JackBauer

I wasn't aware you needed players who "dominate" at every position to have a top defense.

http://sub2change.com/wp-content/upl..._you_know2.jpg

Deus Irae

Neither was I. Then again, I wasn't aware that TBC, Guyton, Bodden, Meriweather, Sanders/Chung/McGowan or the nickel and dime backs were players who dominate at their positions.

However, if you prefer, feel free to change dominate to excel, or even just "play damn well". The central point remains the same.

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AndyJohnson

I said earlier that this team is looked at through the success of the decade.
No team would stand up to that, considering it was the 2nd most successful decade any franchise has ever had.

When you really take a look at it compared to other NFL teams we are potentially pretty loaded on defense. ALERT: the standard isn't perfection, its what NFL defenses are.

Secondary.
I don't know whether we have an allpro corner (although I think we have 3 that have that upside) but Bodden is a proven very good corner and Butler and McCourty are young players drafted late 1st/early 2nd round picks. We also have a young player who has started and a 2nd round pick who has been injured. While there are questions, every team has questions and not a lot of teams have that talent.
Safety. Same thing here. Meriwhether and Chung have the raw ability to be among the best safety tandems in the NFL. Depth is adequate.
DL. Wilfork is a stud, Warren is a first round pick who has played to that level througout his career. That is 2/3 stud, more than most teams. The 3rd spot is still to be determined but among the candidates are 3 starting caliber NFL DEs. How many teams have 3 starters fighting for 1 job?
ILB. Mayo has been one of the best ILBs in the NFL when healthy. We use 2 ILBs less than 50% of the time. Having a recent 2nd, prior year 3rd and a guy with starter experience at the 'starter' that plays half the snaps is better than most teams.
OLB- This is the glaring issue. But lets not forget. We won a SB in 2001 with an OLB who was a 4year vet and had never started a game, and had 20 career tackles starting every game(Vrabel), and on the other side was an 'aging vet' picked up in August in lieu of retirement to be a sub package coverage LB who started every game. (Phifer) A 5 year vet changing positions (Bruschi) and a war horse who probably ran a 6.0 40 (Cox). We also won a SB with Matt Chatham starting for a month, and our new FA prize OLB out for the season.
Before we propagate the myth that we won SBs with 11 veteran Hall of Famers on defense, here is the 2001 defensive lineup.

DE- Bobby Hamilton, Willie McGinest, Anthony Pleasant
DT- Rookie Richard Seymour, Brandon Mitchell, Riddick Parker
OLB- Mke Vrabel starting for the first time in his career, Roman Phifer, Matt Chatham, Ted Johnson (first time ever playing outside)
MLB- Tedy Bruschi playing MLB for 1st time in career, Bryan Cox at 90 years old
CB- Ty Law, Otis Smith, Terrance Shaw, Terrell Buckley
S- Lawyer Milloy, Tebucky Jones, Matt Stevens

The point is not that if I show one example of what looked like ragtag talent (and anyone who says as of 8/01 this unit didnt look ragtag is full of crap) then every questionable team suddenly becomes good, but that great teams have holes and many questions in August too.

jmt57

Back to the original topic ....

Chat: Chat with Mike Reiss - SportsNation - ESPN Boston

Q. How much more pressure do you think belichick will put on the defensive backs considering we see TO and Ochocinco week 1?

Mike Reiss: Interesting observation ... One of the first things I saw today when I got to practice was Belichick worked with the defensive backs on their jam techniques. It was a reminder that while Belichick is the head coach, he gets his hands dirty with the position-specific coaching as well.



Edit: some more from Reiss regarding Belichick.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-e...ots-notebook-2

1. The first thing I saw when arriving at this morning's practice was Bill Belichick coaching defensive backs on their jam techniques. I later saw him speaking with rookie inside linebacker Brandon Spikes, 1 on 1, after a full-team 11-on-11 drill. Thought it was notable that Spikes was receiving such individual attention from Belichick -- both from Spikes' perspective (it's a good sign) and from Belichick's general coaching style. Spikes' red gloves make him easy to spot on the practice field.

JackBauer

I wasn't agreeing with the OP, so I fail to see how that's relevant.

The truth is, I tend to agree, but with so much youth it's contingent on certain players developing as I expect they should.

Fair enough. Just noting that even the best defenses usually have some mediocre players. I think the Jets are an excellent example of this.

AndyJohnson

We hae reached the point here where imperfect is awful and we assume that the other 31 team have no issues.