mgteich

Agreed. The BOTTOM LINE is that we were a bit above average against the run last year, and 5th best in the league in points allowed. The Dl may not be as good this year, but improvements at ILB and even at corner and safety should help the run defense.

Rice ran off the early embarassing run, and the team adjusted, allowing under 4 yards per carry (Rice was 4.0 and McGahee was 3.1 other than that first run). That one run did not lose the game, or make the 13th best defense against the run a disaster. The illusion that the patriots just pounded us all game, and that's what lost the season is just that, an illusion.

The patriots were not able to make up for the first play of the game. Our offense (with an injured Brady and Welker out) was simply not up to the task of beating the BALT defense.

Deus Irae

The Patriots were tied with 3 teams for 20th against the run. That's not "a bit above average". That's basically bottom 3rd of the league.

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Sicilian

I'm assuming you're going by ypc, which is a good stat but can be as misleading as any stat. The Pats had some games where they were leading big early. In those instances, I'm sure they were cheating towards the pass, thus runs would go for a higher average in general.

I still think we were no better than average against the run, which makes sense. 13th in overall rushing allowed and 20th-23rd in ypc, averages to the mid-teens. We were average against the run I would say.

BlueThunder

Would like to see Brace line up next to Vince on some obvious running downs....add in Gerard Warren on the other side at 6'4 and 330lbs.

That would be alot of beef on the Pats DL ....

KontradictioN

Actually, I don't think you understood where I was going with that. Teams were able to use the run game to their favor to open up the pass game against us last year. How many times last year were our opponents down 4 TD's? And I wish I had felt the way about the defense last year as you did.

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Deus Irae

Every team can pull up excuses of this nature. The Saints, for example averaged just .1 ypc worse, and they were blowing out teams, too. The Patriots didn't have an inordinate amount of blowout wins last year, so I don't see where this would apply. We'll just have to disagree on this one.

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Sicilian

Fair enough. We both seem to agree that there was room for improvement, even with Ty still on the roster.

patsfaninpittsburgh

Again, lack of proportion.

4 TD's?

Well, there was the Titans game. You must have heard of it because you posted earlier whining and pizzing that the defense gave up 193 yards on the ground.

How about the home game against the Jets? You know that game because who were also whining about all the yards rushing surrendered in that game.

I know you style yourself as an "expert". Unfortunately, in the pursuit of detail you simply miss the basics and the obvious.

Points matter in wins and losses. 193 yards on the ground winning 59-0 means well.....Ditto the Jets

This is QB driven, passing league. Baltimore has a huge line and a good running game. It has maximum effect when they go up 24-0 on turnovers.

Perhaps it's not applicable on Kon's world, but most fan reality says, "Hey, don't get down 24-0 from turnovers to a good running team."

How do you reconcile the fact that the vaunted "#1" Jets defense surrendered five fourth quarter leads that resulted in losses? What defense last year didn't get "carved up" at some point?

KontradictioN

That's cool. Now what the hell does it have to do with the run defense being suspect last year?

The Pats were never up by four TD's in that game. And, anyway, why does that matter? Again, we're talking about the RUN DEFENSE here. The final score of those games really is not relevant. It's what we allowed opponents to do on the ground that is.

No, I really don't. I've been wrong many times before, one of those issues in this thread. However, on your second point, the pot is very much so calling the kettle black.

Me: Look what we allowed opponents to do on the ground.
You: We wuz ahed by 4 TD'z, dis is a qb driven leeg.
Me: What the hell does that have to do with the run defense?

See how this is going? I'm not missing the basics. You, as usual, are. And because you're missing them so horribly, as usual, you're going personal.

This just shows me that your ability to think clearly has been clearly impeded by some outside factor. Actually, it's the other way around. When the discussion is centered around the run defense, as our's is, the amount of points in the win doesn't really matter for well... Ditto the Jets.

Considering our NT was moved out to DE because Baltimore was breaking off gains running to one side of the defensive line, I'd say that the coaching staff saw our run defense, at least to one side, as an issue in that game as well. When we did that, they began pounding the ball inside.

With all of that said though, I've never put the blame soley on the defensive side of the ball for that loss. There was plenty of blame to go around on the offensive side of the ball too. But I guess you're now going to try to tell me that I have and, when asked to present evidence of such, not return to the thread to back up your claim, right? I've seen this one before. By the way, you still haven't shown me where I've ever bashed a Patriots draft. I'm still waiting for the evidence on that one.

For one, those leads were surrendered in huge part to Sanchez giving the other team multiple gifts and second chances. I've been over that with many people in the past and the facts are out there to support it. However, again, what does another defense having a bad day have to do with the Pats' 2009 defensive issues and how the coaching staff is going to go about correcting them. Seems like a red herring to me.

Now, if you will so kindly show me where I've panned a Patriots draft before when responding to this as well, I would very much appreciate it. You know, now that I've been graced with the gift of you talking to me and all...

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lillestroom

Indeed. And I can see a number of OCs rubbing their hands at this...