HEY BRO! WHAT UP?

With Mangini as the defensive cordinator, I thought the Pats were very soft, didn't blitz very much and didn't put much pressure on the QB. What I hope Dean Pees employs this year is a much more aggressive defense, almost like Dick Labau's, blitzing the crap out of the QB. Pete Carrol did this in his first year in New England and was very effective at getting turnovers and I hope this type of defense returns to New England. I don't know about you guys but the "bend but don't break" defense is getting boring and might have lost it's effectiveness (see early last season). The secondary is not as good as 2003's unit and 3-4 ends have a harder time getting to the QB because of double teams. So the question is, if you were the defensive cordinatorfor the Pats, what kind of a scheme would you employ?

scott99

I would love to see pretty much exactly what we saw in the 2 preseason wins. I think the Pats had 9 sacks in those two wins. In those two wins, the Pats pretty much shut down the run, and blitzed the hell out of the passing plays. Have to cut Mangini some slack, He really didn't have the players on the field that Pees will have. The Pats were so decimated with defensive injuries, that once some of the guys came back, you noticed a huge difference. It would have been interesting to have seen if Mangini had a healthy D.

PonyExpress

Right on. Last year when the leaders went down, Mangini needed to bring his own leadership to the unit, and fill the shaken D with confidence. Unfortunatley, that's not his personality. A critic might say he talks soft, looks soft, and coaches soft, but that would be overly critical; Let's just say he was a cerebral rookie coordinator who got dealt a difficult hand and probably learned alot from his mistakes. Unfortunately the defense was putrid during his leadership crucible. Once Seymour, Bruschi and Vrabel were in position the players ran the scheme and the D turned around. Dean Peas is a fire breather, a curmudgeon and a grandpa to the players, and I think they're going to come up aces for him. Not Romeo, but the next best thing.

Ceresco

One that intimidates opposing offenses.

patsfan13

A defense that is flexable enough to take away the strengths of the opposing offense and exploit their weaknesses. This will change from week to week. I hope the D is better at generating turnovers than the unit last year.

__________________
"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

PatsFanInVa

What kind of defense? TIGHT, of course....

But seriously, from the little we've gotten to see in the preseason, it's already looking a lot more "flexi-Bill" than 2005. I'm looking for the return of Rodney adding "more things you can do" as regards walking up to play the run or dropping back from the safety position. We'll presumeably not be playing second stringers at DB positions, and the guys thrust into the fire last year and the year before (at least the remaining ones) are a year older and wiser, and therefore a little more capable of being in position in the defensive backfield. I trust our middle again, whether it's Vrabel/Seau or Bruschi/Seau or Vrabel/Bruschi, and the front 7, in general, is a great starting unit (ASSUMING health -- we all know we have more of a thin spot at LB now.)

Assuming health, you can do a lot with this unit. You look to the three or four guys who you can (in good conscience) give freedom to beyond their immediate responsibility, to be the playmakers, and add in the fact that scheme itself can go from 2 defensive linemen to 9 in the box, from blitzhappy to cover 3, all day, plus wrinkles my poor amateur brain can't even think about. Mangini didn't want any part of that, and maybe he was right. You can't set up the fancy stuff when people can't even hold down their own responsibilities. It may have been even worse if he was asking for big pressure packages -- after all, throw a LB or a safety into the blitz, and you're thinner in the defensive BF, no matter how you slice it. Each of those guys by the end of the year struggled just to handle their piece of the action. Imagine that with one less safety, or imagine LBs assigned blitz roles instead of coverage roles.

But let's get back to this year - we have our read/react/playmaker guys back, and I mean especially Tedy and Rodney. They're smart enough to know that if they're "abandoning" or have discharged their initial responsibility based on the read, they can take calculated gambles. Seymour too, obviously; turn him loose and you could see 8 sacks just from DE. I'd also put Vrabel in that category, but more so paying on the outside.

But you'll see big sack games where BB has determined that pressure on the QB is the key - that's the thing. He'll dial up a D du jour each Sunday. Pittsburgh can't do that. They're all blitz all the time. Last year NE couldn't do that - they were basically trying NOT to "play outside themselves," and themselves were pretty damn limited by year's end.

Long story short, we can now "just do more stuff" again, but you'll know about what exactly the Pats are up to on game day and no sooner. If our injury luck holds, you would see a defense you can't predict week to week, unless you and BB see exactly the same things on game tape. That's what made the 03/04 squads some of the best Ds in the league - the flexi-Billity.

PFnV

Digger44

somehow i see somebody claiming we need to switch to a 4-3 in this thread.

PATRIOT64

After last year I would just be happy with a defense that actually stays healthy and together most of the season and we don't have to go looking for street guys working at a Walmart or somewhere and who are out of the league at the time-we need healthy guys and stability-THAT IS WHAT MAKES A STRONG DEFENSE!

wistahpatsfan

I think we need to switch to a 4-3 this season, and prevent as many scores as possible.
Oh, and Troy Brown at ILB to spell Bruschi's wrist.

Digger44

ahhhhhhhhhh. at lest the troy brown thing could work. that dude can do it all.