Official eat your words on defense thread

[D-Money]

They play hard and they do just enough but they still give up big chunks of plays.That still scares me.They havent improve in coverage when there is no heat on the QB.

[KontradictioN]

Originally Posted by Simkin

That was a miracle. That defense is one of the worst than i ever see, if not the worst closing a game . And for stats, the worst of all time in 3er down

I take it you haven't watched Houston's and Arizona's defense this year then. Two who, right off the top of my head, are A LOT worse than us on both third down and in general.

[Dutchmaster617]

Originally Posted by AndyJohnson

What does being there have to do with it? I saw the same game.
The point is that being conservative was the correct call. Everything went as bad as it possibly could on both sides of the ball from that point on, and they won the game.
An aggressive scheme could not have produced a better result. Same maybe, but not better, and certainly not under the qualifier that everything went wrong.
Could they execute the scheme better? Sure, but to call for a more aggressive approach under these circumstances is short sighted IMO.

Everything didn't go wrong, we got a gift wrapped underthrow for Christmas. If everything went wrong they would have kicked the FG or tossed the GW, either way we would have been in deep trouble. We got a break there and while Bill is a genius obviously that won't always be the case, we all saw what Eli and Peyton have done in the past years in the final seconds, I think we need to run up the score and mix the prevent with a few aggressive plays to keep the pressure on Manning, he had zero in the final 10 minutes but made a bad throw, yes we had the pass rush but usually guys shrug us off and complete, its been happening all season.

[mgteich]

OK, I certainly agree with regard to Houston and perhaps Arizona with regard to total defense.

So, this discussion has beedn reduced to discussing whether we are the very worst defense in the league? I agree that there are clearly worse defenses. Most of those teams are at the bottom of their divisions.

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BTW, how we not one of the worst teams on defending 3rd down?

2010 NFL Team Downs Stats - National Football League - ESPN
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Obviously, our team is good enough (or not bad enough) to be a defense of an 8-2 team. It is also a defense that is not bad enough to prevent us from being in the playoffs.

The season has a long way to go. The defense is getting better. They had a fine game against the steelers.

Originally Posted by KontradictioN

I take it you haven't watched Houston's and Arizona's defense this year then. Two who, right off the top of my head, are A LOT worse than us on both third down and in general.

[mgcolby]

Originally Posted by Simkin

That was a miracle. That defense is one of the worst than i ever see, if not the worst closing a game . And for stats, the worst of all time in 3er down

You simply do not understand what you are watching if you truly believe that.

See Houston yesterday. They fit your statement very nicely.

[mgcolby]

Originally Posted by West Philly Patriot

Wait, So are you giving the D props for that 4th quarter performance? This win was more on peyton manning than on our D in my mind. He shredded us all the way up the field he had at the very least OT in his grasp. The D missed tackles, took bad angles and blew assignments.

If Manning isn't so afraid to get sacked or throws the ball away there the least they get is 3 and in OT anything goes. Manning is not a great in high pressure situations as pats fans we know this better than anyone.

I give BB props for continuing to stick with zone to disguise coverage and Jermaine Cunningham for getting a little pressure on that last play. Last but not least james sanders for making a tough interception with his finger tips. But besides that I see little the pats did right Defensively in the last 10 min.

Sanders believes they goated Manning into that throw.

Originally Posted by Sanders

Me and Gary Guyton had a double on the tight end [Jacob Tamme], and looking through Tamme to Peyton, he saw me step down and knew he had one-on-one with the corner [on Pierre Garcon]. I tried to drop back at the last second and help," Sanders said. "Luckily I got enough depth to make the play

[cstjohn17]

Originally Posted by PATSYLICIOUS

They've been better than the #'s indicate IMO. I'm confident they'll be alot better by January too.

To think this defense would stifle the Baltimore Ravens 5 straight times in the 4th Q/OT to beat them, shut down Big Ben and the Steelers, stop Phillip Rivers after we hand him the ball at midfield up by just 3, and pick off Peyton with 25 ticks to protect a 3 point lead there too. Those are bigtime holds, regardless of the yards/points given up resilience and clutch play is a critical trait. That said, plenty room for improvement...with some adjustments they can be a great D.

I will eat crow, I thought they would be at least average. So far they have been much worse than average.

I have been impressed by their fighting spirit and their in no substitute for "on the job training" especially while the team finds ways to win.

My new mantra is "Come on defense, just be average!"

[mgteich]

Agreed.

With our offense and special teams, an average defense with fire in their bellies is sufficient to beat anyone.

An average defense would likely make us SB favorites entering the playoffs.

The difference between the worst in 3rd down defense in the league to average is HUGE. That would be an considerable improvement. Being average in points allowed would be awesone.

Originally Posted by cstjohn17

.
My new mantra is "Come on defense, just be average!"

[The Dynasty]

Stat wise the defense is one of the worst in the league, the stats do make the Pats look worse than they really are. An example of that is the Steelers game, clearly the Pats D dominated but Big Big put up over 300 yards passing. Most of it coming in garbage time, same thing happened in the Bengals game.

The stat that alarms me is how bad the Patriots are on third down. The Colts were 6-7 on 3rd down in the 2nd half. This really needs to improve if the Pats are going to go anywhere in the playoffs. The thing with the defense is when they really need to make a big play they do. Look at all the crucial stops in the Ravens game, and then the INT yesterday.

[ATippett56]

Originally Posted by Joker

Uh...I was THERE...I could have sworn Manning was in FG range and Vinitieri was ready to come in for the tie. Are you seriously suggesting that Manning throwing that INT was caused by the Pats prevent??? What did the prevent stop at 10 minutes? a two minute drive for a TD????and then two minutes later? another TD drive? THIS is good football strategy? I KNOW what the 2 deep safety shell SHOULD do when the team is up by 17 points...what I DO NOT agree with is that THIS defense as played by THIS current iteration of the Pats knows how to play it so that the clock is bled and the other team loses by attrition. I mean, you're telling me my eyes are lying to me and everyone else that was THERE watching this unfold and that the previous defensive calls that led to control of the game would have suddenly become ineffective with 10 minutes left???? as ineffective as what we witnessed???? I can't buy that....the Pats need a ton of work on this scheme as far as I'm concerned.

The New England Patriots prevent defense prevents me from enjoying a good night's sleep!