jukes

So adding a top rated corner doesnt improve the pass rush? lol yea we passed on all those players and we're still a top team every single year to win it? i dont understand the fuss BB has a system and it seems to work.

fair catch fryar

WTF. Who exactly were the Pats monster pass-rushers from the '03-'04 defenses? Hey, I'm no longer frustrated by it, but am still perplexed why BB didn't target an OLB/DE that could apply some pressure, but people seem to forget the biggest factor in every Patriot playoff loss since '07. The D got long in the tooth and could no longer execute the way BB expects. He has been injecting the defense with youth. The playoff loss to the Jets can be pinned on several key plays where inexperience and youth did not execute properly. This year I've accepted the fact that he's spreading the wealth to the offensive side with the addition of a big, physical DB which I am very excited about.

jukes

cant say he didnt draft an olb!

Big-T

The point was "every top defense has an elite pass rusher" who's the elite pass rusher for the Jets? They don't have one, they rely on the overall talent and scheme to get pressure, not one player earmarked as the "pass rusher".

The Jets are the example to follow on that side of the ball, you don't need the likes of Matthews on your team if you couple a very good scheme with talented players.

So, in my opinion, this season (hopefully we get one) the Patriots should go with more man coverage (the CB's are good enough to do it) and the front 7 show more stunts & moves when they blitz, double A gap blitzing with Mayo & Spikes could be VERY successful with Vince on the nose as an simple example of a way to get pressure without the elite pass rushing OLB.

jukes

the best kind of pressure is the one thats right up the middle, and also can you honestly say there is a TOP defense in the whole nfl that doesnt have some sort of weakness?

patsfaninpittsburgh

The mental disease continues. History shows that sustained reality will never unconvince people committed to really stupid ideas.


.....and if you watched the draft this weekend the analysts spent the weekend talking about how the Jets didn't have a "pass rusher"...

The Jets have a better secondary. With 7/8 in coverage they dared us to run. We didn't.

The Steelers did and won.

We just drafted two more RB's. Solution drafted.

If a pass rusher really mattered, Dallas would be #1 with Ware

Pittsburgh's defense wouldn't completely suck without Polamalu

Matthews wouldn't need untouched sacks (thanx secondary) to get stats.

This is a QB driven, you can never have too many good CB's league. BB and Rexy (to his credit) realize this.

Your "pass rusher" and pass rush will compliment and integrate.

The won area I would like us to "copycat" is the Giants and have four Dline that can get pressure. With Wright/Pryor/ T Warren, we have a good base.

Interesting how the pass rusher psychos will never realize that our best pass rushers were not available for the playoffs.

Now if we could only get to what should be expected of a unit comprised of rookies and second year players........

Haley

It seems to me that the pass-rushing OLB strategy is not so much a myth as a strategy some teams use to win. It is necessary for certain teams and you can't argue with the successes they have had. However, the question here is whether or not the pass-rushing OLB is required on every team build.

BB seems to have good success without a star rusher. We did pretty well last year without one. With the improvements on the secondary, perhaps it will be enough perhaps not. But I think it is a mistake to say "since pass rush is needed in the strategy used by team XYZ it is needed for us as well". That logic doesn't hold, they have a different team and a different strategy.

I guess my point is, these comments stating that a certain team can't win without a pass rush has no relevance. The question is only this: do the Patriots need a star pass rusher for their defensive strategy to work. My take on it is, given our success last year, it didn't seem like we "needed" it. But it certainly wouldn't hurt!

Observer

The biggest defensive reason for our losses has been not being able to stop the pass, even against rookies and supposedly poor QBs. Dowling should help out on this.

The biggest offensive reason for our not winning has been high dependence on TB coupled with the o-line being sub par against top flight defensive lines. Hope Solder and Cannon help with this problem. That should make the team better.

I think we should have done some more about the first problem rather than trading out of picks/picking up running backs. I hope that BB is going to do something about it in FA and I believe that he will, although recently he seems to have shied away from that approach. It is a glaring weakness and it would be wild to think that BB doesn't see it that way. If we continue to ignore it, I am afraid we will perennially be two years away from the superbowl.

upstater1

Man, how wrong can you possibly be in a such a short post?

First, 1 year of Seymour for potentially 10 years of top caliber LT. You wouldn't make that trade?

Second, Belichick didn't defer on the offer of a Raiders first last year. Where are you getting your info from?

randomk1

And i stand by it. The Jets are ****ty example because they are allowed so much flexibility on defense thanks to 1 player. It involves Darrelle Revis completely eliminating any given receiver from the field. The Jets can basically count on the ball not going his way. That is a big luxury that no other team has and the Jets have enough talent on other positions to take advantage of it.