Kid~Brady

Just a thought.

Me personally, I liked our defense scheme alot better than last seasons in the sense that we are a more aggresive pass rush team rather than the "play coverage" type defense. Of course with new personel on the D-line means they will need time to officially gel with one another before they really become dominant, if that happens this season.

I honestly think that this season the defense will be leaning on the offense for atleast the first half of the season before they really become a solid unit. I like our 3rd down conversion percentage much better than last seasons, we got adequate pressure on the QB (it will get better) and our rookies, young but good, secondary seems to be clinging on much better.

Until they gel, Brady and that offense will have to basically carry the load until they do.

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HomerSchooled

I'm inclined to agree, and hopefully that doesn't doom us. I don't expect to win any games where our offense scores less than 24 or so for the first half of the season. Hopefully, things start to slide into place as the year goes on. You want to win in the postseason, you have to be able to do it different ways. People forget the GB and NO offenses had bad playoff games on the way to winning SBs, easily worse than the game our's had in January. Those performances are unavoidable, and we simply haven't been able to afford them. Teams need more balance for championship runs.

MrNathanDrake

Our defense really helped out a lot last season.

Remember the Miami game where Ninkovich had a couple INT's, and Chung had 2 blocked kicks and a pick-6?

The Lions game was another one. I think McCourty had 2 picks that game.

Chargers last year made some self inflicted errors and our defense capitalized.



I think our D will be a lot better than people expect. Haynesworth seems like he fully bought into the system and wants to redeem himself.

Myron Pryor could emerge as a solid player.

Chung and McCourty are a year older and more experienced. Both will have good years. Bodden coming back, and Dowling addition, we might have the best secondary we've had in years. FS is a question mark though.

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Bring on the 2012 Season

xmarkd400x

It is ok if the offense bails out the defense. It is not okay if the defense becomes complacent because of the offense.

I do think that the offense will bail out the defense more than once in the first 8 games of the season.

Rob0729

We only have the preseason and one week to look at. This is a defense in progress and last weekend showed that defenses all over the league are behind the offenses. Also, I thought the defense's play in between the first drive and the last 9 minutes or so was way underrated last week. The Dolphins got about 30% of their yards after the Welker TD pretty much sealed the game and 84 more yard on the opening drive (opening drives are not a great way to judge the defense because of adjustments haven't been made).

People are talking about the fact that Henne put up over 400 yards, but there isn't nearly as much talk about the Dolphins only converting 2 of 14 3rd downs or the Dolphins going 3 and out on five possessions.

The Pats defense still needs to grow quite a bit to be a top tier defense, but the defense always improves during the year under Belichick. I thought it was a very good start based on all the new personnel and scheme for the team. I am sure in a month, they will be worlds better than they were on Monday night.

LetsGoPats36

For the first half of the season that's a reasonable assumption. If our D isn't a legitimate strength by the second half, we're gonna be in trouble come playoff time again.

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patsfaninpittsburgh

The only weakness on this defense is playing with multi score leads in the 4th quarter.

The defense needs zero bailing out.

Did you watch the game?

For three quarters (drives 2-9) the Dolphins did squat. The only thing that made this game even remotely close was the INT.

I am beginning to think Madden and fantasy football should be outlawed based on the collective harm inflicted on the nation's football IQ.

Rob0729

yeah, people look at Henne's numbers and just automatically assume the Pats' defense is just as bad or worse than last year. Definitely not the case. The Pats had the Dolphins under 300 yards going into garbage time in the last six minutes of the game. That is where the Dolphins padded their stats.

The defense wasn't great, but not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

patsfaninpittsburgh

Actually, the defense was pretty darn good with the exception of the soft/prevent whatever that is. This is the one area that is baffling because it almost cost us the San Diego game and isn't well executed within the context of situational football.

It's simply amzing why so many people get caught up in stupid meaningless stats.

Likewise, it's amazing that reality shows Sanchez level QB's complete 55% of their passes......and patsfans.com is continually shocked another team gains some yards.

Start with the drive log and before looking determine the correct objectives as per situational football.

mgteich

1) 4 sacks
2) allowed 2 of 14 3rd down conversions
3) had 2 successful goal line stands
4) shut down their running game except for the quarterback
5) caused about 20 hurries

Did we really expect more from the first game of a new defense with lots of new players?

Miami ws never really in the game. The freak interception made the game seem much closer than it was.

My CONCLUSION is that this new defense did a fine job in its first effort. And, yes, they will be much better in the second half of the year, when they have had much more time together, and the newcomers know the system better.
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THAT BEING SAID, Miami is a terrible team. We will face much better teams, starting on Sunday. Rivers is a bigger challenge than Henne. We are likely to have a couple of stinkers in the first half of the season.

My concern is the relative lack of quality at OLB and S. I suspect that our best nickel defense is 4 corners and 1 safety (as opposed to 3 safeties last year). In essence, we cut 2 of our top 3 safeties and didn't replace them. Sure Barrett could perform like Arrington did at corner last year, adequately. I would note that Arrington is now #4 corner, quite reasonable, and a quality asset.

Is anyone really looking forward to counting on Ninkovich, Cunningham and Anderson as our OLB's.