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BostonHerald.com - Blogs: Rap Sheet» Blog Archive » Why Patriots DL coach Pepper Johnson is “more than” pleased (really) with his pass-rush…


One interesting note from Rapport is where he mentions the 3 step drops opposing qb's are taking which makes it more difficult to get to the qb.

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Zeus

The conventional wisdom (and opinion of many on this board) is that NE has far and away the worst pass defense in the league. The customary ranking is based on passing yards allowed. NE ranks last with 1475 yards through 4 games.

Let's compare NE with the Dream Team Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles have given up 871 yards passing through week 4, ranking them 11th in the league. Obviously better than the embarrassingly woeful Patriots, right?

The Eagles superior pass rush (15 sacks, ranked #1) has to be a huge advantage relative to NE (6 sacks, tied for 25th). And the Eagles feature CBs Asante Samuel and Nmandi Asomugha, widely considered to be the most talented tandem in football.

Here's the surprise ending.

Opponents passer rating: Eagles 106.7 (32nd) NE 91.0 (20th)

TDs allowed: Eagles 10 (32nd) NE 7 (T 10th)

Interceptions: Eagles 2 (24th) NE 7 (T 3rd).

The Eagles have the talent and the pass rush that the Patriots lack yet the results are demonstrably worse in the most important areas.

(By the way, old friend Asante Samuel was brutal last week, giving up an easy TD to Josh Morgan and getting run over by Frank Gore for the game winning TD. This prompted a memorable (and ironic) quote from none other than Deion Sanders: "If you can't cover, you have to tackle. If you can't tackle, you have to cover. But you can't not do both." Who still misses Asante?)

One other quick note - guess who has the 31st ranked pass defense with 1343 yards allowed. That would be the consensus best team in the league Green Bay Packers. What do they have in common with NE? They're just about always ahead.

In today's NFL, the rules are stacked against the defense. The heightened protections for QBs and "defenseless" receivers have clearly exacerbated the situation. Most teams are having trouble playing pass defense.

Things aren't always as simple as they appear. Recognizing that pass defense is definitely an area the 2011 Patriots must improve, I'm not all that convinced that the situation is as dire as many here believe.

Patriots Nation NY

Eye test says they are horrible ..

SONS_OF_BELICHICK

stats are for losers.......the only important numbers are in the W category....


Lets go Pats......time to stick it to Gang Green

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Horace's Ivories

some pretty funny comments to the article

PATSYLICIOUS

I'm a homer and I believe in this defense, but the pass defense is awful right now. Have we held any QB's to under 300 yards yet? We haven't even faced any elite QB's aside from Rivers.

The good news is that it's better to have a bad pass defense than to have a bad run defense. If you can stop the run, you always have a shot in this league. The pass D will hopefully improve with the return of AH/Dowling/Bodden and some more seasoning.

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Shockt327

Sorry, but I'm totally not seeing it. Even if they aren't getting a sack, when I look at guys like Freeny or even Trent Cole -- there is a certain relentless pursuit; even on plays where it looks like, the latter, is simply playing contain. We need guys who can collapse the pocket. We don't have it.

BSR

Even if you don't think its the worst its still pretty bad. Hopefully they can improve.

D-Money

Its bad!!!Dont give me stats.The eagles will improve.I am worry about this team improving from game to game.

Deus Irae

The pass defense has been awful, and receivers have been getting burned deep plenty, meaning QBs have time in the pocket and are dropping more than 3 steps on plenty of occasions.

Instead of investing foolish energy into pretending everyone is seeing something that's not actually happening, the homers should be spending their energy being happy that the team is 3-1 despite the poor play of the defense, and hoping for significant improvement over the course of the year instead of the sort of window dressing we saw in 2010.

Last year apparently wasn't enough for some of you to figure it out.

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