BlueThunder

Have to agree...Love...Deaderick...Spikes....Moore ....

Good base of youngsters to build the D off......

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LetsGoPats36

Spikes... He outperformed Mayo by a good margin in the playoffs.


Biggest let down is easily the corner position, which I thought finally looked competent before the start of the season. Seemed to be a nice mix of vets and youth.

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PATSYLICIOUS

Moore and Arrington for sure. They gave our secondary the reliable contributions we needed in addition to Chung/McCourty in order to have a shot at a title.

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jmt57

When the season began I had high hopes for the defense. On the defensive line the Pats were going to have a rotation of some combination of Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Mike Wright, Marcus Stroud, Eric Moore, Kyle Love, Brandon Deaderick, Myron Pryor, Darryl Richard, Alex Silvestro, and then they added Albert Haynesworth, Andre Carter, Shaun Ellis and Mark Anderson.

At linebacker the Pats had what appeared to be a good group of improving young players: Jerod Mayo, Gary Guyton, Brandon Spikes, Jermaine Cunningham, Rob Ninkovich, Dane Fletcher and Jeff Tarpinian. The secondary appeared to be solid at both corner (Devin McCourty, Leigh Bodden, Kyle Arrington) and safety (Brandon Meriweather, James Sanders, Patrick Chung) plus rookie Ras-I Dowling.

It seemed to me that the defense had incredible depth, and all it would take would be for just a couple of these players to take the next step for them to become formidable.

Rather than specifically who surprised me, I would say what surprised me was that the defense was able to improve as much as they did over the course of the season when you consider the sheer number of how many of those players named above were lost, whether it be due to injury or lack of production, for either extended parts of the season or the entire season.

I think if I had to pick one, I might consider Vince Wilfork being able to not just be a three-down player, but being a productive three-down player. That's just unheard of for a player of his size.

MoLewisrocks

Deaderick was one of my sleepers that draft, a rarity. Love and Moore who came out of nowhere. If these guys didn't hit their ceiling already that will be sweet. McCourty literally fell off a cliff. Hope he can be revived or retooled into a playmaker with a full off season. Anderson and Carter, hope they can both come back in form in 2012. Ninkovitch continues to show flashes. Hope he can yet become a consistent playmaker.

PATRIOTSFANINPA

Most surprising by far is Moore who has been making more good plays than bad ones and Love who is dedicating his career to a fallen good friend.

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SpaceOdyssey

Deaderick, Spikes, Moore, Arrington, Ninkovich all stepped up. The most surprising was Moore. He stepped up and came in to save the day numerous times.

patsinthesnow

Moore, my binky going into 2012. In the four games he played significant time at CB (Bills, Broncos, Ravens, Giants) he made plays in all of them, and that's without him starting. He's a playmaker, and you can't teach that.

His main weakness seems to be defending corner and streak routes. If he can improve that in camp, or we find a real cover safety to play near him, he should start next year.

BelichickFan

I know this is a stretch but Moore and Dowling as the CB, Arrington as the slot CB, McCourtey and Chung as the Safeties gives us a shot at a legit DB. Unfortunately Moore, Dowling, McCourtey are all high risk to be highly successful at those positions.

patsinthesnow

The backfield in 2012 has a chance to be the best we've fielded in years, but like you said its high risk.

We need a real FS badly, whether that's Mccourty, a FA, or a draftee. Moore/Dowling/Arrington could be one hell of a trio, but like you say, it depends on Moore not being a flash in the pan and Dowling coming back good.