dannydyn

Not sure, but it appears that our defense plays MUCH better against tougher opponents. It's as if they come onto the field with a bit of arrogance when playing inferior teams - and it comes to bite them in the a55.

Jets, Cards, Bills (yesterday's game), etc..... all appeared to have played with too much leniency.... as if with the attitude of "ah...fck it, we're playing a crappy team, no need to put 100%". Then it comes to bite them in the a55, just for them to get a wake up call late in the 4th qtr in a desperate attempt to save the game. Sometimes it works (Bills yesterday, Jets), other times it doesn't (Cards, Seahawks).

On the other hand, when they played the Broncos and Ravens, they put up a lights out performance. They showed more respect and accountability when playing better teams (Ravens game was lost due to the secondary indeed shooting itself in the foot, but also due to some shady replacement officiating, which otherwise should have been our win).

The Denver game goes to show that our defense IS capable of putting up good performance. But their attitude is what ultimate decides the outcome.

Thoughts?

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FirstAndGoal

That's just a case of wishful thinking.

ausbacker

There was nothing lights out about the D's performances against the Ravens or the Broncos. The D is average at best.

dannydyn

Broncos and Ravens are great teams. A win or even a close loss is considered a good performance. OK, maybe not 'lights out', but pretty good nonetheless.

Put another way, had the Pats D played against the Hawks, Cards, and Bills yesterday, like they played against the Broncos, those games would not have been that close (or lost altogether for that matter).

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ausbacker

I don't agree with that dannydyn. I don't agree with that at all. The Patriots average performance on D is generally mediocre. They are the beneficiaries of an all time Offense.

Nehalem

Against the cards they allowed 20 points... 7 from when the Cardinals were gifted the ball inside the 5 due to a blocked punt.

j109

Attitude is always what ultimately decides the outcome, Danielson.

RodThePat

The defense played poorly against the Ravens. Against Denver they were pretty stout and made some plays when they had to, but aside from that game I don't remember them shutting any decent offense out. But you have a point in the sense that, looking at how bad they've played against pretty terrible offenses, one would think a team that's above-average on that side of the ball would absolutely kill us, and that hasn't necessarily been the case most of the time.

upstater1

I agree with danny.

They were loafing around out there yesterday. You could freakin' see it. Players jogging. They were flat against Arizona and flat against the Jets as well, hard as that is to believe.

This and the 2009 team are the only 2 BB teams I've seen half-arsing it.

The defense was indeed stout and fired up against the Ravens. Five of those Ravens drives were propelled by referee calls. The refs kept extending the Ravens' drives and keeping the Pats D on the field.

I don't know why players are loafing out there, but it is disturbing.

Gumby

YES.......
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It is just YOU.

Bal and Den the Pats gave up 503 and 394 total yards respectively. vs pass they gave up 9.8 and 7.4 yard per pass with 71% and 70% pass completion rates respectively. Not sure how that is lights out. Bal was in fact the 2nd WORST YPP for any game this season (only Sea at 10.5 was worse).

The best pass defense they have had (stats wise - for what that is worth) were against the Cards, Titans, and StL (5.2, 6.1, and 6.8 YPP respectively). Which you can argue about whether AZ started out year as a good team and went downhill or that Tenn looks a lot better now than they did in game 1; but all 3 are below .500 after 8 to 10 games.

So they played well against the statistical bums and play poor vs good teams. Sorry, selective memory is playing tricks on you.


And what is worse; is that the only guys they held below 60% completion rates are the games where they played against the #2 QB (AZ) or a Rookie QB (where i think they took out one of his prime wrs due to injury during course of game). Note that if they hadn't taken out the QB vs Titans their (titans) numbers would be better too.

Probably the worst indictment is this:
7. Jests1- 403 (297/106) 28-41 (68%) 7.2ypp
If you can make Sanchize-bow look that good; YOU HAVE TO BE BAD.