JMC00

The Pats defense has forced as many fumbles as Chicago (17-which is the most in the league) and recovered 13 of them. Chicago has only recovered 11.

They have actually forced more fumbles through 9 games than they did all last year (10)

At least this D is doing something well.

randomk1

But can they get off the field without the turnovers?

__________________
Three out of Four. Back-to-back.

jmt57

Not really ... though I have to admit that I am surprised to see that the Giants are one of the teams that force their opponents to punt less often than the Patriots do.

NFL Football Stats - NFL Team Opponent Punt Attempts per Game on TeamRankings.com

PatsDeb

Yes, they are doing great on fumble/INT recoveries. The problem is the rest of their play. Two of their turnovers yesterday came on the one yard line and in the endzone when Buffalo (Buffalo for Cripes sake!!) had driven down the field on them at will. You can't count on getting TOs like that every game. Buffalo could have had TWO more TDs yesterday. Yikes.

Foxypats

I havent checked the stats, but I am sure the D is near the bottom in forcing 3 and outs!!That says alot and to me that is far more important. If they cannot get off the field ,Brady and co are forced to play in shootouts alot. How many times did Buffalo punt yesterday? It couldn't have been more than 2-3 times.

goheels22002

Bill Belichick opened his press conference yesterday talking about how the turnovers were important and he often calls turnovers the most important statistic right after points.

Against the Bills, the Patriots won the turnover battle 3-0 and won the game. Against the Cardinals they lost the turnover battle and they lost.

The Patriots are #1 in the league in takeaway ratio and have the most opportunistic defense in the league. They practice it and they execute strips and interceptions. The Patriots are quick and aggressive to the ball on fumbles. They led the AFC last year as well.

A previous poster commented that you cannot count on turnovers - well, yes you can. They are as much a part of the game as every other play.

the Patriot

We're really good at taking advantage of mistakes, but that's it. Every time Fitzpatrick didn't complete a pass yesterday, it was because of a bad throw, a drop, or a Bills penalty. Never a defensive play. Never because the coverage was good. A Bills mistake. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but that's how I felt.

nabwong

I think we won the turnover battle against Baltimore but still lost. Of course we were also playing against the refs.

__________________
Belichick: Stats are for losers. Final scores are for winners.

ivanvamp

Re: the bolded part. Actually, you can't. Interceptions might be one thing, and forced fumbles might be one thing, but recovered fumbles....no way you can count on those. One only needs to look at the last 3 Giants-Pats games to see that.

2007 - SB
NE forces 2 NYG fumbles, but the Giants recover both
NYG force 1 NE fumble, and the Giants recover it

2011 - Regular season
NE forces 2 NYG fumbles, and each team recovers one
NYG force 2 NE fumbles, and the Giants recover both

2011 - SB
NE forces 2 NYG fumbles, but the Giants recover both
NYG force 0 NE fumbles

So over these three games, the Patriots forced 6 Giant fumbles, but only recovered 1 of them. Meanwhile, the Giants only forced 3 Patriot fumbles, but recovered all 3.

So of the 9 total fumbles in those 3 games, the Giants only caused 3 (33.3%) of them, but they recovered 8 (88.9%) of them.

The randomness of the way a football bounces on the ground is perhaps the biggest reason why the Patriots do not have 5 SB titles.

goheels22002

Right you are. You left out interceptions - Brady threw one in the Feb 2012 SB and Manning threw one in the 2008 SB. Ellis Hobbs picked off Manning in the 2007 regular season game in the 4th quarter that led to the winning TD.

The key thing about turnovers is that they are going to happen.

It's very difficult to play a completely turnover free game against the Patriots. Meanwhile, the Pats play a surprisingly high percentage of games without a turnover due to Tom Brady's ability to avoid interceptions and the value the team puts on ball security by its running backs.

BJGE was great for not putting the ball on the ground and Ridley is also good with the ball - 1 lost fumble in nearly 200 carries so far in 2012.