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BY THE NUMBERS: Patriots Pass Defense Has Improved
By: Ian Logue

The Patriots pass defense was their weak link for the early part of the year, but lately that's one area that is finally becoming the strength of this team....

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Gumby

STRONGER, yes. no doubt.

THE STRENGTH. ummmm poor choice of words there.

interesting you date the change point to before Talib showed up. Was your cutoff point the McC FS point? it appears so, but not sure which game that was off the top of my head.

So if Pats are now at 2.75 20+yd plays per game; what is league avg and are the best D teams (bears, sf, den, sea) doing in that regard (who posts those type stat #s)?

ALSO: Am I the only one who finds the new format on these BLOGS UTTERLY ANNOYING. I like reading OTG as a change of pace, but reading every blog in OTG-like format LARGE RED-BOLD font is a bit annoying.

Gumby

Top 3 Teams in (Least) 20+ yd plays:
Squeelers 22 (= 1.8 per game)
SF 25 (= 2.08 per game)
Rams 27 (= 2.25 per game)

Worst:
NE: 59 (by a good margin +7 over 31 ranked TB)

A 2.75 avg through the season to date would mean the Pats would have been the equivalent of the 10-14th ranked pass Ds for 20+ plays. Trendwise that is good; ....

but total stats for year (if they maintain that pace of 2.75) would still leave them at 4.37 per game or the equivalent of having 52 at this point instead of 59. Congratulations.... the improvement moved you from 32nd to tied for 31st IN THE LEAGUE. Wooo Hoooo.

So definitely, NOT THE strength. I would have to say THE strength is FORCING TURNOVERS.

KontradictioN

In that time period, the team has played the following ranked passing offenses: 22, 26, 5, 28, and 23. Not exactly a murderer's row of passing offenses. We'll see just how much this pass defense has improved on Monday night.

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CREDIT - Sicilian

Ian

I was purely looking at this chart and noticed the trend, which started with the Rams game:

2012 Patriots Defensive Play Broken Down by Distance Allowed

So that was the reference point when I put the entry together. You're right, not necessarily the "strength" (that was the wrong word) but certainly no where near as bad as they were through the start of the season and at least it shows they're heading in the right direction.

On your other comment, what does "OTG" mean? I'm also wondering what you're referencing regarding the "large red-bold" font? I'm still tweaking things here and there so I appreciate the feedback.

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Fixit

True, but hasn't that been one of the biggest problems over the last few seasons? Making sharty QBs look like Pro Bowlers? Judging by nothing other than my stress level whenever someone drops back to throw... and my confidence that the D can now consistently get stops ... there has been definite improvement.

Fixit

"Off The Grid." HE tends to get CREATIVE with his FORMATTING.

Ian

LOL - Gumby was referencing the blogs though, so I'm just trying to figure out what he was referring to.

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mayoclinic

That's true. But who did we make look like superstars in the first 7 games:

- Week 1: Jake Locker/Matt Hasselback
- Week 2: Kevin Kolb
- Week 3: Joe Flacco
- Week 4: Ryan Fitzpatrick
- Week 5: Peyton Manning
- Week 6: Russell Wilson
- Week 7: Mark Sanchez

Aside from Manning, we didn't exactly face an elite group of QBs in the first 7 games, but we still got shredded. 36 receptions over 20 yards, 5 over 40.

Since the Sam Bradford 50 yard pass in the first quarter of the Rams game the Pats have only given up 1 completion over 40 yards (the Andrew Luck to TY Hilton TD pass after the game was well out of reach), and only 4 receptions over 30 yards. They had 8 interceptions in the last 5 games.

The pass defense has clearly improved. Whether it is good enough to stand up to a top level passing attack is another matter altogether, but however it does, the pass defense from the first 7 games would have fared far worse.

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Raymond

Well, I was pleased that Bess was held to only one catch for 13 yds, far below his average.

It's looking a bit better. But...

Let's see Andre Johnson. 1114 yds, 74 catches, 15 ypc, in 12 games. That guy scares me.