RI Patriots fan

I'm not sure if this is saying much but in just about every category, the Patriot's defense is better than last year's defense. Except in sacks where they have 3 less sacks than last year, the Patriots have gotten better in terms of both performance and ranking.

Total yards: 2011- 411.1 ypg, 31st overall.....2012- 373.2 ypg, 25th overall

Passing yards: 2011- 293.9 ypg, 31st overall....2012- 271.4 ypg, 29th overall

Running yards: 2011- 117.1 ypg, 16th overall....2012- 101.9 ypg, 9th overall

Scoring: 2011- 21.4 ppg, 18th overall.......2012- 20.7 ppg, 9th overall

Turnovers: 2011- 34, 4th place overall.......2012- 41, 2nd place overall



2012-13 Team Defense Statistics - NFL - Sporting News


NFL Stats: by Team Category


Long ways to go, but definitely trending in the right direction.

ivanvamp

Offense is also better than last year.

Category - 2011 - 2012
Points Per Game - 32.1 (#3) - 34.8 (#1)
Yards Per Game - 428.0 (#2) - 427.9 (#1)
Pass Yards Per Game - 317.8 (#2) - 291.4 (#4)
Rush Yards Per Game - 110.3 (#20) - 136.5 (#7)
Rush Yards Per Carry - 4.0 (#24) - 4.2 (#17)
Rush TD - 18 (#3) - 25 (#1)

It's nice when both your offense and your defense are improved over the previous year.

Patriot_in_NY

Esp. when the team last year came within a few dropped passes from winning the Super Bowl.

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patsinthesnow

I think the biggest difference is it's no longer a two-pronged problem with the defense. Last year you could attack the defense through the ground and through the air.

2011 rushing defense-4.6 ypc, 24th in the league (this hurt us in the first half of the SB)

2012 rushing defense-3.9 ypc, 6th in the league

Atleast this year we have a defensive strength.

cstjohn17

Nice post, thank you. I think I said this some where else so my apoligizes for repeating myself, I am getting up there is years, etc...

Earlier in the year I thought if the Patriots could play average defense they would be contenders. They are pretty average, a little better in some areas but worse in others.

3 games to go, Brady plays well they have a very good shot.

Go Pats!!!

patsfan13

IF the D is healthy (ie Talib and Dennard) it is significantly better at all 3 levels.

All 5 DB positions are stronger than last year.

LB are stronger than last year (addition of Hightower)

DL is stronger than last year (addition of Jones, development of Love and Deaderick)


The upgrade of the DB's is most striking, when McCourty is at S w/Gregory the talent is vastly superior, Arrington is far better in the slot and Tablib and Dennard are better at the corners than McCourty and Arrington.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

mayoclinic

If the Pats re-sign Talib they will have the core defense inteact for 2013, plus Dowling back, and the possibly addition of an interior pass rusher like Pryor or Forston. 3 rookie starters (Jones, Hightower, Dennard) should get better, plus Wilson and Francis (maybe even Bequette, though that's a lot to hope for). A year of experience for 5 new starters (the 3 rookies plus Talib and Gregory) plus 2 starters who changed positions (Ninkovich and McCourty). Dowling back, FWIW - maybe nothing, maybe significant. Lots of reasons to believe that the defense should improve again in 2013, unless they lose Talib.

If the Pats see even modest gains for 2013, along the lines of what they did in the 2nd half of 2012, we should see something like:

- 18-20 PPG average (would rank in the top 5-7 this year). Even a drop of 0.7 PPG - similar to what we dropped compared to 2011 - gets us to under 20 PPG.
- Less than 240 YPG passing (would rank about 22nd or so)
- Less than 100 YPG rushing (would rank in the top 7 this year)
- Less than 340 YPG (would rank about 13th this year. That would be about a 30 YPG drop from 2012, similar to the drop in YPG from 2011 to now.

A BB defense is always going to give up some yards in favor of BBDB, and with the Pats' offense putting up points opposing defenses will often get cheap yards playing from behind, and will have to pass a lot, pushing up their passing yardage totals a bit. I don't expect YPG totals like the Steelers put up. But those numbers should be eminently achievable if we maintain continuity and build on what we currently have. Perhaps more, but I'd be happy to start with those goals.

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

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TinhWoodhead

the last game helped overall ranking a lot, not to mention 7 sacks.

robertweathers

Even Pitt and SF plays crappy offenses. Gotta play 'em anyway.

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“I'm not really concerned about the other 31 teams,” - Bill Belichick

"If a player has talent and doesn't succeed, that means that they either don't want to be successful or I have failed as a coach." - Bill Belichick

Nikolai

Kinda compensates for the ridiculously short fields the D had to defend against the 49ers. It all works out in the end.

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We get what we deserve.

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“On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson..they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sacks last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.”