Pats defense failing to pass the test

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WEEI 850AM Sports Radio - Pats Defense Failing to Pass the Test

 

[Born_a_Patriot]

WEEI 850AM Sports Radio - Pats Defense Failing to Pass the Test

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[JoePats]

Certainly of concern at this point, but it's still a small sample and we are 3-1. They did a great job against Favre. A lot of that was Pennington carving 'em up, but that was only one game.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

BB's soft zone defenses are going to give up a lot of passing yards, especially in outside the red zone, however once an opponenet gets inside our red zone, the defense is supposed to tighten up.

2 things that can improve our pass defense:

1.) Put Mayo on the bench during passing situations.
2.) Pass Rush! We desperately need a pass rush demon, a Ware or Merriman type player coming off the edge. The NT is the most important part of a 3-4 defense and the second is the demon coming off the edge.

 

[Kontradiction]

BB's soft zone defenses are going to give up a lot of passing yards, especially in outside the red zone, however once an opponenet gets inside our red zone, the defense is supposed to tighten up.

2 things that can improve our pass defense:

1.) Put Mayo on the bench during passing situations.
2.) Pass Rush! We desperately need a pass rush demon, a Ware or Merriman type player coming off the edge. The NT is the most important part of a 3-4 defense and the second is the demon coming off the edge.

It's supposed to be Vrabel but he's not doing such a bang up job at that this year than he has in years past. It could be because he's starting to hit the age wall and just isn't as fast coming off the edge anymore. I'd like to see them put Crable in a game when the outcome is already out of reach (in our favor) and see what he can do against a pass rush. He looked like a demon coming off the edge in preseason but then again he was going against scrubs.

 

[MassPats38]

I would agree the defense has issues after essentially five bad quarters of play (all of Miami and a quarter against San Fran), but this is over 4 games. 2005 was nowhere near this good for a stretch as the team showed an inability to stop the running game and passing game in several consecutive games ending in blowouts (take a look at the Chargers and Colts games that year - those were genuine nightmares, worse than the Miami game).

As for dismissing the QBs of the Niners, Jets and Chiefs, who have those QBs beaten this year? Who have the Dolphins beaten? You cannot have it both ways, saying the defense blows because of competition it has faced while saying the Bolts and Donkeys are good teams, or extremely talented teams if not good.

This is not to say the defense is sound. It has a long way to go. Given the defensive performance without Bruschi in 2005, and the heavy reliance on the ILB in the 3-4 scheme, I suspect some of the failings may be attributable to Mayo's inexperience, which should improve with all his playing time. The defense did pursue a quick O'Sullivan (I know - they didn't catch him often enough) last week and the secondary is not as bad as I feared it might be adding a new corner. I suspect you will see improvement from this unit as the season progresses, without any major roster moves.

 

[RayClay]

Bring back Otis Smith.

 

[Deus Irae]

This guy must not have seen too many Patriots/Jets games in the past few years if he's belittling Pennington.

 

[denverpatsfan]

They better start "getting it" soon. The Donks come to town in a little over a week. How the heck are they going to cover Brandon Marshall??!!

 

[ALP]

good analysis article...

but as long as the Defense allows the opposing team to get less pts then our offense gets, they can have a 100 defensive passer rating...and i could care less...

 

[ALP]

They better start "getting it" soon. The Donks come to town in a little over a week. How the heck are they going to cover Brandon Marshall??!!

i think hobbs/oneal will do an above avg job in covering marshall...

 

[Rob0729]

I would agree the defense has issues after essentially five bad quarters of play (all of Miami and a quarter against San Fran), but this is over 4 games. 2005 was nowhere near this good for a stretch as the team showed an inability to stop the running game and passing game in several consecutive games ending in blowouts (take a look at the Chargers and Colts games that year - those were genuine nightmares, worse than the Miami game).

As for dismissing the QBs of the Niners, Jets and Chiefs, who have those QBs beaten this year? Who have the Dolphins beaten? You cannot have it both ways, saying the defense blows because of competition it has faced while saying the Bolts and Donkeys are good teams, or extremely talented teams if not good.

This is why I hate articles like this at this point in the season. The Pats in a five quarter stretch (the Dolphins game and the first quarter of the 49ers game) gave up 52 points. The other 11 quarter the Pats gave up 27 points. So a bad game and a rusty first quarter after the bye skew their season stats a lot. It was like the Favre leading the league in passing TDs argument last week after he had three bad ot average games followed by a 6 TD game.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Add me to the group that thinks it's still too early to rate this D. Yes, they do need to get better pressure from the Front Seven, but I'm willing to wait past mid-season to see if there's continued improvement.

 

[Brady'sButtBoy]

To my eyes, something 'clicked' for the D after the second TD pass by SF in the 1st quarter. Rodney started flying around and he seemed to get the attention of the rest of players as they really turned it up. Like the offense, they may still be searching for their confidence. they played so well last year that some of the guys may have been wondering where that excellence had gone to. The earsing of the doubt about whether they can be a good D again really beagn in SF. I look for the D to have a very good game against the Chargers as they will exploit the absence of Chambers and Jackson and try to force a hobbled LT to beat them. We will need to watch Sproles closely, he's the kind of dude who has given us trouble before...

 

[Leave No Doubt]

Add me to the group that thinks it's still too early to rate this D. Yes, they do need to get better pressure from the Front Seven, but I'm willing to wait past mid-season to see if there's continued improvement.

:ditto:

The media (as well as some of us ) needs to stop making final calls at week 6 and start blabbing from another perspective. Understanding the fact this team's very much a work in progress would be a good start. Analyzing from an improvement perspective rather than a done deal perspective could actually be an interesting read.