The defense has been bad to this point. Do you disagree?
The secondary has been the team's biggest problem to this point. Do you disagree?
The safety play has been absolutely terrible. Do you disagree?
Teams doing well against the Patriots would skew their offensive rankings upward through a small sample of 4 games. Do you disagree?
The Patriots have players who, hopefully, can help improve the situation if/when they return, are fully heathy and can mesh with the rest of the defense. Do you disagree?
The Patriots are currently ranked 20th in points allowed (according to Pro-Football-Reference.com). Do you disagree?
The above are all positions I've taken or posts I've made. From what I've read of your posts, you don't disagree with many, if any of the above. Unless I've read your posts wrong, you don't "strongly disagree with Deus' myopic view on this subject". In fact, other than your claims about the Raiders game being great execution of a game plan, I believe you're pretty much in accord with my position.
I disagree strongly with point one. They are 3-1 with the 20th ranked D by points scored. Almost all points scored by teams trying to claw their way back into games while our D is playing contain D.
I disagree strongly with point two - and note the cute way you change the term to "secondary" here but use the term "safeties" in the next point - - so I will address the CB play in point two. The pass rush has been a misnomer, leaving opposing QB's with loads of time. The CB's have been average so far.
I agree with point three. The fault there lies with the personnel management malpractice of Belichick regarding cutting Merriwether and Sanders for nothing.
Regarding point four, I disagree. Other than Miami, who gained the majority of it's yards in the 2nd half while way behind, the other three teams have been top-10 level scorers against other competition. In fact, Oakland scored 18 more points against the vaunted Jets D than against ours.
The last two points I agree. Who wouldn't?
Your first point, however, is such a gross generalization that it overrides any minor particular fishing points you make later on to get someone to say yes somewhere under that umbrella.
Your argument here is like a greasy prosecutor's line of questioning:
- Did you murder the chef?
- Do you go to restaurants?
- Do you like food?
- So you must have murdered the chef!