"This is probably the best group of guys I've been around, secondary-wise, where everyone is just talented," [Darrelle Revis] said. "
We can do so many versatile things in our defense."
Revis, now in his eighth NFL season, is the centerpiece of it all .... But as is the case in football, it takes more than one player to produce a strong defense, and Revis and Browner give the Patriots a potent one-two punch on the outside.
"
I don't know if there's a group of corners playing better than our group right now," marveled safety
Devin McCourty. Revis goes even deeper than that, pointing out the contributions of nickelback
Kyle Arrington and another top reserve,
Logan Ryan, who had the unit's lone turnover Sunday.
"
I feel our coaches do a great job using the talent we have and to match up with other offenses, and match up with them well," he said, adding that the Patriots were motivated by the Lions referring to themselves as the best defense in the NFL during the days leading into the game. "If you look at our roster, we have talent across the board everywhere. I think Bill and them really dial in -- if it is matchups, what guy is the best for that matchup, I think we really do a great job of that."
Belichick explained after the game how the Patriots go through the process of putting together game plans, and how sometimes there are multiple scenarios they work through before coming to a final decision. Then there are other situations where, "it's obvious, we all look at it and it takes about five minutes to all say, 'OK, this is how we want to play this game.'"
The plan against the Lions seemed to fall into the first category, and it turned out to be another winner, highlighted by Revis' work on Tate.
"
It's a different plan every week," Revis said. "It's a tough job but at the same time I'm the man they call for to do it sometimes -- to play inside, to play outside, to do whatever, to help the team. The big goal is to help the team.
I call us hybrids. We're all interchangeable."