Our RUN defense...

[jeffbiologist]

Its not news that our winning big last year took alot of teams out of their gameplans early and often abandoning the run. We play the AFC and NFC west, teams which emphasize the run. Our front 3 are very good and with hope big Sey is back in his all-pro form. But our ILBs have been suspect, and I hesitate to point to the 170+yds the Bucs ran on us. YES, mostly on our subs, but our depth at NT/DT is at least as suspect as our depth at QB.
Like with Brady, I hope we can change the game and open it up because I dont think this defense is built to play close games. And we have to find another 10 turnovers from somewhere after Asante left. I could be wrong, but the success and failure of this team lies with the health and productivity of BOTH #12 and #75.

 

[LuRkeR1978]

Have you seen our front 7? Other than those few times Bruschi gets run over by a guard, I think they will be just fine.

 

[BelichickFan]

Have you seen our front 7? Other than those few times Bruschi gets run over by a guard, I think they will be just fine.

Our front seven is as good as anyone could hope for. The overeaction to a PRESEASON game is just plain stupid. If Vince gets hurt ? Well no team can replace someone like that just like we can't replace Brady. We would lose some quality and have to make some scheme adjustments. But our run defense is fairly low on the list of things to be concerned about.

 

[jeffbiologist]

I think that our run defense stats last year were misleading at best. We didnt really do anything to improve it(right now I am not going to say adding a ROOKIE in Seau's place is an improvement-YET)later in the year maybe... My point is that is I think we will be playing more close games, games that running teams can stay in their gameplan. I also think that teams got the idea that keeping Brady et al off the field keeps them in the game(slowing the games down--running). Limiting posessions works against us, look at the number of posessions in the close games vs the blowouts.....I am not a preseason chicken little here, I know that stuff doesnt count. But I dont know if this will be the big bad pats D we have gotten used to.

 

[Phoenix111]

Have you seen our front 7? Other than those few times Bruschi gets run over by a guard, I think they will be just fine.

As great as bruschi has been over the years, this seems to be the norm now

 

[Ochmed Jones]

A couple of things about our run defense.

1.) It looked to me like the Pats LBers struggled to get off blocks in the first half.

2.) The ILB's were horrible, especially Mayo. He blew up a FB in the hole on one play, while the RB went scampering on by untouched. On a long Dunn run in the first quarter, Mayo ran into the back of a Patriot, instead of filling his lane, which is exactly where Dunn ran. Guyton was completely overwhelmed all night.

3.) Woods could not set the edge all night. He stayed high and they blew him up on a egular basis.

4.) No fill from the safeties. Granted our top two safeties did not play and our 3rd safety got injured. But you have to figure in a normal regular season game, Rodney cleans up a lot of Mayo's mistakes for significantly less damage than we endured.

Nothing that happened out there to our defense is not fixable, unless you count Mayo's inexperience. BB will clean these things up and we should be much the same on defense as last year by the season opener.

PS: I look for the Pats to be in a lot of soft zone defense for the first half of the season, so get used to seeing Hobbs and Bryant playing off receivers and giving up a ton of 7 yard stop and sideline patterns.

 

[signbabybrady]

Its not news that our winning big last year took alot of teams out of their gameplans early and often abandoning the run. We play the AFC and NFC west, teams which emphasize the run. Our front 3 are very good and with hope big Sey is back in his all-pro form. But our ILBs have been suspect, and I hesitate to point to the 170+yds the Bucs ran on us. YES, mostly on our subs, but our depth at NT/DT is at least as suspect as our depth at QB.
Like with Brady, I hope we can change the game and open it up because I dont think this defense is built to play close games. And we have to find another 10 turnovers from somewhere after Asante left. I could be wrong, but the success and failure of this team lies with the health and productivity of BOTH #12 and #75.

I am not concerned the front 7 will be a strenght of this team. Don't forget how vanilla the defensive schemes were.

I also think that while we don't have a clear cut back up at nose tackle we do have two solid back ups on our dline in Wright and Green. If Vince went down I think the Nose would be filled by Warren and Seymour and Wright and Green would fill in the ends. I know it is not ideal to have Warren and Sey on the nose but it isn't ideal to have Vince be hurt. That is a long term solution if it were a week or two they may just fill his spot by Wright and scheme a little different.

Just my opinion on how they back up the nose.

 

[cstjohn17]

The run defense was damn good when it mattered most last year. In the playoffs they faced 3 of the top 5 rushing attacks (Jacksonsville, San Diego & New York). They held each one of them well below their seasonal average. The D Line was great.

The preseason has not been so great but the idea of the pre-season is to get players ready for the real thing. We should see the starters play a lot more on Friday, some of the hitting and tackling just can't be simulated. Plus Wilfork is playing for money which always helps.

The ILB had issues, Mayo will get better but as I watched the game I thought. Damn this defense would be a lot better with Seau / Bruschi / Mayo playing in a rotation. I don't think Bruschi or Mayo will hold up over the whole season especially against the run heavy team the Patriots will be facing.

 

[bradmahn]

Why weren't there posts about how great Our RUN defense was going to be in 2008 when they held Baltimore to 35 total yards?

 

[jeffbiologist]

Why weren't there posts about how great Our RUN defense was going to be in 2008 when they held Baltimore to 35 total yards?

Not everyone makes knee-jerk threads about preseason. My point may be fortuitous, but it was not based on what happened Sunday nite. It was made because I havent seen Hobson do anything and I think there is some Mayo-flavored Kool-aid out there making the rounds. I would be ALOT more confident with either Seau in camp or a draft pick playing well in a backup role.

 

[RoughingthePasser]

chicken little

 

[jeffbiologist]

chicken little

HEY HOMER! I remember 85 yards in less than 2:00, so I feel we need improvement. NO, I wont be OK with another SB loss, we need at least one and maybe more SBs to earn our DYNASTY title back. Dynasties dont lose SBs. And I would be complimentary if I thought it was warranted...tell me, did you see ANYTHING that warranted a compliment besides they showed up on time??

 

[jared2181]

As long as Seymour, Wilfork, and Warren are backed up by Vrabel, Mayo, Bruschi, and Thomas the last we should be worrying about is the Pats run defense. Preseason football means nothing.

 

[JMarr]

As long as Seymour, Wilfork, and Warren are backed up by Vrabel, Mayo, Bruschi, and Thomas the last we should be worrying about is the Pats run defense. Preseason football means nothing.

Disagree. No way you can feel completely comfortable with Bruschi at ILB for an entire season without a consistent backup/LB rotation. And did someone mention Mayo-flavored Koolaide? Anyone thinking he's going to be plugged right in at LB is sipping some.

 

[bradmahn]

Disagree. No way you can feel completely comfortable with Bruschi at ILB for an entire season without a consistent backup/LB rotation. And did someone mention Mayo-flavored Koolaide? Anyone thinking he's going to be plugged right in at LB is sipping some.

Bruschi is a two-down player now, and will probably be rotating with a defensive back more often than another linebacker.

If Mayo isn't going to start at ILB, who is?

At this point, he's the only LB besides Bruschi to see any significant playing or practice time at ILB with the ones. The guy behind him the last week has been Guyton. It certainly looks like Mayo will be getting a lot of playing time to start the season and barring Hobson suddenly "getting it," he looks to be the most competent option.

 

[jeffbiologist]

Disagree. No way you can feel completely comfortable with Bruschi at ILB for an entire season without a consistent backup/LB rotation. And did someone mention Mayo-flavored Koolaide? Anyone thinking he's going to be plugged right in at LB is sipping some.

I hear ya. And we know BB likes to put his best 4 LBs out there, it scares me to think that would be Vrabel, Bruschi, Thomas(ILB), and Woods!! Woods simply cant hold the corner and looks lost in coverage. We can talk up how good the rookies will be, but its completely safe to say that they will be the focus of opposing offenses throughout the season. Hobson I havent heard or seen, and I will call Seau myself if something isnt done soon,lol. When you have guys like Tank in there you know you are in trouble....but we spin it to say we are mad scientists. And I am NOT in panic mode at all, it is a definate, legitimate concern. There has to be a "weakest" part of the D, and I think we expected it to be the defensive backfield. If the front 7 doesnt get pressure it wont matter who is back there.

 

[JMarr]

Bruschi is a two-down player now, and will probably be rotating with a defensive back more often than another linebacker.

If Mayo isn't going to start at ILB, who is?

At this point, he's the only LB besides Bruschi to see any significant playing or practice time at ILB with the ones. The guy behind him the last week has been Guyton. It certainly looks like Mayo will be getting a lot of playing time to start the season and barring Hobson suddenly "getting it," he looks to be the most competent option.

Hobson and Seau rotating with both Bruschi and Mayo, hopefully.

 

[Pats726]

HEY HOMER! I remember 85 yards in less than 2:00, so I feel we need improvement. NO, I wont be OK with another SB loss, we need at least one and maybe more SBs to earn our DYNASTY title back. Dynasties dont lose SBs. And I would be complimentary if I thought it was warranted...tell me, did you see ANYTHING that warranted a compliment besides they showed up on time??

Hey chicken little...Did you get all flustered and bent out of shape in 04 when they got crushed by the Bengals in preseason?? Oh..by the way they won the Super Bowl that year....I just think there is a large overreaction here..that is all..

 

[wistahpatsfan]

Think a lot of the fear about pre-season losses is made worse by the worry about TB. A totally healthy TB makes many fears go away. This is new for us. No matter how many times the thought may have crossed your mind, this is the first time we went into a season wondering if TB would make it out for the first reg game...especially given the "safety net" we have at QB.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

what was the run defense ranked last year???

let's see... vrabel didn't play preseason game 1
AD didn't play game 2 nor did rodney.

we haven't even seen the starting unit out there together.

reading these threads is kind of nauseating.