Rodney Harrison: Worst secondary in 10 years

Yes, we have the worst secondary since 2005. This year, Belichick cleaned house, very risky given the short off-season and given that he was changing the defense. Belichick certainly knew that folks would take a while to even be an average defense in points allowed, the only stat that matters (other than the even more important "number of games with a positive net points allowed").

Belichick plan has failed because of injuries and because he refused to keep any veterans as insurance. 2 of his 3-man core are injured. 3 of the remaining 6 were lost to injury.

Many think that Belichick is doing a fine job with the secondary, given what has occurred since the season started. Ihedigbo became the #2 safety instead of the injured Barrett.

Being one of the top 3 seeds in the AFC with the worst secondary in 5 years is indeed impressive. How well we do in the playoffs will cerainly depend on Brady and the offense. However, the defense may be much better than now if McCourty, Chung, Spikes, Ihedigbo and Fletcher are healthy.

THE RETURNEES (3)
Arrington, McCourty and Chung were to be the core.
McCourty and Chung are both injured.

THE ADDITIONS TO THE 2010 PLAYOFF SECONDARY (6)
Bodden never really made it back from his injuries
Barrett ended up on IR (some thought that he was improving from awful to OK)
Dowling ended up on IR (he was looking pretty good for a rookie)
Ihedigbo and Molden were brought in as backups and have performed well.
Brown was brought up from Special Teams (he was a failure).

mgteich said:

So, Harrison is saying we have the worst patriots secondary in 10 years. He did not say the worst secondary or the worst defense.

Your stats show that we don't even have the worst patriots secondary in 10 years. We have the worst in 5 years.

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Originally Posted by robertweathers
I disagree with Rodney. STATISTICALLY the secondary in 2005 was worse.

-31st in passing yards allowed
-30th is passing yards per play
-27th in QB rating
-31st in 20+ yard gains
-32nd in 40+ yard gains
-26th in INTs
-28th in passing TDs allowed
-32nd in YPC by receivers

Poor pass rush. No Law. 3rd yr starter Asante. Rookie Ellis Hobbs. Atrell Hawkins. Duane Starks cut. Rookie James Sanders. Wilson, Gay and Rodney all IR'd.

At least these kids force turnovers.

Rob0729 said:

Ihedebgo played decent earlier in the season. He clearly is playing through a shoulder injury. If he can heal that while playing, he will improve the secondary too.

I do agree though that it is the safeties that are the bigger problem. It clearly was the bigger problem yesterday. Everyone was all over McCourty (who struggled in the first half and was approaching to 2010 in the second) for giving up big plays, but several of those plays were because the over the top support was not there from the safeties.

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No he didn't, he is actually playing a tad better now.

BaltimorePatsFan said:

The following ex-Patriots would improve this secondary:

Deltha O'Neal
Jason Webster
Hank Poteat
Tory James
Dexter Reid
O-T-I-S Smith
Chad Scott
Mike Richardson
Tyrone Poole
Duane Starks
Je'Rod Cherry

and Troy Brown

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Bold in their best years I would take in a heartbeat. Based on their time with the team, everyone else is not an upgrade.

I've seen every snap of every game this season and don't understand why the defensive coaching staff plays so scared especially early on opponents drives. When the D had success yesterday it was by forcing rex into quick throws and decisions. I could understand being terrified of the big play if your offense sucked. I think any 3 or 5 of us Pats fans could make the decision we would rather die by cannon fire than a thousand paper cuts. Can't Bill figure this out? How many 80+ard drives, 10+ play drives does he need to see before he finds his balls and takes some chances early in drives not when the opponent is inside the 10. It's weird cause he has no problem with being uber aggressive on offense like 4th & 2 which I happened to agree with. Wish the Pats D would just play aggressive. I could live with 500 yards a game and 40+ points against playing an attaching style football. Who won the last SB playing passive D?

mgteich said:

Isn't this a matter of not trusting our running backs?

A short yardage back is worth a roster spot as one of the FIVE running backs. Brady shouldn't feel it necessary to run so often.

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BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Stevan Ridley are active players on the New England Patriots roster.

Worst defensive scheme in 10 years as well.

Rodney's right but at this point in the season, the Patriots can only do so much to improve. Hopefully Chung shores things up a bit when he comes back.

As far as scheme goes, the Pats can only design the defense to the players they have to play.

If Mccourty can wake up, and play like last year, you could argue this is the best pats CB duo in 10 years.

Too bad the safeties just suck, Chung will only help a little.

patsinthesnow said:

If Mccourty can wake up, and play like last year, you could argue this is the best pats CB duo in 10 years.

Too bad the safeties just suck, Chung will only help a little.

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Put someone on the other side of Ty Law and HIS unit is still better.

PatsDeb said:

LOL. It took me a minute to get this.

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I never doubted that you'd get it.

mgteich said:

Isn't this a matter of not trusting our running backs?

A short yardage back is worth a roster spot as one of the FIVE running backs. Brady shouldn't feel it necessary to run so often.

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Agreed. And I didn't see the game but finally had a chance to watch the goal line pick. That was definitely not a pass Brady forces ninety nine times out of a hundred.

What is your point?

Clearly, Belichick does not trust either Green-Ellis or Ridley to consistently deliver in short yardage situations.

In the off-season, I expect Faulk to retire. I will (as I do every year) make the point that it is important to have a player that we trust on 4th and 1.

ATippett56 said:

BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Stevan Ridley are active players on the New England Patriots roster.

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mgteich said:

Being one of the top 3 seeds in the AFC with the worst secondary in 5 years is indeed impressive.

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That is more due to the profiency of the New England Patriots offense.

mgteich said:

How well we do in the playoffs will cerainly depend on Brady and the offense.

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That is stating the obvious.

mgteich said:

However, the defense may be much better than now if McCourty, Chung, Spikes, Ihedigbo and Fletcher are healthy.

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The New England Patriots run defense should be stouter with the aforementioned players.

mgteich said:

What is your point?

Clearly, Belichick does not trust either Green-Ellis or Ridley to consistently deliver in short yardage situations.

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I really wonder whether the issue is more the run blocking ability of the offensive line rather than either Green-Ellis or Ridley. Either way, the offense would be less predictable with a semblance of a rushing attack.

ATippett56 said:

I really wonder whether the issue is more the run blocking ability of the offensive line rather than either Green-Ellis or Ridley. Either way, the offense would be less predictable with a semblance of a rushing attack.

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I don't think it has anything to do with BJGE or Ridley or any other back on the roster or OL. If the Pats wanted to become a running team I believe they could. You need patience and to stick with it, see first Jets game this year. The Pats have so many weapons in the pass game that they probably don't feel that is a better way to score points.

It's probably closer to 20 years. In the late 90's we had Law/Milloy and Big play Clay for a couple of those years at least. I'd say it's the worst secondary since '93. The '94 secondary didn't have much talent and were terrible early on but they played great in the 2nd half.

BaltimorePatsFan said:

The following ex-Patriots would improve this secondary:

Deltha O'Neal
Jason Webster
Hank Poteat
Tory James
Dexter Reid
O-T-I-S Smith
Chad Scott
Mike Richardson
Tyrone Poole
Duane Starks
Je'Rod Cherry

and Troy Brown

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I don't care how bad this secondary is, Duane Starks and Deltha O'Neal would not be an improvement.

I highly doubt that BB doesn't TRUST BJGE on the short yardage situations....I think it is more likely that he is being bothered alot by the turf toe injury and BB is going light on him as result. Problem is....Ridley obviously not ready....and so Kevin Faulk (or occasionally woodhead) is the go to guy for short usher runs. Faulk has really lost a step this year after injury.....just extremely slow now. Need to get Ridley more involved somehow....

mgteich said:

What is your point?

Clearly, Belichick does not trust either Green-Ellis or Ridley to consistently deliver in short yardage situations.

In the off-season, I expect Faulk to retire. I will (as I do every year) make the point that it is important to have a player that we trust on 4th and 1.

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Mike in 333 said:

Our secondary is bad, very bad; our coverage in an open field is awful and we've made some very marginal QB's look pretty good. We seem to have the ability to take DB's with potential and by their 2nd year with us they're average at best, in some cases they regress to the point where they're no longer here.
Rodney played here, he played the position and he knows the schemes and if he says it's the worst and there's no evidence to the contrary I'll take his word for it.
Having said that though some of the reasons are pretty obvious; Ihedigbo is hurt it's obvious when he gets hit he's in a lot of pain. McCourty is hurt, he can barely lift one arm but yesterday, in my opinion, he played the position the way we play it and I'm not sure what else he could have done better on the Stallworth reception. Chung is hurt and is sorely missed.
Once we compact the field into the redzone our defense becomes another animal that is pretty well designed to take away the touchdown and limit scoring to field goals.
That we give up a lot of yards is really not the problem; the problem is that we can't get an opponents offense off the field. Obviously this team is designed to take advantage of our offensive potential but that's all it is if the offense is on the bench. If our defense can't stop a team on 3rd down or get multiple turnovers we are going to see more games like yesterday where we rely on the other team to lose not on our team to win.

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You're right on with the assesment of players going into their 2nd year here they regress if it happened a few times here and there you may say well he didn't get the system, but it is happening much to often so its a trend. Is it the coaching thats my hunch when you have one of the lowest paid coaching staffs in the league if you take BB's salary out of the picture. Hey I love the Pats but they're caught up in this value baloney so much so it's taken over how they may look at talented athletes. Perfect example Meyer the coach in Florida told BB he thought that Dunlap was a better prospect than Cunningham so who do we pick Cunningham who has been the more productive player Dunlap. these are things I can't figure out the guy is a great coach and has coached some of the greatest defenses but i just can't figure it out.

Brarrell said:

You're right on with the assesment of players going into their 2nd year here they regress if it happened a few times here and there you may say well he didn't get the system, but it is happening much to often so its a trend. Is it the coaching thats my hunch when you have one of the lowest paid coaching staffs in the league if you take BB's salary out of the picture. Hey I love the Pats but they're caught up in this value baloney so much so it's taken over how they may look at talented athletes. Perfect example Meyer the coach in Florida told BB he thought that Dunlap was a better prospect than Cunningham so who do we pick Cunningham who has been the more productive player Dunlap. these are things I can't figure out the guy is a great coach and has coached some of the greatest defenses but i just can't figure it out.

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Yep, we're going to have to draft tight ends again!