How well did the Pats' D do against the Saints?

Consider these numbers:

593. Receiving yards for Jimmy Graham coming into yesterday's game.
0. Receiving yards for Jimmy Graham yesterday. It's the first time since October 2010 that a team shut him out.

67.0% Drew Brees' completion percentage with the Saints.
47.2% Drew Brees' completion percentage against the Patriots.
4 The number of times he's been held to a lower completion percentage in his entire career.

7 The number of three-and-outs the Saints had yesterday.

ctpatsfan77 said:

Consider these numbers:

593. Receiving yards for Jimmy Graham coming into yesterday's game.
0. Receiving yards for Jimmy Graham yesterday. It's the first time since October 2010 that a team shut him out.

67.0% Drew Brees' completion percentage with the Saints.
47.2% Drew Brees' completion percentage against the Patriots.
4 The number of times he's been held to a lower completion percentage in his entire career.

7 The number of three-and-outs the Saints had yesterday.

Click to expand...

Our defense is just ridiculous this year. They are playing at a really high caliber level and I love watching them take the field. One thing we can do without, as everyone has mentioned already, is all the injuries. Other than that the D is awesome.

How has the Pats D improved so much? Is it the coordinator? To be frank, wasn't impressed with the previous guy(Dean Pees).

Anyhow - have watched a lot of their games since the turn of the century b/c quite frankly, being one of the best teams in the league means more prime time games. But I've never seen them being this good until recently.

I love this defense. I hope no one is still doubting them, and while they may have some blips here and there especially with the injuries its really hard to say they aren't playing at a high level. Should have been clear when they were holding bad QBs to bad QB numbers after years of those guys putting up career days against the 09-11 defenses, but I can understand people not wanting to get overly excited.

ctpatsfan77 said:

Consider these numbers:

593. Receiving yards for Jimmy Graham coming into yesterday's game.
0. Receiving yards for Jimmy Graham yesterday. It's the first time since October 2010 that a team shut him out.

67.0% Drew Brees' completion percentage with the Saints.
47.2% Drew Brees' completion percentage against the Patriots.
4 The number of times he's been held to a lower completion percentage in his entire career.

7 The number of three-and-outs the Saints had yesterday.

Click to expand...

I'm sure someone will post about how they have faced a QB with 11 letters in his last name, so we can't say anything yet. I'll just hide in the shadows here and wait for it.

I have complete faith in this defense's ability to keep them in the game or win all by their lonesome. I haven't be able to say that in 5-6 years.

Damn, it feels good to be a Patriots fan.

That was a great defensive performance, period. Had they lost it would have been on the offense and MacDaniels, not the defense, who played their asses off.


Despite the plethora of injuries this team keeps on fighting and winning, can't wait to see how good they are if they get healthy. Belichick has taken a ton of criticism for his "pitiful roster construction" but they are 5-1 playing with a ton of back-ups and rookies, and nothing demonstrates a good deep roster more than winning hurt. This is going to be one of the best teams in football for the foreseeable future.


To the LEGION OF THE MISERABLE all i have to say is SUCK ON THAT! Crybabies. lmao-too funny-awesome win.

DisgruntledTunaFan said:

How has the Pats D improved so much? Is it the coordinator? To be frank, wasn't impressed with the previous guy(Dean Pees).

Anyhow - have watched a lot of their games since the turn of the century b/c quite frankly, being one of the best teams in the league means more prime time games. But I've never seen them being this good until recently.

Click to expand...

Pees has been gone for like four years. After 2009 I think.

What is really interesting is that it's largely due to our shutdown secondary and not so much the pass rush which is only there in fits and starts. Dennard has only had five targets in two games and only given up two receptions, PFF which I know some don't like are saying that McCourty is the best safety in the NFL this year and Talib is almost literally a shutdown corner right now. Also, I think Gregory is improved to the point where I think he's passable and Arrington is only giving up 50% of catches on passes thrown his way. If we were generating the pressure that the Chiefs are, we'd be in that conversation right now.

A stunning turn around.

manxman2601 said:

What is really interesting is that it's largely due to our shutdown secondary and not so much the pass rush which is only there in fits and starts. Dennard has only had five targets in two games and only given up two receptions, PFF which I know some don't like are saying that McCourty is the best safety in the NFL this year and Talib is almost literally a shutdown corner right now. Also, I think Gregory is improved to the point where I think he's passable and Arrington is only giving up 50% of catches on passes thrown his way. If we were generating the pressure that the Chiefs are, we'd be in that conversation right now.

A stunning turn around.

Click to expand...

It seems that way, but a number of us (gratuitous self-pat on the back) have been saying this was going to be a year of noticeable improvement for a while now. And by "this", I mean 2013, not an every year occurrence.

The roster had gotten too old, then too young because of the missed draft picks and finally this year you had the perfect confluence of genuine NFL talent, limited turnover, team experience and a young DC coming into his own.

Improvement should have been an expectation, though Talib's play raises them up another level.

Great performance, not perfect but they held Brees in check even without Talib in the 2nd half, forced a key turnover that gave us the ball in (near?) their red zone, and as you pointed out, they got off the field. That's the most important IMO. This game highlights why PA isn't the whole story as long as it's within reason. Make stops, force TO's, and get the ball back to the GOAT... those are things we haven't done in the big playoff losses recently despite maintaining a respectable PA in those games too.

Pretty damn good. Especially when you consider there was no Mayo or Talib for their final TD. We essentially kept them to 17 points with out "full strength - DT" D.

Pats are the best all around team in the NFL.

Pass Coverage

Breaking it down by player, unit, overall. I must say, I am very impressed, especially by the corner play.

Total Defense:
123/220 (55.9%) 1,469 yds (6.7ypa) 6td/7int 72.3 NFL Passer Rating

Corners:
Aqib Talib (390 snaps) - 13/33 (39.4%) 186 yds (14.3ypc (55yac)) 1td/4int 5PD 28.9 NFL Passer Rating
Alfonzo Dennard (375 snaps) - 16/34 (47.1%) 278yds (17.4ypc (64yac)) 1td/1int 5PD 72.9 NFL Passer Rating
Kyle Arrington (320 snaps) - 25/42 (59.5%) 268 yds (10.7ypc (126yac)) 2td/1int 5PD 84.2 NFL Passer Rating
Logan Ryan (79 snaps) - 5/9 (55.6%) 65yds (13.0ypc (9yac)) 1td/0int 0PD 115.5 NFL Passer Rating

Total: 59/118 (50.0%) 797yds (13.5ypc (254yac) 5td/6int 64.8 NFL Passer Rating

Safeties:
Devin McCourty (417 snaps) - 9/12 (75%) 126yds (14.0ypc (26yac)) 0td/0int 3PD 108.3 NFL Passer Rating
Steve Greggory (378 snaps) - 13/19 (68.4%) 138yds (10.6ypc (59yac)) 1td/0int 1PD 106.9 NFL Passer Rating
Duron Harmon (36 snaps) - 1/1 (100%) 3yds (3ypc (1yac)) 0td/0int 0PD 79.2 NFL Passer Rating
Tavon Wilson (1 snap) - 0/0 (0%) 0yds (0ypc (0yac)) 0td/0int 0PD 0.0 NFL Passer Rating (BEAST)

Total: 23/32 (71.8%) 267yds (11.6ypc (86yac)) 1td/0int 107.1 NFL Passer Rating

Linebackers:
Jerod Mayo (407 snaps) - 17/29 (58.6%) 184yds (10.8ypc (115yac)) 0td/0int 0PD 77.4 NFL Passer Rating
Dont'a Hightower (293 snaps) - 18/23 (78.3%) 155yds (8.6ypc (108yac)) 0td/0int 0PD 94.7 NFL Passer Rating
Jamie Collins (52 snaps) - 3/3 (100%) 32yds (10.7ypc (35yac)) 0td/0int 0PD 111.1 NFL Passer Rating
Dane Fletcher (11 snaps) - 0/0 (0%) 0yds (0ypc (0yac)) 0td/0int 0PD 0.0 NFL Passer Rating
Brandon Spikes (197 snaps) - 2/5 (40%) 32yds (16ypc (15yac)) 0td/1int 0PD 22.5 NFL Passer Rating

Total: 40/60 (66.6%) 403yds (10.0ypc (273yac)) 0td/1int 0PD 78.6 NFL Passer Rating


Very general breakdown and doesn't take a few things into account (such as if they were in man/zone, alone/had help, etc) but it is very promising. I'm impressed with the job these units have done.

I'm most impressed by our outside corners. We used to get abused on the sidelines all day every day. Talib and Dennard are locking the outsides down.

Credit to PFF for the stats, I just compiled them for you. For the record, they have McCourty currently ranked as the best safety in the NFL despite what he's given up in pass coverage, but, this thread is entirely about the pass COVERAGE, not the overall pass defense (in which we'd have to account for pass rush and all).

McCourty's stat line interests me, it looks poor on the surface, but consider he's played almost every defensive snap and was only targeted 12 times. That's 3% of the snaps he's played. It tells me he's usually in good enough position to not be looked at.

Edit: Also note the TOTAL statline for the entire defense will read slightly different due to me not taking DE's dropping into coverage. It's so rare I don't feel its worth compiling.

Why this defensive performance is so impressive

The last year the Patriots had a defense as good as this one has performed was in 2007, when they were #4 in the NFL in scoring defense. But here's the difference between these two situations.

In 2007, the offense was the best in NFL history. Rarely was the Pats' defense in a position where they needed to win a game. Usually the game was a blowout by halftime. They only had 3 games (of 19) where they scored fewer than 24 points. Those three games:

vs NYJ - W, 20-10
vs SD - W, 21-12 (playoffs)
vs NYG - L, 17-14 (Super Bowl)

In 2013, the offense has been one of the worst in the league (ranked #22 in scoring). In just 6 games, they've had 4 of them where the offense has scored fewer than 24 points. Here are those games:

at Buf - W, 23-21
vs NYJ - W, 13-10
vs TB - W, 23-3
at Cin - L, 13-6

So they have a better winning percentage now in games where their offense has scored fewer than 24 points. And two of the four games have been on the road. Moreover, even though they gave up 27 points (really was 24 but the Pats essentially gave NO a free field goal late in the game) against the Saints, they got two HUGE stops in the last three minutes to win that game.

So the D has been asked to carry a much larger burden than it has in years past, and they're coming through with flying colors. I realize there are injury issues (Wilfork, Kelly, Mayo, Talib, etc.), but it would be awesome if they were once again an elite defense.

Re: Re: Why this defensive performance is so impressive

ivanvamp said:

The last year the Patriots had a defense as good as this one has performed was in 2007, when they were #4 in the NFL in scoring defense. But here's the difference between these two situations.

In 2007, the offense was the best in NFL history. Rarely was the Pats' defense in a position where they needed to win a game. Usually the game was a blowout by halftime. They only had 3 games (of 19) where they scored fewer than 24 points. Those three games:

vs NYJ - W, 20-10
vs SD - W, 21-12 (playoffs)
vs NYG - L, 17-14 (Super Bowl)

In 2013, the offense has been one of the worst in the league (ranked #22 in scoring). In just 6 games, they've had 4 of them where the offense has scored fewer than 24 points. Here are those games:

at Buf - W, 23-21
vs NYJ - W, 13-10
vs TB - W, 23-3
at Cin - L, 13-6

So they have a better winning percentage now in games where their offense has scored fewer than 24 points. And two of the four games have been on the road. Moreover, even though they gave up 27 points (really was 24 but the Pats essentially gave NO a free field goal late in the game) against the Saints, they got two HUGE stops in the last three minutes to win that game.

So the D has been asked to carry a much larger burden than it has in years past, and they're coming through with flying colors. I realize there are injury issues (Wilfork, Kelly, Mayo, Talib, etc.), but it would be awesome if they were once again an elite defense.

Click to expand...

The Talib factor cannot be undervalued any time you can eliminate the opponents #1 target your remaining players are only tasked with stopping the secondary options.

Re: Why this defensive performance is so impressive

What is impressive is that we held Brees to a <50% completion rate... Brees has a career mark of 65.6%, the last time that happened was week 1 of the 2012 season.

Completely shut down Jimmy Graham...

Held Colston to 1 completion, the leading WR receiver was 4th on the depth chart...

Sproles did get 6 receptions, but only totalled 58 yards total...