The Patriots D is playing at an elite level

Here's we're ranked at:

PPG = 5th We're allowing only 18 ppg.

Bendability (Yards/Points Allowed) This measures how tough is is to score on the D) = 4th. It takes opposing offenses 19.39 yards to score one point on us, so that means in order for them to score the equivalent of a TD and an extra point they have to travel 135.73 yards.

Defensive Passer Rating = 3rd. We've allowed opposing QB's to average a 70.64 DPR against us.


The stats suggest that we're playing like a top 5 defense and tbh we wouldn't be 6-2 right now if we weren't playing like one.

Imagine If the offense could actually stay on the field

That will be difficult to maintain with all of the injuries they've accumulated.

BSR said:

That will be difficult to maintain with all of the injuries they've accumulated.

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Fortunately the Defense is getting some unforseen reinforcemnts , They lost Wilfork, Love and Deadrick, but they found Chris Jones, Joe Velano, Isaac Sopoaga, Armon Armstead Mike Buchcanon and Andre Carter. on the defensive line

At LB they lost Mayo but regained Fletcher, and drafted Jamie Collins #1, and rediscovered the worth of Brandon Spikes. Added depth at DE allows them to free Ninko for some OLB duty, too.

In the secondary, they drafted Duron Harmon, and Logan Ryan both of whom look to help, while temporarily losing Aquib Talib.

On the whole, I think the Defense may eventually be stronger than at the start of the season.

On Offense the team is getting healthier with Gronk, Amendola returning, Collie added, and the rookies Thompkins and Dobson settling in. The depth at RB is sufficient to overcome the temporary loss of Vereen. Everyone seems to overlook the fact that the Pats have scored 30, 27, and 27 in their last few games, so the Offense is indeed coming together.

BSR said:

That will be difficult to maintain with all of the injuries they've accumulated.

Click to expand...

Well, these stats do account for the 25-33% of the season the Pats have been without key players. But I do hear what you're saying; it's an unknown quantity.

We're also 5th in Passing Yards/gm and 2nd lowest completion % allowed.

We haven't faced a quarterback gauntlet but we have face Matt Ryan and Drew Brees, both are usually very accurate QBs (Brees I believe has the NFL Record for completion %, we held him to under 50%).

We get Peyton Manning soon for our biggest test, luckily, it's after the bye week and Kelly/Talib should have returned.

I believe we've also allowed the 2nd fewest 40+ yard plays.

We've been saying it for the first half of the season, but, the offense will also eventually begin to click and put drives together consistently, that will also keep the defense fresh and allow fewer opportunities against, further improving the defense.

I'm pretty amazed at how our defense is performing given our offenses complete failure on 3rd down. We've punted more than all but one team yet our defense is top 5-10 in nearly every category except for run-defense, which is understandable after losing 2 of the NFL's premier run stoppers.

Actually it looks like we're tied for 4th most punts in the league, along with...the Jags :bricks:
NFL Stats: by Team Category

Punts:
Bills 50
KC 49
NJ Jest 49
Jags 47
Pats 47

On another note look how many times KC, the supposed best team in the league, has punted.

But we're not far behind. :nooo:

Even the most optimistic Patriots fan could not have seen the Patriots D, specifically the secondary becoming the team's strength prior to Round 1. If the Patriots can get the Run D solved, even in light of the struggles on O, I believe the team can make some noise in the Playoffs.