How concerned are you about the defense?

Let's quit fooling around and get a couple more corners. What's up with Ryan?

ViperGTS said:

Maybe. Lots of what ifs that could go either way. We'll know much more Sunday around 4 pm. Again, it means nothing other than a loss will give Buffalo that extra something that as we all know can change things.

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Of course, but it we take it that far then there are literally dozens of what-ifs for every single play. I'm just pointing out that the "easy" ones cannot simply be applied to the final score.

RayClay said:

Let's quit fooling around and get a couple more corners. What's up with Ryan?

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He's below average in man coverage, he forgets to turn around to look for the ball and Fletch is ahead of him in the slot.

That's kinda it.

The next time that I worry about the Patriots in September will be the first time.

September is Extending Training Camp, so far's Mad Bill's concerned.

And that Approach seems to be working all right so far.

It's week 2 of a very long season. I'm not worried about the D.

I'm not worried at all about the front 7. Whatever issues they were having against the run in week 1 wil lget fixed. Brown will be better than he showed, and Easley will help a lot once he's back.

I'd be lying if I said I had the same kind of optimism about the secondary. I'm at least a little worried. Optimistic though, wouldn't surprise me at all if it's a totally serviceable unit by the time we hit the stretch run.

7 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Ask me in a few weeks after they play more games together. I also feel that Butler will mold into a fine CB. He was on what is arguably the best WR in the league by himeself most of the night and stayed with him again most of the time.

Well at least we're not paying our D $595,703.13 per tackle which is what Suh's 2 tackles come to.

FourierSeries said:

After last year's playoff run where we were carried almost entirely by the offense, I'm not that worried. The defense doesn't need to be anywhere near elite.

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Our incredible second half defense in the playoffs is what allowed the offense to do its job.

The front 7 should be fine.

It's the secondary I'm worried about. It won't be as bad as 2011, but it will get burned every now and then. McCourty and Chung are much more experienced and mature compared to 2011

I think the defense will trouble us a little while Bill tinkers early in the season.

We have new significant contributions expected from a large number of players:

T. Brown
B.Fletcher
J.Sheard
T. Flowers
G. Grissom
D. Easley
M. Brown
M. Butler
J. Mayo
D. Harmon

Some of these names have spent time here, significant time, too, but, the unit as a whole has a very large amount of turnover from the previous season. There should be significantly more substituting this season than in prior do to improved depth especially among the front 7.

Bill will play around with schemes and formations early, he always does that in TS/PS/First 3-5 real games. Once the unit settles it may not be our strength, but it will be solid. Give it time.

Very few players playing significant roles are returning from last season in comparison:

R. Ninkovich
C. Jones
P. Chung
D. McCourty
D. Hightower
J. Colllins
(I don't believe any returning DT's played a large enough role to be considered significant in 2014)


The performance against Pitt went worse than expected but it was also week one, and even missing M. Bryant and Pouncey/Bell, Ben is one of the best in the league and right now I personally believe that Antonio Brown IS the leagues #1 guy.

The unit simply needs time to gel and get used to "playing as one" with players they've never been beside before and Bill needs to "settle down" in his preferred scheme.

VrabelJr said:

Our incredible second half defense in the playoffs is what allowed the offense to do its job.

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Our second half scoring defense statistically was beyond incredible last season. After week 9 or so I think we allowed a grand total of 42 or so second half points including playoffs. 4.2 per game in the second half.

19 pts in the 4th q. 1.9/game

On a scale of 1-10 with a 10 being the years of Sterling Moore and Kyle Arrington islands, and Gary Guyton and Dane Fletcher/Tracy White besides Mayo along with a "who's that" group of passrushers?


maybe a 4

AndyJohnson said:

Run D is nothing to be concerned about. We played a 252 lb DT, daring them to run. If we are worried about how we play the run when we don't care about the run, why are we worried?

The pass rush is never going to get to the QB on every play. There were a ton of quick timing passes, that no rush could get to, and no doubt the DL was rushing under control to keep him in the pocket. This will be the best pass rushing team we have seen under BB, but people will still complain that we can't rush the passer.

The secondary of course is a concern. Butler was torched in that game, but reason says experience will make him better. He was close on many plays, just didn't make them and was burned on others that I think he was duped on due to lack of experience. Terrell Brown is what he is, which I think is a pretty good corner who isn't a superstar. Fletcher is a decent 3rd corner. The safeties look good, especially with Harmon in there.
In the end I think, assuming Butler gets it, this secondary will, with the exception of last year be as good as any we have had in a number of years.

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BB doesn't care about yards yielded. He only cares about wha reallyt counts... scoring. This is going to be a classical Belichick "Bend But Don't Break" Defense and one of the most solid ones the Pats have fielded in a decade.

Sealver Siliga left off DL list....wide body to go with Brown for clogging up middle....part of heavy pkg.

The secondary has done nothing to make me feel better about the loss of Revis and Browner. One game and they look about how I expected, which is not good.

However, I expect improvement; and as more opponents put their offense on tape, the better they should play.

ViperGTS said:

Yeah but Heyward-Bey was WIDE open in the end zone. That was not good at all.

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And Stedman Bailey beat Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas in OT to setup the winning FG.

So Heyward beat the secondary twice and the third time Roethlisburger went to him it ended up in an interception

VrabelJr said:

Our incredible second half defense in the playoffs is what allowed the offense to do its job.

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Our very poor first half defense is what forced the offense to have to be perfect in the 2nd half of a lot of games, including two of the biggest games of the year.

So long as Gronk and Edelman stay healthy, the Oline continues to progress, and LaFell comes back and plays at the same level as last year, we're all good.

ViperGTS said:

Not that I expect flawless, just add that 7+6 from field goal misses=Lost game.

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That's ridiculous. Again if any team makes every play they score 50 against everyone.

When someone is that wide open, and a bad receiver at that, it's troubling. I fully expect them to correct said issues. Just that pertaining to that game it wasn't all rosy. That's all.

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But it was very good. A good offense scored 1 TD that wasn't garbage time.