2013 Pats Defense: Most Sacks of Belichick Era in NE

[RelocatedPatFan]

Most sacks by a BB Defense is shocking. To say it is the best defense (and nobody really has) would be sackrilege compared to some of the D's we've had (like the 2004 team).

Still, they have been showing an increasing tendency to make plays at the right time and before all the injuries and Brady getting comfortable with the rookies, the defense was winning games for us. I'd like to see that continue with the returned health of some of our players.

 

[supafly]

I think the improvement of the secondary on some level helped to allow a more aggressive scheme and more gambling at times, along with simply buying us an extra 1/2 second to get to the QB.

That said, I do not believe that we are "good" for this area moving forward, and I think that we certainly have to keep the secondary intact or improved, with attention focused on the DL (and maybe even a LB selection too).

It is good to see some improvement again lately from the MIA, BAL, and BUF games, as things were looking pretty damn bleak there for awhile. Hopefully we can continue to not take any steps backwards over the course of the next game or two.

 

[Kjmass1]

not trying to throw cold water on this but I think that a good amount of this sacks were in garbage time, like the first game against the Dolphins, they were sacking Tannehill with free tickets.

There are garbage time sacks every season. With a 13 year sample size I think it all averages out.

 

[doesntmatter1]

To me anyway, I feel like the 07 patriots had the most consistent pressure. Best overall defense is still 03, but this year felt like it had the chance to be just as good if not better before all of the injuries. I feel like our sack total would've gone up by at least 5 if Kelly didn't go down.

 

[ivanvamp]

Most sacks by a BB Defense is shocking. To say it is the best defense (and nobody really has) would be sackrilege compared to some of the D's we've had (like the 2004 team).

I think it's perfectly good to say that the pass rush has improved greatly, but the run defense has suffered, and the defense as a whole has some strengths and weaknesses. You can highlight one area of success without going overboard.

In a passing league, I'm perfectly fine with the Patriots giving up more yards on the ground, but having (a) a better pass rush, and (b) better cover guys like Talib.

Against someone like Seattle that may be a bigger problem, but against teams like San Diego, Indianapolis, and Denver, it's better to have the defense set up this way.

 

[Brady6]

I love wilfork, but he has always been a liability when it comes to rushing the passer. The fact wilfork in his entire 9 season career has only 16 sacks speaks a lot.

Siliga IN HIS three games here in new england has equaled wilforks highest season sack total.

Wilfork is only a liability at a buffet. As a pass rusher he may not have a high sack total but his presence creates the opportunity for other players to get sacks. If would be willing to bet that if Wilfork was healthy the team would have had more sacks than they finished with. Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich had 19.5 of the 47 sacks, those 2 guys makeup 1 of the best DE tandems in the NFL and we have not had that type of tandem since the early 2000s.

Another factor is the improved pass coverage; there were a lot of cover sacks this season for players because of the work by Talib, McCourty, Dennard, Ryan and the others down the field. The secondary was also used to in blitzes much more than in years past we had 4.5 sacks by DBs:

Kyle Arrington – 2.0 sacks
Logan Ryan – 1.5 sacks
Steve Gregory – 1.0 sack

In 2012 we had 1 sack by Derrick Martin in our secondary.

 

[RobAllan]

You know, I remember watching the Pats in the pre-BB era and latching on to players on the "D" that made some of the ... ahem... rough games worth watching. Used to LOVE Chris Slade, for example.

I think in years past a guy like Chris Jones would've been one of my favorite players, which is pretty cool considering his low cost. Is he still under the radar nationally? I can't tell.

 

[strngplyr]

The pass rush is still mediocre. The area we improved in greatly was pass coverage. Chandler Jones himself even acknowledges that the majority of his sacks were coverage sacks.

You won't find quick pressure too often on film this year from this defense. The average sack time is probably closer to 4 or 5 seconds than 2 or 3. It's pretty bad. And our "hurries" are also due to coverage the majority of the time. I believe just making the qb throw due to pressure counts as a hurru. It does not need to be quick.

Most of what this defense accomplished this year was due to the secondary becoming one of the leagues top units.

A stud pass rusher, preferably interior, should be the teams top priority this off season along with securing Talib. If we can keep our secondary intact and force non - coverage based pressure we will have ourselves a top 5 defense easily. That is, assuming Mayo and Wilfork fully recover and help us from being pushed around again.

Note: I'm not taking away from what we did this year, but our sacks are mostly thanks to the secondary and the only truly quick pressures I remember were corner blitzes with Arrington and Ryan. The defensive back field is too strong, we WILL be elite defensively with another stud pass rusher.

 

[coolguy]

Wilfork is only a liability at a buffet. As a pass rusher he may not have a high sack total but his presence creates the opportunity for other players to get sacks. If would be willing to bet that if Wilfork was healthy the team would have had more sacks than they finished with. Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich had 19.5 of the 47 sacks, those 2 guys makeup 1 of the best DE tandems in the NFL and we have not had that type of tandem since the early 2000s.

Another factor is the improved pass coverage; there were a lot of cover sacks this season for players because of the work by Talib, McCourty, Dennard, Ryan and the others down the field. The secondary was also used to in blitzes much more than in years past we had 4.5 sacks by DBs:

Kyle Arrington – 2.0 sacks
Logan Ryan – 1.5 sacks
Steve Gregory – 1.0 sack

In 2012 we had 1 sack by Derrick Martin in our secondary.

Take a look at these stats

2010 the patriots were rank 30th against the pass and had 611 attempts 4136 yards 25tds against them
2011 they were 31st with 619 attempts 4703 yards 26 tds
2012 they were 29th with 594 attempts 4342 yards 27 tds
2013 they are 18 with 589 attempts 3824 yard 25 tds

Heres' the funny stat
2010 409 rushing attempts 1728 yards 10 tds
2011 405 attempts 1874 yards 13 tds
2012 415 attempts 1630 yards 10 tds
2013 481 attempts 2145 yards and only 11 tds

The pats have only giving up one more touchdown this season.

 

[Luxusdk]

This is probably the most broken stat in BBs era since he have always wanted run defense first. Even CBs should be better at defending the run then pass at the beginning and he used big SS ( Run first ) safetys.

Lately have he turned the mindset toward passing attack and even then, he still wants DEs to set the egde first. I dont mind this "bend dont break" attetude, but unless we stayed at the same track, we should not only this year but also Again NeXT year produce most sacks in BB era.

 

[RobertWeathers]

The pass rush is still mediocre. The area we improved in greatly was pass coverage. Chandler Jones himself even acknowledges that the majority of his sacks were coverage sacks.

You won't find quick pressure too often on film this year from this defense. The average sack time is probably closer to 4 or 5 seconds than 2 or 3. It's pretty bad. And our "hurries" are also due to coverage the majority of the time. I believe just making the qb throw due to pressure counts as a hurru. It does not need to be quick.

Most of what this defense accomplished this year was due to the secondary becoming one of the leagues top units.

A stud pass rusher, preferably interior, should be the teams top priority this off season along with securing Talib. If we can keep our secondary intact and force non - coverage based pressure we will have ourselves a top 5 defense easily. That is, assuming Mayo and Wilfork fully recover and help us from being pushed around again.

Note: I'm not taking away from what we did this year, but our sacks are mostly thanks to the secondary and the only truly quick pressures I remember were corner blitzes with Arrington and Ryan. The defensive back field is too strong, we WILL be elite defensively with another stud pass rusher.

The coverage and talent in the secondary is better this year no question but they go hand and hand. With Chandler Jones healthy and improved, Hightower is better at pressuring the QB and with 30 pressures from a D-Line position in 13 games, Chris Jones has done well. Carter and Nink have also been very good. Thats 5 players who can bring consistent pressure. Last year you had one in Nink as Chandler Jones had a high-ankle sprain.

My point: Without Nink and the Jones boys this year, QBs would be completing more passes for more yardage.

 

[Brady6]

The pass rush is still mediocre. The area we improved in greatly was pass coverage. Chandler Jones himself even acknowledges that the majority of his sacks were coverage sacks.

You won't find quick pressure too often on film this year from this defense. The average sack time is probably closer to 4 or 5 seconds than 2 or 3. It's pretty bad. And our "hurries" are also due to coverage the majority of the time. I believe just making the qb throw due to pressure counts as a hurru. It does not need to be quick.

Most of what this defense accomplished this year was due to the secondary becoming one of the leagues top units.

A stud pass rusher, preferably interior, should be the teams top priority this off season along with securing Talib. If we can keep our secondary intact and force non - coverage based pressure we will have ourselves a top 5 defense easily. That is, assuming Mayo and Wilfork fully recover and help us from being pushed around again.

Note: I'm not taking away from what we did this year, but our sacks are mostly thanks to the secondary and the only truly quick pressures I remember were corner blitzes with Arrington and Ryan. The defensive back field is too strong, we WILL be elite defensively with another stud pass rusher.

Personally I though the defense was excellent this season, its week point was the rush defense which is not that shocking considering the lost the best run stopping DT in the NFL Vince WIlfork and their perennial leading tackler and top NFL tackler Jerod Mayo.

The pass rush was very good; being 5th in the NFL in sacks indicates it was not mediocre. Take a look at these numbers I point them out because sometimes total yards or total number can be misleading the Patriots allow their opponents to run more plays than most teams because of the pace of our offense so it is not surprising that we allow more total numbers but in terms of averages and percentages the defense was outstanding.

• 21.1 points per game against which ranked 10th in the NFL
• 1,118 plays run against which ranked 3rd in the NFL
• 5,969 total yards allowed which ranked 26th in the NFL
• 5.34 yards against per play which ranked 16th in the NFL
• 29.6% opponent scoring efficiency which ranked 6th in the NFL
• 42.2% opponent third down efficiency which ranked 26th in the NFL
• 3,824 pass yards against which ranked 18th in the NFL
• 57.0% opponents completion percentage which ranked 3rd in the NFL
• 25 passing touchdowns allowed which ranked 10th in the NFL (tied)
• 17 interceptions which ranked 7th in the NFL
• 87 pass defended which ranked 14th in the NFL (tied)
• 48 sacks which ranked 5th in the NFL
• 2,145 rush yards against which ranked 30th in the NFL
• 4.5 rushing yards against per attempt which ranked 9th in the NFL (tied)
• 11 rushing touchdowns allowed which ranked 7th in the NFL (tied)

 

[coolguy]

The coverage and talent in the secondary is better this year no question but they go hand and hand. With Chandler Jones healthy and improved, Hightower is better at pressuring the QB and with 30 pressures from a D-Line position in 13 games, Chris Jones has done well. Carter and Nink have also been very good. Thats 5 players who can bring consistent pressure. Last year you had one in Nink as Chandler Jones had a high-ankle sprain.

My point: Without Nink and the Jones boys this year, QBs would be completing more passes for more yardage.

Part of me thinks bill is okay with a "bad" run defense if passing teams abandon what they are good at to attack the pats weakness.

 

[coolguy]

Personally I though the defense was excellent this season, its week point was the rush defense which is not that shocking considering the lost the best run stopping DT in the NFL Vince WIlfork and their perennial leading tackler and top NFL tackler Jerod Mayo.

The pass rush was very good; being 5th in the NFL in sacks indicates it was not mediocre. Take a look at these numbers I point them out because sometimes total yards or total number can be misleading the Patriots allow their opponents to run more plays than most teams because of the pace of our offense so it is not surprising that we allow more total numbers but in terms of averages and percentages the defense was outstanding.

• 21.1 points per game against which ranked 10th in the NFL
• 1,118 plays run against which ranked 3rd in the NFL
• 5,969 total yards allowed which ranked 26th in the NFL
• 5.34 yards against per play which ranked 16th in the NFL
• 29.6% opponent scoring efficiency which ranked 6th in the NFL
• 42.2% opponent third down efficiency which ranked 26th in the NFL
• 3,824 pass yards against which ranked 18th in the NFL
• 57.0% opponents completion percentage which ranked 3rd in the NFL
• 25 passing touchdowns allowed which ranked 10th in the NFL (tied)
• 17 interceptions which ranked 7th in the NFL
• 87 pass defended which ranked 14th in the NFL (tied)
• 48 sacks which ranked 5th in the NFL
• 2,145 rush yards against which ranked 30th in the NFL
• 4.5 rushing yards against per attempt which ranked 9th in the NFL (tied)
• 11 rushing touchdowns allowed which ranked 7th in the NFL (tied)

How does that compare to the broncos defense? Everyone is gloating about how inferior the pats receivers are compared to the broncos, but they never bring up how inferior the broncos defense is compared to the patriots.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Part of me thinks bill is okay with a "bad" run defense if passing teams abandon what they are good to attack the pats weakness.

I

In 2013, The Pats spent around 65% of the time in a sub-package. That is a clear indication that BB is in favor of having the best personnel on the field in the right package to stop the offense.

No question the run defense is not a good with VW but people make it sound like they can't stop the run at all. I believe that this team can stop the run when it needs to. However, being able to slow down the passing game is much more interesting to me.

 

[RobertWeathers]

How does that compare to the broncos defense? Everyone is gloating about inferior the pats receivers are compared to the broncos, but they bring up how inferior the broncos defense is compared to the patriots.

Broncos are ok vs the run but are near the bottom in pass defense and points allowed. Without Von Miller they are even more exposed vs the pass.

 

[BelizePats]

I love wilfork, but he has always been a liability when it comes to rushing the passer. The fact wilfork in his entire 9 season career has only 16 sacks speaks a lot.

Siliga IN HIS three games here in new england has equaled wilforks highest season sack total.

The fundamental lack of understanding of this post is, quite frankly, hard to believe. How can you claim to be a fan of this sport and this franchise yet have no understanding of the roll of each position and what their responsibilities are? You may as well be complaining about how Vince is a liability in the passing game because he has so few interceptions. Or that Brady is a liability in the running game because he's never cracked the 100 yard rushing mark in a game.

Your post is one of the most stunningly inaccurate statements I have read on this board in the 12 years I have been coming here.

 

[coolguy]

The fundamental lack of understanding of this post is, quite frankly, hard to believe. How can you claim to be a fan of this sport and this franchise yet have no understanding of the roll of each position and what their responsibilities are? You may as well be complaining about how Vince is a liability in the passing game because he has so few interceptions. Or that Brady is a liability in the running game because he's never cracked the 100 yard rushing mark in a game.

Your post is one of the most stunningly inaccurate statements I have read on this board in the 12 years I have been coming here.

You don't understand where i'm coming from.

Vince wilfork is an amazing run-stuffer, but he's not GREAT at sacking the qb. The nfl isn't built around stopping the run anymore.

Just look at what teams value most in the draft...Pass rushers are the most desired position in the draft next to qb and reciever.

 

[ausbacker]

Part of me thinks bill is okay with a "bad" run defense if passing teams abandon what they are good at to attack the pats weakness.

Personally, I believe Coach Belichick wants an elite run D and an elite pass D. Injuries gave prevented both.

 

[BelizePats]

I guess I don't! Calling one of the best D linemen in the league a liability because he doesn't have get "enough" sacks is utterly perplexing. Yes, it is now a passing game but that does not mean that other aspects of the game are not still extremely important. Vince's absence had left a huge hole in our D. The only good from it has been the discovery of Silinga, who appears to be a huge find.
Vince's job is not getting sacks. Its just a bonus when he does.
Our coach's motto is 'Do your job".
I simply cannot disagree with you more and will respectfully leave it at that.