According to Dom Capers: NE played base 3-4 just 15% of the time last year

[eom]

I really haven't looked at pff's player rankings at all, but if you're interested in the packages new england ran last year you can click on 'player participation' for each week.

ProFootballFocus.com - By Team

 

[BradyFTW!]

Cherry-picking here.

In the years the Patriots won the Super Bowl, we gave up tons of yards, not many points. Our forte in the Ted Washington years was stopping the run. For every Peyton Manning out there, there are multiple teams like the Ravens and Steelers who stop the run first. In fact, the Steelers have two Super Bowl wins this decade, and they've been weak in the defensive backfield. Manning is a freak, but even he struggled to win the big one. That's why the Colts succeed, but look what it took for them to get there. They gave up 30+ at home in the AFCCG and still won. Is that a winning formula? Heck no.

Statistics do lie, especially any stat looking at yardage primarily.

The Ravens and Steelers both perform well against the pass. They have the two best safeties in the league, two of the best pass rushes in the league, and aggressive playcalling that forces interceptions.

Funny, what I remember most about the SB years, relative to now, is that we were *much* better against the pass than we are now. A legitimate shutdown CB (Law) in his prime, Milloy/Harrison (in his prime), McGinest bringing a pass rush off the edge that we haven't been able to replace since he left, Bruschi able to bring inside pressure, Vrabel getting timely pressure on the strong side...

Football Outsiders' Defensive Rankings by Year (vs. the pass, vs. the run)
2001: 11th, 28th
2002: 9th, 26th
2003: 2nd, 13th
2004: 5th, 6th
2005: 29th, 15th
2006: 6th, 10th
2007:5th, 21st
2008: 26th, 9th

 

[mgteich]

Are we comparing our 2009 defense with the defenses of the Ravens and Steelers? That would not be a comfortable exercize for me.

The Ravens and Steelers both perform well against the pass. They have the two best safeties in the league, two of the best pass rushes in the league, and aggressive playcalling that forces interceptions.

Funny, what I remember most about the SB years, relative to now, is that we were *much* better against the pass than we are now. A legitimate shutdown CB (Law) in his prime, Milloy/Harrison (in his prime), McGinest bringing a pass rush off the edge that we haven't been able to replace since he left, Bruschi able to bring inside pressure, Vrabel getting timely pressure on the strong side...

 

[JSn]

Statistics do lie, especially any stat looking at yardage primarily.

Unless we're talking about RB's, evidently...

 

[BradyFTW!]

Are we comparing our 2009 defense with the defenses of the Ravens and Steelers? That would not be a comfortable exercize for me.

No, we're not making that comparison. There's no comparison to make- they're way, way better than we are. What gave you that impression?

 

[nashvillepatsfan]

Am i mistaken in thinking that we beat the Rams by playing more DBs (dime/nickel), and the same with the Colts? With the Rams, they were determined to take Faulk out of the game, and rough up the WRs. I always thought they were mainly concerned with Faulks recieving than his rushing in that SB. Same with the Colts. I always viewed it as, pass defense first, worry about the run second.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Am i mistaken in thinking that we beat the Rams by playing more DBs (dime/nickel), and the same with the Colts? With the Rams, they were determined to take Faulk out of the game, and rough up the WRs. I always thought they were mainly concerned with Faulks recieving than his rushing in that SB. Same with the Colts. I always viewed it as, pass defense first, worry about the run second.

Yeah, in the Rams SB in particular the Pats were just purely playing the pass. Martz's assistants were screaming at him to just run the ball, but he was dead-set on winning his way.

 

[Shockt327]

It's called a thesis statement. If you only read the thesis, then yeah it seems like a vague generalization.

I find this post to be ironic since I'm the one who linked an actual statistic argument, a thesis, if you will; and it's clear that you haven't read it. Also, Your post is hardly a thesis. All you're doing is throwing out cliches (stats lie!) and making anecdotal arguments about certain teams in certain situation to try and back it up. Even worse is that the arguments you make are only half true, or downright wrong.

Cherry-picking here.

Here's the rub...You and I can "cherry pick" all we want. Yet, you can't "cherry pick" seasons upon season of data that has been correlated to winning via regression model. The trend is statistically significant by a considerable margin. We aren't, say, taking Brady's TDs in 07 vs Mannings in 04 and saying one is better than the other. That would be an unscientific argument. In that sense stats - or rather our interpretation of those stats - do indeed lie. The statistical analysis I linked is not the same. But, the two of us can still have fun debating...

In the years the Patriots won the Super Bowl, we gave up tons of yards, not many points.

Wrong, wrong, wrong...The only Defense that gave up a lot of yards but not points was the 2001 D; mostly because they didn't "gel" 'till the second half of the season. Besides that one year, points and yardage have pretty much gone hand-in-hand for the D. Oh and we've been top 10 in yardage allowed during quite a few years.

Our forte in the Ted Washington years was stopping the run.

Years? Ted Washington only played one season in NE: 2003. During that season he hurt his knee and missed 6 games. Sorry, but this gaffe begins to make me wonder how much you really know about the Pats/football... Not that any of this matters because Belichick's 3-4 has always set the first priority on stopping the run: maintain the Gaps, OLBs setting the edge. Those are run stopping principles. The difference is that during those peak years this team also had a dominating pass rush, and LBs who could drop into coverage better than any other team in the NFL. We've also had a SS/CB tandem that was consistently brilliant. That's changed over the past few years - hence we aren't as good.

For every Peyton Manning out there, there are multiple teams like the Ravens and Steelers who stop the run first.

Yet, the Ravens and Steelers are just as effective at stopping the pass are they are the run, so this is irreverent.

In fact, the Steelers have two Super Bowl wins this decade, and they've been weak in the defensive backfield.

Since the "Ty Law rule" having a good passing defense has much, much less to do with having elite CBs, and everything to do with having an effective pass-rush. Examples: 2004 Pats, 2005 Steelers, 2006 Colts, 2007 Giants, 2008 Steelers - all teams will excellent pass rush, yet weak CBs. But hey, how'd that Broncos D do with Champ Bailey and Dre Bly at CB? The 49ers with Nate Clemens?

Manning is a freak, but even he struggled to win the big one.

Because Peyton had some truely epic choke-jobs; not because the D blew it for him. In order, every Manning playoff loss the Colts D surrendered: 19, 23, 41, 24, 20, 21, 24, and 17 points.

That's why the Colts succeed, but look what it took for them to get there. They gave up 30+ at home in the AFCCG and still won. Is that a winning formula? Heck no.

Actually, that Colts D gave up 28 points (there was a pick-6 by Asante) - which isn't bad against TFB in a playoff game, in a dome. Fact: The Colts D has only given up 20 ppg in the entire playoffs since Dungy took over in 2003 - they've never been built to stop the run during this period.

Statistics do lie, especially any stat looking at yardage primarily.

Again, its obvious that you haven't even bothered to look at the argument. We aren't talking about raw yardage stats. Read the site. The argument compares Run-Stopping efficiency to other factors and determine which correlate to winning.

Advanced NFL Stats: What Makes Teams Win? 1