Bill Belichick Has Only Himself To Blame For This Mess On Defense

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Belichick was an idiot for not allowing our Adalius 'statue in the park formation' Thomas to remain on the roster.

 

[D-Money]

They got older on the defensive front.Seriously that Ellis move was maded based on the game that he had against this team in the playoffs.All these teams on the offensive side of the ball will be licking their chops to pat their stats against the pats!

 

[D-Money]

I think its more coaching and scheme if u asked me.The d-line is not that great but the way they look out there is ridiculous.They give up so many huge passing plays.May Henne look all world.Nuff said!

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I blame Pete Carroll. It's all the rage these days to fault your predecessor.

OK, all kidding aside. Of course it is obvious that the success or failure of these defenses is directly the responsibility of Bill Belichick. He buys the groceries, decides which ones to keep and he designs and coaches up the defenses. No Bill O'Brien to blame here.

 

[Snake Eyes]

So did Mein Kampf.

That’s got to be one of the stupidest posts I’ve seen in a long time. Instead of trying to REFUTE his point you just try to make a Hitler comparison, pathetic.

BB is a magnificent coach, not so great as a GM. Kraft needs to hire a GM if he wants to win again, BB doesnt seem to want to delegate which hurts us, and his personell moves leave a LOT to be desired.

 

[Boston Boxer]

Eugene Chung doesn't go unscathed..

he looks like the guy from the movie "The Replacements"

 

[BSR]

There are some points in the article that I would disagree with and it certainly has a glass half empty viewpoint, as someone put it, but largely it is difficult to refute the overall point. Unless we see a complete turnaround in the next few weeks of a three year trendline, this defense has progressively become worse and worse each year for the past several years. Its something that you don't expect from a Belichick coached team.

I wonder if part of the problem is the lack of experienced coaches around him. One of the key factors from the championship teams was that BB made sure not to surround himself with YES men. I think that was a point raised in Holley's Patriots Reign. I really question if that is still the case. Without the quality coaches around BB to bounce ideas off of and help him execute his schemes, I think it seriously lessens the effectiveness of his coaching ability. The talent drain at the coaching level may actually be worse than the talent drain at the player level.

 

[Mack Herron]

Problem with this article is that it acts like the season is over after 3 games. Everyone was drooling after a couple of preseason games, and now its a disaster. BB sees the problem--he changed the scheme and he changed the personnel. Main problem is he keeps whiffing on the players. But I think the defense--especially McCourty and Bodden--are not as bad as they have played in 3 games. How much can they improve? Time will tell, but you don't build a defense in a day or month. Let's see how they are playing in December.

 

[robbomango]

BB looked demonic at the podium following the game sunday and monday. It's good to see he still despises losing down to the core of his existence. Thought he was gonna start breathing fire at the press and melt cameras w his eyeballs.

Will Ridley help out the D if he's able to kill the clock and keeping those guys off the field? i see him being the man by mid to late season. watching an interview with him I was impressed, he's a patriot to the core.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

BB looked demonic at the podium following the game sunday and monday. It's good to see he still despises losing down to the core of his existence.

Bill, a self-hating Croatian?

 

[Tunescribe]

Who the hell is George Cain? For that matter, since he has all the answers, why isn't he working in the Pats' front office along with our own DonBlackmon55?

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Problem with this article is that it acts like the season is over after 3 games. Everyone was drooling after a couple of preseason games, and now its a disaster. BB sees the problem--he changed the scheme and he changed the personnel. Main problem is he keeps whiffing on the players. But I think the defense--especially McCourty and Bodden--are not as bad as they have played in 3 games. How much can they improve? Time will tell, but you don't build a defense in a day or month. Let's see how they are playing in December.

I don't think there is any problem in worrying about the defense after giving up nearly 1,200 yards passing in 3 games and near 90 points allowed ... That is ALOT to fix within 2 months to keep a season going smooth and longer than just early January.

No one is concerned with Brady and his 4 INTs because we know he will bounce back and improve as the season wears on...the defense is a different story.

 

[Snake Eyes]

Who the hell is George Cain? For that matter, since he has all the answers, why isn't he working in the Pats' front office along with our own DonBlackmon55?

Sorry but that’s a weak argument: ‘he doesn’t know what he’s talking about evidenced by the fact that the Patriots didn’t hire him, and they didn’t hire him because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about’, that’s called circular reasoning.

If you think you can actually refute his points go ahead.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

What is a championship defense? It is a defense that belongs to a team that wins the championship. Everything else is just conversation.

While there is no doubt BB has not fielded a dominant defense in several years (and the blame is his - not a DC), ultimately, is the team vying for a championship? We could be Baltimore with its dominant defense and lack of O. The Patriots are in the mix with a small handful of teams seemingly every year. I'd like the D to be better but BB is consistently fielding a highly competitive team that is easy to root for. Let's not lose sight of that......

 

[BradyFTW!]

I like threads like this, because they do a great job of containing a lot of the insanity that's posted here into a single, easy-to-ignore place

Newsflash: Belichick didn't forget what makes a good NFL defense. Whatever issues we have are clearly personnel-related.

 

[letekro]

I would not wipe my butt with this article for fear that it would work its way into my bloodstream and kill my remaining brain cells.

Like someone else said, who the f is George Cain? Patriots D usually comes into form by the end of the year. There have been other years where they have started out at or near the bottom and ended up middle of the pack and better. No reason to think this year is any different, especially as they are more talented than last year's version.

 

[Deus Irae]

I like threads like this, because they do a great job of containing a lot of the insanity that's posted here into a single, easy-to-ignore place

Newsflash: Belichick didn't forget what makes a good NFL defense. Whatever issues we have are clearly personnel-related.

There are all sorts of scheme and playcalling issues right now. That's not personnel, that's coaching and GMing.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

If we lose sunday there will be threads like this filling up the main forum at an alarming rate.

 

[patsfaninpa]

What is a championship defense? It is a defense that belongs to a team that wins the championship. Everything else is just conversation.

...

Let's look at the last 5 Super Bowl Champs and their defenses. Rex Ryan might. But, I don't give a damn about yards allowed. Especially the way the game is played now. I judge defenses on points allowed. Bonus points for forcing turnovers. But, mainly points allowed.

06 Indy - 23rd in points allowed. Jax ran for 447 yards on them in Week 13!! Yet, put it together a little. And won it all. We were 2nd.

07 NY Giants - 17th in points allowed. Too vomit inducing to discuss how their season ended. We were 4th.

08 Pittsburgh - 1st in points allowed. But, took a great pass and better catch to beat Arizona who finished 28th in points allowed.
We were 8th.

09 New Orleans - 18th in points allowed. We were 5th.

10 Green Bay - 2ND in points allowed. Pitt 1st. We finished 8th.

We've been in the ballpark in terms of having a championship defense in 3 of the last 5 years. 06, 07 and 09. Only years we didn't were 08 and last year. And, I'm sure we beat Pitt at home if played them last year. Rex has done a good job defensing us. The Jets only gave up 9 less points than us last year and we forced more turnovers.
Let's wait until after Thanksgiving. That's when the real season starts before make any hasty decisions either way.

 

[oldskool138]

I wonder if part of the problem is the lack of experienced coaches around him.

I think that it's like why the Star Wars prequels sucked. Nobody around George Lucas had the sack to say "You know what? This is terrible. Why don't we do this?"

I think it's the same with BB and his coaching staff.

The one thing I noticed watching A Football Life was that people use hushed tones around the guy like he's a time bomb waiting to go off and they don't want to cut the wrong wire.