BY THE NUMBERS: Patriots Pass Defense Has Improved

[ATippett56]

Houston had the worst pass defense in NFL history in 2010.

What does the 2010 NFL Season have to do with the 2012 NFL Season considering the player personnel turnover in the league?

 

[Deus Irae]

What does the 2010 NFL Season have to do with the 2012 NFL Season considering the player personnel turnover in the league?

The New England Patriots pass defense is currently ranked 29th in opponent passing yards per game. Only three NFC teams are currently ranked below the New England Patriots pass defense in opponent passing yards per game.

NFL Football Stats - NFL Team Opponent Passing Yards per Game on TeamRankings.com

The New England Patriots pass defense is 3 yards per game better than last season, not statistically significant.

Ask yourself that same question about 2011....

 

[RobertWeathers]

According to your authority, the team with the worst pass defense in the NFL over the past 3 games - and it's not even remotely close - is the Houston Texans. And Brice McCain is on IR, and Jonathan Josph probably out, against the Pats. Houston had the worst pass defense in NFL history in 2010, and may be regressing.

Of the 4 games they've allowed over 300 yds passing and 3 TDs or more during the game. In addition, 3 of those games have come vs top passers (PM, AR and Stafford) and 2 of those have come in the last 3 weeks.

Seems that they are giving up a lot of yards and points but their opponants have had pretty good passing games anyway.

 

[ATippett56]

Ask yourself that same question about 2011....

In the New England Patriots case, the pass defense hasn't really improved through 12 regular season games in the 2012 NFL Season.

 

[Off The Grid]

ALSO: Am I the only one who finds the new format on these BLOGS UTTERLY ANNOYING.

I like reading OTG as a change of pace, but reading every blog in OTG-like format LARGE RED-BOLD font is a bit annoying.

When your name becomes the DEFINITION of over-formatted Text...you might have a problem!! :singing:

By the way: I NEVER go with "Large Red Bold" formatting on my OWN stuff. :snob:

 

[Ian]

In the New England Patriots case, the pass defense hasn't really improved through 12 regular season games in the 2012 NFL Season.

That may be true overall, but they've definitely been better over the last four games.

 

[mayoclinic]

What does the 2010 NFL Season have to do with the 2012 NFL Season considering the player personnel turnover in the league?

IDK - you brought up the 2011 Pats' pass defense, which had entirely different personnel. Why should you be allowed to reference previous years but not others?

 

[Off The Grid]

"Off The Grid." HE tends to get CREATIVE with his FORMATTING.

Ian, sorry Off The Grid (the wild-crazy guy who posts all in various colors, multiple fonts, lots of photos). Didnt think anyone didnt know him at this point. (I am a closet fan. )

And I of you, Brother Gumby.

 

[ATippett56]

IDK - you brought up the 2011 Pats' pass defense, which had entirely different personnel. Why should you be allowed to reference previous years but not others?

With regard to the Houston Texans defense, the Houston Texans pass defense has significantly improved since the 2010 NFL Season with the following acquisitions:

2011 NFL Free Agent Acquisitions

Danieal Manning - safety
Jonathan Joseph - cornerback

2011 NFL Draft

J.J. Watt
Brooks Reed

 

[ATippett56]

IDK - you brought up the 2011 Pats' pass defense, which had entirely different personnel. Why should you be allowed to reference previous years but not others?

Based upon the personnel changes for the New England Patriots defense, the statistical improvement in pass defense is marginal at best thru 12 games of the 2012 NFL Season compared to 16 games of the 2011 NFL Season.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

ALSO: Am I the only one who finds the new format on these BLOGS UTTERLY ANNOYING. I like reading OTG as a change of pace, but reading every blog in OTG-like format LARGE RED-BOLD font is a bit annoying.

What he said

 

[BananaRepublican]

"Off The Grid." HE tends to get CREATIVE with his FORMATTING.

We were taught (writing tech documentation) to never use more than two fonts, two sizes, two attributes on any one page. Yes it's "boring", but no, it won't cause seizures and eruptions of cranial fissures. If you use Sans Serif only for headlines and headings, and not mix in too many sizes and fonts you will save eye strain from your readers. If you think that is just the way my company worked then just look at any documentation for any tech company. They are pretty standardized and it's because of all the complaints about "creative" formatting. You gotta plan on somebody with ADHD trying to read that stuff. They can't make their eyes follow a standard line let alone a bumpy road of potholes and hollering.

Colors are 99% bullcrap except in the rarest of cases. Colors rarely make the data more impressive. Tell me in a plain font that the defense stopped Miami's offense on 10 out of 13 first down attempts and I'll still be mighty impressed.

 

[Deus Irae]

In the New England Patriots case, the pass defense hasn't really improved through 12 regular season games in the 2012 NFL Season.

First, the thread is about a recent trend, and not about the whole year. Second, the 2011 season is in the past, just as the 2010 season is, which was my point.

 

[Ian]

What he said

I've asked this question several times, but I can't seem to get anyone to point out what it is they're seeing. I don't have Red as a title color in any of the blogs, so I'm trying to pinpoint where you're seeing this? Can't fix it if you don't tell me where it is

 

[Gumby]

LOL - Gumby was referencing the blogs though, so I'm just trying to figure out what he was referring to.

Ian,
Not sure what you did, but it appears much better now.

for the record, I guess I was actually talking about on the HOME page the ARTICLES (on the right side veritcal bar) and not necessarilz the BLOGS (horizontal bar under the photo-main story). Although I think the blogs had the same problem it was the articles that caused me to vent.

Whatever it was, you fixed it now and they are much more readable in a normal font.

One last critique as long as I am on that road, there seems to be a tendancy in web-designers to constantly want to push the envelope in how much graphics-photos-animation they can JAM into a page. RESIST THIS URGE, PLEASE.
I think you somehow just passed the point of reasonableness on the home page. It may work great on your computer working in a fast connection to the server, but for those out in the netherlands with slower connections and smaller laptop screens, you just make yourself too painful to use. AND I REFUSE TO GIVE UP MY PATSFANS JUNKIE HABIT.
So maybe try and take a look at what you can make SIMPLER IS BETTER graphics wise. Remember not all of us are ADD-driven 20 year olds who need 50 items to click on one page.

Also, I liked the top line menu items (news, forum, photos, ...) up above the Pat-Patriot banner, the bigger click-buttons are good though. Location is a bit of a personal preference probably, but I liked them up higher-like a software program topline menu.

I thought I was done whining, but just tried to add a smilie and the MORE button came up with a blank screen popup. So you might want to check that too. (sorry, loading you up on work today )

 

[Deus Irae]

Gumby....

Ian has said that he was looking into adding some smilies to the board, so he may be working on that now.

I'm hoping for some

Coffee:

Spock:

Thumbs up:

for example.

 

[DarrylS]

For a while our d backfield totaled less than 5 years experience, now Gregory is back, Talib is part of the crew, McCourty is at safety there is from my view a vast improvement... Dennard has been a nice surprise, he is also a pretty good tackler...

 

[mayoclinic]

Based upon the personnel changes for the New England Patriots defense, the statistical improvement in pass defense is marginal at best thru 12 games of the 2012 NFL Season compared to 16 games of the 2011 NFL Season.

With regard to the Houston Texans defense, the Houston Texans pass defense has significantly improved since the 2010 NFL Season with the following acquisitions:

2011 NFL Free Agent Acquisitions

Danieal Manning - safety
Jonathan Joseph - cornerback

2011 NFL Draft

J.J. Watt
Brooks Reed

My God you're a hypocrite.

First, as regards the Pats, the OP was comparing the changes made in the past 4-5 games, since the Pats have made significant personnel changes: moving Devin McCourty to FS, replacing McCourty and Arrington at outside CB with Alfonzo Dennard and Aqib Talib, moving Arrington to the slot where his skill set is better suited, not using Chung and Wilson as the deep cover safety, and playing more aggressively up front. So continuing to post cumulative stats for the first 12 games of the season is entirely ignoring the point of the OP, and suggests that you're either unable or unwilling to comprehend the point.

Second, the Houston comparison is entirely relevant. Houston had an atrocious pass defense in 2010, and to their credit they - as you note - went out and got some personnel on both the front and back end of their defense to improve it. I agree with all of the guys you mention: Watt, Reed, Manning and Joseph. And it paid off last year and for the first half of this year. But the Texans are banged up, and missing some of those personnel - Reed and Joseph have been out, and slot CB Brice McClain is on IR. So over the past 3 games they've given up 350+ YPG passing. While they did have to face Matt Stafford, they gave up 354 yards passing and 37 points to Chad Henne and Jacksonville and 309 yards passing to Jake Locker - not exactly elite QBs. So my argument was that with injuries to key defensive personnel, the Texans' defense is "regressing" to the kind of results that they showed before they made those key personnel changes. And if they are giving up that kind of passing yardage to Locker and Henne, it doesn't bode well for their defense - which will be without Reed, McCain and probably Joseph - against Tom Brady and the top offense in the NFL.

My argument - which you've ignored several times, and which you will probably ignore again - is that while the Pats' pass defense has gotten better in the past several games due to personnel changes, the Texans' has gotten worse due to injuries to defensive personnel, so that the stats for the 12 game season to date aren't reflective of where the pass defenses are right now.

But go ahead and continue to point out that the 12 game stats aren't much different from 2011 while noting that others shouldn't bring up past stats. :bricks:

 

[Fixit]

Based upon the personnel changes for the New England Patriots defense, the statistical improvement in pass defense is marginal at best thru 12 games of the 2012 NFL Season compared to 16 games of the 2011 NFL Season.

Holy cow, man, this thread is about their improvement over the last handful of games. How many times are you going to talk about the first 12 this year vs. the first 12 last year?

 

[northernpatriot]

Holy cow, man, this thread is about their improvement over the last handful of games. How many times are you going to talk about the first 12 this year vs. the first 12 last year?

Well it is only page 4 of the thread. If he's still talking '11 on page 7, my head might explode.