Congratulations Defense

[amhunt2]

A fantastic effort by our young defense, on the road, in a very hostile environment. Guyton was fantastic in the middle. Wilhite solid in coverage. Wilfork, Warren, Wright and Green had excellent line play. McGowan was a force against the run (did Meriweather play today ?). Even though the offense was seemingly 3 and out all second half, the defense continued to respond.
Nice effort by the defense.

Are you kidding??? I agree the defense did good today. 16 points I can deal with.

But saying that Wilhite was solid in coverage is a joke. He got beat on the biggest plays. Jarvis Green had once again a very sub par performance.

For not even knowing if our starting safety played, you sure summed up a good game on defense. Come on, there are no moral victories - so the defense got outplayed by a rookie offense. End of story. Nothing to feel good about at all from this one -

 

[amhunt2]

Meh, IDK. We gave up many third and longs (again) and those kill momentum.

This guy has it right - the first drive of the 2nd half was the game-changer. That doesn't happen, momentum isnt lost. We couldn't recover.

 

[amhunt2]

Jets were 3/11 on third down conversions.

Seemed like those were the only that mattered. D played GREAT on third down in the first half. I wouldn't look too far into that stat.

 

[BionicPatriot]

Are you kidding??? I agree the defense did good today. 16 points I can deal with.

But saying that Wilhite was solid in coverage is a joke. He got beat on the biggest plays. Jarvis Green had once again a very sub par performance.

For not even knowing if our starting safety played, you sure summed up a good game on defense. Come on, there are no moral victories - so the defense got outplayed by a rookie offense. End of story. Nothing to feel good about at all from this one -

He stayed with his man a good amount of times too. Or are we just going to say he sucks like everyone else?

 

[amhunt2]

we got absolutely killed on field position today

Usually we can string together some long drives. But I agree, starting every drive from inside the 20 sucks.

Can someone tell me what happened to Nugent?

 

[BionicPatriot]

Seemed like those were the only that mattered. D played GREAT on third down in the first half. I wouldn't look too far into that stat.

It's easy to look at it that way after a loss. But lets be realistic here.

If the Patriots offense put up 21 points, that's good enough. If the Patriots do anything all day that's good enough. Today is just one of those days where the D can't win. Despite the fact they kept us in this game, we just blame them for every little play they didn't make. How about the offense that made 0 plays though?

I think the D played well enough for us to win today, and most weeks as well.

 

[amhunt2]

He stayed with his man a good amount of times too. Or are we just going to say he sucks like everyone else?

I don't think he sucks at all - I think he has earned a starting role. But saying he played solid today is a stretch IMO. He didn't come up when we needed it. From first look I kept seeing the back of his jersey on big NY's big gains. Far from solid.

 

[alvinnf]

A fantastic effort by our young defense, on the road, in a very hostile environment. Guyton was fantastic in the middle. Wilhite solid in coverage. Wilfork, Warren, Wright and Green had excellent line play. McGowan was a force against the run (did Meriweather play today ?). Even though the offense was seemingly 3 and out all second half, the defense continued to respond.
Nice effort by the defense.

Your right they played great... I don't think they have gotten the "go get em", coaching staff seal of approval. But they are definately gonna get better as the year goes on and the playbook opens up more.....

 

[amhunt2]

Couldnt agree more. Hell, we only gave up 17 points. thats not bad. My concern is the lack of offence. To be more specific the off play calling.
There is a night and day difference of the play calling from last year (under mcdaniels) and this year.

16* points. And I am very "offenced" you think our OFFENSE (note the spelling) had bad play calling. While it was questionable, execution was the BIGGEST problem. Overthrows, dropped balls, etc. is what hurt today. Brady looked hurried regularly. When he had time in the pocket he seemed to be far more successful. Obviously.

I just wouldn't point fingers at the play calling with so many other red (make that yellow) flags in our OFFENSE.

 

[amhunt2]

It's easy to look at it that way after a loss. But lets be realistic here.

If the Patriots offense put up 21 points, that's good enough. If the Patriots do anything all day that's good enough. Today is just one of those days where the D can't win. Despite the fact they kept us in this game, we just blame them for every little play they didn't make. How about the offense that made 0 plays though?

I think the D played well enough for us to win today, and most weeks as well.

That is very true. I also thought the defense played good enough to win today. And the offense can be blamed for the loss. But that's not the argument here. Overall, the D looked good enough - I'm just not ready to praise Wilhite and Green. And whether he led the teams in tackles or not, Guyton looked like he got manhandled multiple times.

D played good, O obviously did not, don't praise those who haven't earned it.

 

[Garbanza]

Are you kidding??? I agree the defense did good today. 16 points I can deal with.

But saying that Wilhite was solid in coverage is a joke. He got beat on the biggest plays. Jarvis Green had once again a very sub par performance.

For not even knowing if our starting safety played, you sure summed up a good game on defense. Come on, there are no moral victories - so the defense got outplayed by a rookie offense. End of story. Nothing to feel good about at all from this one -

Amen. Wilhite was NOT good.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

Usually we can string together some long drives. But I agree, starting every drive from inside the 20 sucks.

Can someone tell me what happened to Nugent?

Leon gave the Jets great starting field position and Hanson had a lousy punt.

With that said. we need redzone tds and not fg's

where did Baker go?

 

[amhunt2]

Leon gave the Jets great starting field position and Hanson had a lousy punt.

With that said. we need redzone tds and not fg's

where did Baker go?

Man good point, that eagles preseason game really made me think baker would be a go-to guy...man i was wrong...but it's still early.

Red Zone TDs have always been an area of struggle. I guess BB just makes me believe that because it's something he stresses so much. It hurts not to execute. That's usually where NE excels

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Agree, the team is still giving up way too many 3rd downs; the DC needs to call a damn blitz here n there. The defense is way too damn vanilla.

The JETS were 3/11 or 27%. The losing team only converted 33% of theirs...

 

[The Dynasty]

The defense didnt play THAT bad. I mean allowing 16 points you would have thing we would have won the game.

Guytons team high in tackles was a bit decieving, as at times he looked lost out there and was kind of slow getting to the ball. He also looked a bit fatigued out there, which I could see as he was on the field virtually every play. I think he will get better as the season goes on, but we do need Mayo back.

I thought we could have been more aggressive and going after Sanchez, I mean hes a rookie QB. We were really affective going after Edwards last week and I dont know where that was today. Meriweather got hurt early and was really a non factor. The DL I thought played well against the run. We needed to get more pressure from the LBs like Adalius and even Banta Cain who had a big game last week. You would have thought playing a rookie QB you would blitz a lot and force him to make plays. He had way too much time in the second half.

The defense needs to improve quickly because Atlanta is a much better offensive team than the Jets. I think the key to our success on D is getting the the QB and forcing him to make plays, no matter who we're playing.

 

[JackBauer]

Guytons team high in tackles was a bit decieving, as at times he looked lost out there and was kind of slow getting to the ball. He also looked a bit fatigued out there, which I could see as he was on the field virtually every play. I think he will get better as the season goes on, but we do need Mayo back.

So does this mean you're amending your initial observation that Guyton is slower than Bruschi

 

[The Dynasty]

Relax Jack lol, I actually meant to say that I was taking back my comment on Bruschi but forgot to throw that in there.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Is it just me, or did the defense seem a lot more aggressive, fast, and downright nasty in the preseason when the first unit played? I saw play after play early in games when the first unit D was sent flying at the QB and getting sacks. It seems they've reverted to playing coverage again rather than going after the opposing QB.

 

[SeymourTrophies]

Overall, the D was good.

I'm ruing that chance we had to stop them inside their 20 on the drive that ate up the end of the 3rd and a lot of the 4th quarter though. Those damned 3rd and longs. What's the deal with those? Wide open in the middle of the field, no pressure at all on the QB. Am I going to be watching replays of the overtime game against the jets forever?

 

[Patspsycho]

I think the defense is ahead of the curve... People keep forgetting that our D is in a major rebuilding mode.

I correctly deduced that the D would use the 4-2-5 cover 3 (McGowan and Merriweather were the key DB's who motioned down much of the time) as a base defense. However, in retrospect, if we had the personnel, I would rather have gone with the 3-4 as some of the cognoscenti in this forum argued for (BOR, pats 1, Jays52, and Andyjohnson).

Why?

People are complaining that we didn't throw too many tricky looks at a rookie QB or at least confound him. The reason we didn't is we weren't really able to do that consistently, and that is because we didn't stop their running game, and when you don't do that, you cannot dictate on defense.

Some quick observations:

Except for the surprise 2nd half barrage that resulted in a TD, I think our D did pretty nice for a D that is in major rebuilding mode. We have a completely retooled secondary, a new LB corp, and a new front. This D does not have an identity yet- don't forget the heart and leader of this D for the past 10 years just retired this season, and Mayo, the real Mike of this D is out for 3-6 weeks, and you tell me they gave up only 16 points today? I find that very very commendable.

Guyton is still having trouble two-gapping. There were one or two times where he was not correctly using two-gapping techniques and allowed a key run past him because he was on the wrong side of a block, instead of maneuvering the block to remain a true 2 gapper.

Also a key personnel, Merriweather had an ankle injury that visibly seemed to have an influence on his performance and a key tackle he could not completed led to a long play.

ST had a brain fart of a day. I believe this is an aberration because Scott usually has his ST troops sharp. Key penalties were, I believe, by recently activated players.. BJGE, and one other I cannot recall.

Brace and Pryor saw action today although not as extended as I'd have liked, but when they did, they had an impact on the game. I hope to see more of them down the road.