Fan Panic

[Deus Irae]

Definitely not trying to dispute that you have defensive issues currently. My point is, what team--what contender--doesn't have significant issues this year? People cite GB as a juggernaut but the truth is their secondary issues are arguably just as bad...and everyone else has major concerns in other areas. Indy won the SB with a historically bad run D, Pitt won it with a historically bad OL in '08 (at least in SB terms). No reason in this day and age why you can't win with a "historically bad" pass D...particularly when (from an outsider's perspective anyway) you have an elite coaching staff, and ample time to improve.

Anyone watching the Patriots defense without blinders on knows how bad it is right now. Anyone watching Green Bay's defense without blinders on knows that it's better than its statistical ranking, which is still better than the Patriots.

As for your "No reason..." point, there's obviously a reason. That reason is the playoff schedule. Now, is it possible that a team can get lucky and face teams they match up with? Sure, but you don't want to need that sort of luck.

Or, to put it another way, if the Patriots had to face Baltimore/NYJ, Pittsburgh and Green Bay to win the Super Bowl, do you really think they'd have much of a chance with this defense playing at or near its current level?

Belichick was recently featured in a documentary, and one of the interesting moments in the thing was when he conceded what a lot of us had been saying about that team: Stop Welker and Moss, and the Patriots are done. This year, it's "Stop Welker and just limit the TEs, and the Patriots are done." Not much has changed. As great as Brady is, he can't do it alone.

 

[randomk1]

Belichick was recently featured in a documentary, and one of the interesting moments in the thing was when he conceded what a lot of us had been saying about that team: Stop Welker and Moss, and the Patriots are done. This year, it's "Stop Welker and just limit the TEs, and the Patriots are done." Not much has changed. As great as Brady is, he can't do it alone.

I loved that part...left me quite suprised to see him say that.

 

[FCB02062]

The only problem with trying to link this season to seasons in which the Patriots had a tough loss here or there and rebounded to win the super bowl is that those teams had good to great defenses with impact players all over the field. This current Patriots defense will probably go down as one of the worst in franchise history, especially against the pass.....

 

[Ron Sellers]

This current Patriots defense will probably go down as one of the worst in franchise history

To those who started following the team in 2001, or 1996: yes.

To those over the age of thirty: a bit of an overstatement.

 

[Rob0729]

The only problem with trying to link this season to seasons in which the Patriots had a tough loss here or there and rebounded to win the super bowl is that those teams had good to great defenses with impact players all over the field. This current Patriots defense will probably go down as one of the worst in franchise history, especially against the pass.....

I think how people view this defense is skewed because of a freak year. If you look at the numbers, there is a record breaking number of offensive yards throughout the league. That is warping perceptions.

 

[Jackson 2]

Anyone who is listening to WEEI today will understand how spoiled rotten, out of their minds and lacking in football knowledge many Patriots fans are. I'm convinced that Al Qaeida put something in the Quabbin Reservoir and have made millions of people unbalanced. Hopefully, it's temporary, but I doubt it. Some nitwit just called in and compared Brady to Bledsoe, and he was one of the more cogent callers today.

 

[rojo8401]

Fantastic post! I have nothing but respect for the Steelers and how that team is run so it's easy for me to look past our rivalry and acknowledge a classy post from a classy fan. Except for Ryan Clark. I don't like him one bit.

I think the only thing you might be missing is some context as a Pats fan. The last few playoffs have been absolutely gut-wrenching, brutal displays of ineptitude. Heck, I still haven't recovered from that Baltimore debacle.

Which leads me to this: If the Pats don't make it this year, I want the Steelers to destroy both the Ravens and the Jets.

I am not alone in this I would imagine.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Great post, although I think you may be understating exactly how bad the depth in the secondary is. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't worried about this being a real Achilles heel, but the sentiments and knowledge in your post are great.

 

[Triumph]

Ehh..... Patriots fans are dealing with a defense that's been historically bad for a long stretch of the season, for the second year in a row. After having been the opposing fans for so much of the Manning era, most of us realize that we're seeing Brady being wasted he way the Fivehead was. The fans have actually been remarkably patient, because the 3 in 4 from the beginning of the 2000s bought Belichick a lot of slack.

The slack is just running out, that's all.

Well said.

The phrase "We will just reload and win it all next season" doesnt pack the punch that it used to as 2004 gets further away in the rear view mirror.

 

[goheels22002]

Definitely not trying to dispute that you have defensive issues currently. My point is, what team--what contender--doesn't have significant issues this year? People cite GB as a juggernaut but the truth is their secondary issues are arguably just as bad...and everyone else has major concerns in other areas. Indy won the SB with a historically bad run D, Pitt won it with a historically bad OL in '08 (at least in SB terms). No reason in this day and age why you can't win with a "historically bad" pass D...particularly when (from an outsider's perspective anyway) you have an elite coaching staff, and ample time to improve.

Enough of the aid and comfort from the enemy, already. The New England Patriots are on pace to set the NFL record for most passing yards allowed ever. At this pace, they give up 6,016 yards through the air this season. That's almost 1,500 more passing yards allowed than the current NFL record of 4,541 by the 1995 Atlanta Falcons. Nearly 100 yards per game more than ever allowed before.

Please don't put historically bad in quotation marks. They won't edge the record at this rate, the 2011 Patriots will blow it away!

The New England Patriots are 30th in 3rd down defense - Ben converted 10 of 16 chances last Sunday. 46% of the time the opposing team has converted on 3rd down this season. What is Tom Brady doing while that is going on?

Ample time to improve? It's week 8 and the bye is past. It's a war of attrition now and the Patriots don't have the experience or depth where they are weakest to get ready for the likes of the elite QBs in this league.

The defensive backfield are kids playing hard who opposing coaches and veteran QBs look at and know they've got all sorts of sets and patterns to confuse them. How good were they on the Mewelde Moore crossing pattern for a TD? Late to the ball and no shot at breaking that pass up. Give me a break.

Belichick knows he can't go man-to-man and instead he has a soft zone that Ben just torched for long, time-consuming drives that produce points and keep Brady off the field. Please don't lecture us that things are better than they appear.

One last tidbit. The Patriots are in second place in the AFC East behind the Buffalo Bills.

 

[Ivan]

I guess Walsh was right after 10 years of ridiculous success it is time to change the fanbase, cause they's just plain reeeediculous.

 

[FCB02062]

To those who started following the team in 2001, or 1996: yes.

To those over the age of thirty: a bit of an overstatement.

If teams continue to rack up 400+ yard each week, it will be one of the worst defense in the HISTORY of the nfl, yardage wise. The 2011 new england patriots are on course to surrender 5,169 passing yards (avg through 7 games 323). This would be, bar none, the worst pass defense in the HISTORY of the nfl....

 

[E1Downey]

Enough of the aid and comfort from the enemy, already. The New England Patriots are on pace to set the NFL record for most passing yards allowed ever. At this pace, they give up 6,016 yards through the air this season. That's almost 1,500 more passing yards allowed than the current NFL record of 4,541 by the 1995 Atlanta Falcons. Nearly 100 yards per game more than ever allowed before.

Please don't put historically bad in quotation marks. They won't edge the record at this rate, the 2011 Patriots will blow it away!

The New England Patriots are 30th in 3rd down defense - Ben converted 10 of 16 chances last Sunday. 46% of the time the opposing team has converted on 3rd down this season. What is Tom Brady doing while that is going on?

Ample time to improve? It's week 8 and the bye is past. It's a war of attrition now and the Patriots don't have the experience or depth where they are weakest to get ready for the likes of the elite QBs in this league.

The defensive backfield are kids playing hard who opposing coaches and veteran QBs look at and know they've got all sorts of sets and patterns to confuse them. How good were they on the Mewelde Moore crossing pattern for a TD? Late to the ball and no shot at breaking that pass up. Give me a break.

Belichick knows he can't go man-to-man and instead he has a soft zone that Ben just torched for long, time-consuming drives that produce points and keep Brady off the field. Please don't lecture us that things are better than they appear.

One last tidbit. The Patriots are in second place in the AFC East behind the Buffalo Bills.

Lmao this is just too funny. A patriots fan on a patriots fan site is arguing with an opposing teams fan about how bad the patriots are. Except the patriots fan is the one bashing the patriots, and the other fan is the defender.

Pretty funny of you ask me. The Pitt fan sounds like one of us talking the rest of the group away from the ledge after a tough loss, and the patriots fan sounds like another teams fan trying to kick the pats fans over said ledge.

Not that Im not worried about everything you just wrote, and you're right, but this is not a thread I expected to see today lol.

 

[Ron Sellers]

If teams continue to rack up 400+ yard each week, it will be one of the worst defense in the HISTORY of the nfl, yardage wise. The 2011 new england patriots are on course to surrender 5,169 passing yards (avg through 7 games 323). This would be, bar none, the worst pass defense in the HISTORY of the nfl....

If your basis of comparison is strictly raw numbers then yes, you are correct. But if you're going to look at things that way then you must also stand behind declaring ALL raw numbers - such as Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe being better quarterbacks than Johnny Unitas and Joe Montana, or Jerome Bettis and LaDainian Tomlinson being better running backs than Jim Brown, for example.

For starters teams now play 16 games, not 12 or 14. Rules have changed multiple times over the years, most notably in the last decade. It's useless to compare a player or a team from one era to the next based solely on stats such as the ones you are leaning on.

Whatever team allows the most passing yards in the league this year will surely set an NFL record for most passing yards allowed in the history of the league. However, that does not come remotely close to automatically making them the worst pass defense in the history of the NFL.

By the way, exactly how do you rationalize labeling this defense as being the worst of all time when basically half the league - fifteen teams - are allowing more points per game than the Pats are this year?

 

[JoeSixPat]

I've learned over the years that teams are never as bad as they appear when they lose, and never as good as they appear when they win.

That's the case here. If they were 6-1 this very same flawed team would be proclaimed as one of the best in the NFL

 

[E1Downey]

I've learned over the years that teams are never as bad as they appear when they lose, and never as good as they appear when they win.

That's the case here. If they were 6-1 this very same flawed team would be proclaimed as one of the best in the NFL

Absolutely correct sir.

 

[Deus Irae]

I've learned over the years that teams are never as bad as they appear when they lose, and never as good as they appear when they win.

That's the case here. If they were 6-1 this very same flawed team would be proclaimed as one of the best in the NFL

If they were 6-1, the defense wouldn't have crapped the bed to cost the team 2 games, and the 1 loss could be considered by many to be an aberration that could be put behind the team since the offense would still have been able to overcome the defense except for the one blip. Since they are NOT 6-1, that's not the case.

So, yes, if the facts were different, the view of the facts would be different. That shouldn't really be a surprise.

 

[goheels22002]

Lmao this is just too funny. A patriots fan on a patriots fan site is arguing with an opposing teams fan about how bad the patriots are. Except the patriots fan is the one bashing the patriots, and the other fan is the defender.

Pretty funny of you ask me. The Pitt fan sounds like one of us talking the rest of the group away from the ledge after a tough loss, and the patriots fan sounds like another teams fan trying to kick the pats fans over said ledge.

Not that Im not worried about everything you just wrote, and you're right, but this is not a thread I expected to see today lol.

New England pro sports teams are pretty good when the fan base and the teams get out on the ledge and feel a sense of urgency, so I do not see that as a bad thing.

The Pitt fan reassuring us that everything will be okay after they kicked the Patriots' butts by making irrelevant comparisons to teams from previous years with weaknesses set me off. Who cares? As Mike Ditka likes to say: "The past is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That's why they call it the 'present'."

Very nice. Now shut down the somebody's damn passing attack!

 

[Observer]

I've learned over the years that teams are never as bad as they appear when they lose.

True, commentators and fans alike agree that they were actually worse.

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

Holy crap, we need other teams fans to come in and give people a reality check...

Great post OP, and good luck to you guys this week, other than for us Pats fans, the game of the week for sure...