For the 2016 Pats to be in/win SB 51 the D has to improve ALOT

[Soul_Survivor88]

I guess this is what Belichick meant when he said the Pats play "team defense"

 

[BobDigital]

They don't need to improve a lot. Just a little. 10% better and they are fine.

They are ranked 3rd in PPG but have faced some bad offenses on the whole.

Using this.
Cold, Hard Football Facts.com: The Truth Hurts

We can adjust for it. Going by strength of opponents and points surrendered they are 5th best in points allowed. Seems about right.

Broncos, Vikings, Seattly, Eagles all look better on D by the eye test and this lends credence to it. It is worth noting though that the gap between the Pats (#5) and AZ (#6) is pretty good.

The Pats my move up a bit after this week but they got to face an injured Steelers O.

Still they are probably the 5th best D in the league but I'd like them to rank and look like the 3rd best ideally. As it has been noted before on here BB D's tend to improve as the year goes on.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

The biggest thing for us to win the super bowl is Health.

Yeah, man.

Wait, I mean

or

...just put my glasses on. 10-4.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Solid? Whateva floats your boat.

 

[NormZauchin]

They don't need to improve a lot. Just a little. 10% better and they are fine.

They are ranked 3rd in PPG but have faced some bad offenses on the whole.

Using this.
Cold, Hard Football Facts.com: The Truth Hurts

We can adjust for it. Going by strength of opponents and points surrendered they are 5th best in points allowed. Seems about right.

Broncos, Vikings, Seattly, Eagles all look better on D by the eye test and this lends credence to it. It is worth noting though that the gap between the Pats (#5) and AZ (#6) is pretty good.

The Pats my move up a bit after this week but they got to face an injured Steelers O.

Still they are probably the 5th best D in the league but I'd like them to rank and look like the 3rd best ideally. As it has been noted before on here BB D's tend to improve as the year goes on.

With what is almost certainly the best offense in the league, the fifth best defense should be enough to win the Super Bowl, barring a rash of injuries. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a team that has won the championship with both offense and defense ranked in the top three.

 

[meatface]

The same goes for the defense

yes, you also cant expect the defense to be perfect

 

[Ring 6]

And getting stops on defense. Defense still wins in january.

The defense has allowed 5 TDs in 5 games. That sounds like a lot of stops to me.

 

[deroc5050]

If they stay healthy as they are currently built as a team, they go to the super bowl and probably win. But there is alot of football to play. I am more afraid of injuries than anything else this year.

 

[Ring 6]

The fourth quarter, when it really mattered, and only rushing three (with the offense knowing they would only rush three too) they got their first pressures on Jones forcing dump offs and check down throws.

They simply are not coached to sell out to get any quarterback in most situations, but if dropping eight guys into deep cover, they'll concede the QB running to kill clock. I'm convinced BB has metrics charts showing ROI for pass rushing to demonstrate where and when situation wise he'll "unleash the hounds".

No when a patriot dl rushes the passer (unless it's a mobile qb and the are coached to stay in lanes and not run past the QB ) he is trying as hard as he can to sack the qb.
It's a one on one battle. The difference is other teams sacrifice other areas more often to make his job easier and BB doesn't do it as often.

 

[Uptown]

FWIW...

Patriots CB Malcolm Butler leads NFL in pass break-ups

 

[Bill Lee]

New England Patriots will play bland defense as long as they keep facing bad quarterbacks just showed up on our patsfans.com article feed at the top of the page and does a great job of explaining the Pats approach to defense. It says:

To beat the Patriots, a team needs to generate significant offense.

And what is Landry Jones' best chance of generating significant offense: Making one correct read and one accurate throw for a 60-yard touchdown, or making six correct reads and accurate throws for gains of 10 yards at a time? The former.

No way in hell Landry Jones was beating the Patriots without several chunk yardage plays. So, naturally, the foundation of New England's gameplan was the elimination of big plays.

In Bill We Trust!

 

[Uptown]

New England Patriots will play bland defense as long as they keep facing bad quarterbacks

 

[BobDigital]

With what is almost certainly the best offense in the league, the fifth best defense should be enough to win the Super Bowl, barring a rash of injuries. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a team that has won the championship with both offense and defense ranked in the top three.

True. But I would feel better if the D could do just a bit better. I like the way it is trending though. I think Rowe will improve as the year goes on and Butler the last 2 games has been good. I'd like to see more pressure though but i do like how they are stopping the run.

They faced IMO the 2 best RBs in the NFL and besides 1 big run by David Johnson for 45 yards held them in check. They faced Ajayi early in the year before he broke out for what that is worth and he did nothing. Miller was contained well mostly. McCoy was contain well mostly (running). Before facing us the Browns had the NFL's best rushing attack. Neither Bengals back did much and both are pretty good.

While I would not automatically say the Pats have the best run D in the NFL considering who they faced I think they are top 5 for sure.

A under stated positive of the D.

 

[yukon cornelius]

just let this nonsensical thread die already

 

[Kontradiction]

Shut a historically good offense out in the second half to win the Super Bowl.

 

[Clonamery]

Classic...get what you wish for.