I left the Bills and Raiders out because their overall performance has not been impressive against other teams. I never claimed they were impressive. The balance of the other teams, as the yards per game ranking show, are not bad running teams by the numbers this season. If the Pats stopped them when other teams could not, then it stands to reason the Pats are not entirely inept in their run defense. 3 stinkers all season, and no consecutive stinkers
Other teams? So if you're leaving the Bills and Raiders out then we're left with Vikings and Bengals
Vikings have had their highest rush totals vs terrible rush D's. The Saint's give up 112 yards average to RBs and their defense is pretty awful this season all around. The Packers are the last ranked team when it comes to stopping the run. Asiata isn't even the starter for the Vikings anymore.
Bengals - Like I already said ... they fell behind early. Bernard still rushed for 62 on only 13 carries, if the Bengals D would of actually shown up then he probably would of broke 100. It didn't happen, I get that but there are reasons why the Bengals only had 18 total carries.
The point I was making is if these teams are all scrubs with high per game averages, then who are the running juggernauts you fear represent the real deal in the NFL right now? If you dismiss the good showings by the Pats D but not the bad, then the defense always sucks. The
2004 Pats defense, playing under similar pass defense emphasis rules, would apparently suck big time because they gave up about the same rushing yards by the time they reached 6-1, with two games of 200+ yards.
There are plenty of good RB's in the AFC....
Past teams are exactly that ... the past. It doesn't matter what we did in 2004 with completely different players on our roster/other teams rosters. That was
10 YEARS ago. Pass defense was different in 2004 compared to now as well, and that's pretty obvious.
The fact is we have given up the 2nd most yards to the rush in the entire NFL.
The Vikings aren't a playoff team
The Bills aren't a playoff team
The Raiders aren't a playoff
The Jets aren't a playoff team
Are the Dolphins a playoff team? I don't know, I can't really see them making it in this season.
I'm not dismissing their good games, but it's come against non playoff teams with under average run games, when this team has been tested by good RB's they have been torched. I just need to see a larger body of work with better RB's in those games, we'll see very soon too once this week is over.
Mayo has his critics here, but he sniffs out the ball well. He is a loss, regardless of whether some here want to believe he is not all that impressive. The Pats lost him in a short week, and as pointed out had to play a desperate team that also happens to be its biggest rival. The Jets got plenty of yards between the 20s but could not seal the deal with TDs.
Mayo is a loss for sure, but this was happening when he wasn't injured. I would of loved to see him vs Forte/Lacy though.
I would agree the Bears will be a bigger indicator of where the defense is, if only for those reasons. The Pats are currently 12th in the NFL in defensive PPG. If the defense were really that lousy against the run, I submit teams would simply run on the defense and the PPG ranking would be substantially worse because yards mean squat if they don't end in points. Much like the transitional offensive line, the defense has to adjust to the loss of Mayo again. Hopefully last year's experience and the presence of Wilfork will make that easier and more effective.
You're right, yards mean nothing if you can't score but all of the teams we have beat don't have stable run games and are pretty much bad teams outside of the Bengals. The teams who did beat us, it was clear they were going to run over and over and control the clock. No team wants to give the ball back to TB regardless who he has on offense. A lot of people here will take dumps on TB and this offense for not scoring on literally every drive, you're not going to score every drive and when you don't have many drives because you're getting ran on it will get dark real quick. It's not like this film isn't available to all teams, they have major holes and I think in this schedule grind where we will see quality teams, they will TEST the **** out of our run D. Buckle up because we have had a relatively easy start to the season, really good offensive play makers are on the horizon.
Our defense is good at getting turn overs, we NEED to make sure we can stop the run vs balanced teams because I will ALWAYS take my chances with all these non GOATs throwing the ball. It may be a passing league but passing the ball is scary.
The Cowboys go into Seattle, run the ball down their throats while playing keep away and win in the hardest place to win. Just take some time and really think about that