The front seven has a lot of trouble getting pressure... but is it just me, or do the Patriots almost NEVER blitz? Any time the Pats get a sack, it's because a block was defeated. It's so frustrating, year after year, to see bad QBs have success against us, but Rex Ryan-style blitzing is what typically does poor QBs in and we don't seem to want to do it.
It seems as though they're happy to give a QB time if it means no easy TDs are given up (Seattle notwithstanding, you have to give them that; teams must sustain drives on the Patriots to score). But the one time they brought overload pressure on Sanchez yesterday resulted in Hightower's sack--arguably the play of the game.
It just seems as if the Pats are almost vanilla on defense, which is of course in stark contrast with the offense, that continues to innovate at a break-neck pace.
Forgive me if this just sounds like homerist spin, but I like to think BB is stressing fundamentals with this defense, and forcing them to go out and play honest football so as to improve, rather than 'lipsticking the pig' with a lot of exotic schemes that may do the trick in the regular season, but can get brutally exposed in the playoffs.