Vanilla Defense?

[Cramden]

Maybe this has been brought up before and If it has I apologize. Is it possible the Pats are holding something back defensively until they play the Colts, either in scheme or in maximum effort? I mean what's the motivation for leaving everything on the field defensively when your Offense is putting up 40 points a game?

Take a look at the one game where a team took a second half lead. After New England opened with a 3 and out in the 3rd quarter, Dallas scored on a 7 play 78 yard drive to take a 24-21 lead. From that point on the Defense stiffened. Not counting the kneel down to end the game Dallas had 4 more drives. Those drives went 3 plays for -8 yards, 4 plays for 18 yards, 5 plays for 18 yards, 1 play for 0 yards (interception). Also the 1 time Dallas was in the Redzone, starting on the Pats 23 after a 72 yard kickoff return they held them to a FG.

Is it possible BB has this team scoring at a record pace to keep the pressure of the D? Crazy theory but maybe this Defense can flip a switch when needed and play lights out. Or maybe not.

 

[Satchboogie3]

They are saving their D for when they need it. Which might only be against the Colts, or maybe never.

 

[Cramden]

They are saving their D for when they need it. Which might only be against the Colts, or maybe never.

Maybe. If so that strategy would be unprecedented. For that reason I would think it would be unlikely and quite risky to play that way.

Maybe this is just BB once again taking his game planning to another level.

 

[The_Dragon]

Maybe this has been brought up before and If it has I apologize. Is it possible the Pats are holding something back defensively until they play the Colts, either in scheme or in maximum effort? I mean what's the motivation for leaving everything on the field defensively when your Offense is putting up 40 points a game?

Take a look at the one game where a team took a second half lead. After New England opened with a 3 and out in the 3rd quarter, Dallas scored on a 7 play 78 yard drive to take a 24-21 lead. From that point on the Defense stiffened. Not counting the kneel down to end the game Dallas had 4 more drives. Those drives went 3 plays for -8 yards, 4 plays for 18 yards, 5 plays for 18 yards, 1 play for 0 yards (interception). Also the 1 time Dallas was in the Redzone, starting on the Pats 23 after a 72 yard kickoff return they held them to a FG.

Is it possible BB has this team scoring at a record pace to keep the pressure of the D? Crazy theory but maybe this Defense can flip a switch when needed and play lights out. Or maybe not.

I'd like to believe it but I can't see it. Generally in sports you can't just flick a switch. You need to be doing things on a consistent basis in order for them to work when you need them.

Having said that the Colts achieved it in the playoffs last year, which pretty much contradicts everything I said above.

Seymour's return will help obviously and Rodney will get better the more time he gets. Interesting times ahead...

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

I thought this was going to be a post about the Redskins defense. They hardly ever blitz and always rush four. What you see is what you get with that defense.

 

[nowayback]

i think BB is saving something...i am not even sure he will show it all nov 4th....maybe even saving something for playoffs.

 

[Fixit]

If an offense is hitting teams as much and as fast as the Pats have been, a team doesn't have to kill itself and go all-gimicky on defense. I've said it before, when you're up big, removing the quick scores is all you need to do. In that instance, a long, time-consuming drive of theirs is almost as good as one of your own.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Not sure I'd say they are "saving something"........... but I would certainly say that once the outcome of a game is no longer in question, we go into to a vanilla "let's not have anyone get hurt" mode.

 

[Cramden]

If an offense is hitting teams as much and as fast as the Pats have been, a team doesn't have to kill itself and go all-gimicky on defense. I've said it before, when you're up big, removing the quick scores is all you need to do. In that instance, a long, time-consuming drive of theirs is almost as good as one of your own.

I agree 100%. Unfortunately to stat heads, drives such as those make it look like the Pats Defense is all of a sudden not as stingy as they used to be.

 

[PatsMan26]

I don't think they are "saving" anything. For the most part the Pats have been playing with sizeable leads which would mean they don't want to give up big plays to allow teams to get back into the game in one or two plays. They have been playing a softer style defense, i believe, to make teams work the ball down the entire field thus chewing up big chunks of clock. That said they are still 3rd in yardage given up.

 

[Canada's #1 Pats Fan]

I have felt that way for most of this season. With big leads, for the most part they have played nickel and dime defenses - hence the big gains in running yards like last week. It doesn't quite seem that BB has pulled all of the 'tricks out of the bag' yet for the defense. He uses those tricks when he needs them and he hasn't needed them yet. If you think to all of the games that you have seen with BB as the HC and them nursing a small lead into the 2nd half. It always seemed, to me at least, that the def. tightens up and cranks it up a little, wherby not allowing teams to go into the locker room at half time to make adjustments to the Pats D. With these big leads there is no reason to do this.