What is our defense at this point?

[patsinthesnow]

Through 7 weeks:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/total/position/defense

PPG: 22.0 (12th)
YPG: 334.3 (8th)

6.9 yards per pass (9th)
61.1 comp pct. (12th)
85.0 opposing QBR (9th)

4.4 rush yards per attempt (21st)

Will this defense once again be average when all stats are considered? (2008-2013) Our pass defense isn't even elite with Revis/McCourty/Dennard/Arrington, etc. That's surprising.

Before the season, many of us thought our defense would finally be elite. Heck, I even thought we had the second best defensive talent to Seattle. Will the D improve in the second half of the season or is it is what it is? Also, coaching vs talent when it comes to the unit as well?

 

[JMC00]

Our pass defense isn't even elite with Revis/McCourty/Dennard/Arrington, etc. That's surprising.

Passing defense is #3 in the league and after Week 7 is done it could be #2.

 

[Big-T]

It's a Ferrari being treated like a Ford by the coordinator.

It should be a lot better than what it is but an out dated scheme is hindering the players abilities.

 

[patsfaninpa]

I said it before the game. I was worried about the defense on a short-week losing Mayo and Hightower not practicing regularly. I certainly wasn't expecting them to gash us for 218 yards at home. Our run defense was superb at Buffalo. I honestly feel the short turn-around and communication were big factors. There were a few runs where the play stuffed and the rb bounced it outside. Our de's got caught looking. Most of the good teams in the AFC don't have power-running attack. So, I don't think the run defense will be as big of a worry as the pass rush.

 

[Haley]

I posted this elsewhere but I'll say it again because it bears repeating. Losing your signal caller on a short week is a big deal for a defense. When this happened to the Jets with Jim Leonhard a few years ago, it made an enormous difference. After losing to that team earlier in the year, we smashed them 45-3 after Leonhard went down. Their defense looked completely different without him. After another week of prep (in the following game), their defense again looked different (greatly improved).

I think you will want to see what the defense we looks like after a week or two of recovery time before making any judgements.

 

[RIpats88]

whenever we play a mobile QB Belicheck seems to go into this sof zone shell "prevent" because he is so scared of the QB scrambling for big yards...and it never works.

look how differnt our defense plays when we went up against orton/dalton whom are not mobile qb's

 

[BobDigital]

So far it has been okay.

Better than average but inconsistent.

I am hopeful it will better by the end of the year. Losing Mayo hurts but I don't expect them to give up 150+ yards on the ground for the rest of the year. A lot of those problem are correctable.

 

[Gronkowski123]

It's a Ferrari being treated like a Ford by the coordinator.

It should be a lot better than what it is but an out dated scheme is hindering the players abilities.

patricia is a joke of a coordinator. we play scared when we should be aggressive.

 

[FCB02062]

It has nothing to do with Patricia - this is Belichick's defense. It's been this way since 2000 - they try their best to keep everything in front of them, and they do a great job of that (when was the last time the Pats got beaten over the top for a huge 40-50 yard pass play? it doesn't happen often). They make the quarterback dink and dunk down the field and they hope either a.) one of their defenders can make a play or b.) the quarterback makes a mistake.
This was a great philosophy before Bill Polian had the rules changed. But since then, the Patriots defense has made a habit of allowing mediocre quarterbacks to complete a high % of passes. Belichick is also scared to death of mobile quarterbacks so he consistently zones it up - someone, maybe it was the coach himself, said that he doesn't like man vs mobile qbs because in man you could end up with all of your dbs with their back to the qb and that can result in huge runs. There's nothing Belichick dislikes more than big, chunk plays, and generally the Pats don't give them up. But it extremely frustrating when we watch Geno Smith, Colt McCoy, Derek Carr, Ryan Tannehill, EJ Manuel (insert name of rookie/journeyman qb here) convert third down after third down.
I really thought with Revis we'd see a more aggressive, attacking defense, and honestly it is disappointing. This looks like the same old Patriots defense - if they're creating turnovers or if the other team is basically giving them the ball (Minnesota game), they can look pretty good and the Pats offense can make the other team one dimensional offensively. But if they don't get a bunch of turnovers, the games are all close, down to the wire - regardless if the opponent is Denver or Oakland....

 

[VrabelJr]

If you can't stop the run you become an incredibly easy team to pass against. That's just defense 101.

That said, it was a short week and we lost the Tom Brady of our defense on a short week. Things will get better.

 

[SalemPats]

We had to face a team on 4 days after losing perhaps our most important player on defense.

Saying that, this was a tough game for the defense especially the LB corps. The Jets O-Line (which is very good) dominated our line and the LBs did not hit the hole well. Hightower had a couple of nice rushes, but the gaps we're wide open. We basically handed the Jets 2-3 free yards before we touched them.