Worst defense in the league...how is this possible?

[DaBruinz]

CLEARLY the choice of Barrett over either Merriweather or Sanders was a giant mistake. It is time that we stop giving BB a pass on these things. The Pats have not be able to rush the passer for five years now, and it gets worse every year. Fitzpatrick threw 50 times yesterday and was only kncokced to the ground once (and on that play he threw a very rushed and bad throw to nobody), of course that rush ended up in the phantom roughing the passer call.

Barrett was terrible and should be cut by the end of today, he has no place on a NFL field. Take a peek at the winning non-TD for the Bills and you will see tha last of many just absolute missed tackles by Barrett (actually he did not attempt to tackle him, he just kinda curled up in the fetal position in the middle of the field).

Who gave BB a pass?? Many people have questioned the moves of cutting Sanders and Meriweather.

[

I'm sorry by years of terrible drafting, have left this team without a single playmaker on defense. Mayo is good, but he is handcuffed making up for the lack of any other decent LBs. The Defensive line is old and slow and apparently can not get the QB but only once in fifty trys. McCourtey was BRUTAL yesterday, he got burnt so bad on that first TD it was not funny.

It was a perfect fade route. I'm not sure that stanley Morgan could have covered that pass.

Ras-I-made of glass: hurt, gee nobody could see that coming.

Spikes looked lost (I was hoping for big things from him this year, but he has not been the same since he got that suspension).
Cunningham, they said he was starting, but I didn't see him at all, did he even play? (maybe, just maybe he should have drafted his teamate, you know the one with a dozen or so sacks).

Sorry but their is no hope or help on the horizon for this defense. Years of very bad drafting (i.e. in 2009, he wasted the 40 (Butler)and 41 (Brace) picks in the draft) BTW Jarius Byrd pick #42, and now they are toast.

Brace showed a lot last year and showed he should be a capable 3-4 LDE. He and Deaderick will both be able to start practicing shortly after the Bye week. The bigger issue is at Safety, where the Pats have no help right now.

BTW, Hindsight is always 20/20. In 2009, the Pats drafted CHUNG at 34. He was supposed to be paired with Meriweather for awhile.. That didn't happen since Meriweather got dumped for being stupid and not listening to the coaches.

Oh, BTW, Byrd was a CB coming out of college, not a safety, which is where he's playing for Buffalo..

 

[sbpatfan]

Man, you just hit something here. Where is the freakn' passion? Passion, and overall getting fired up can cover for alot of short comings. McGinist, Bruschi, Vrabel, and Harrison must be turning over in their graves............I mean, must be irked.

I don't know man, I'm from Michigan so I watch a lot of the Lions' games. One thing I noticed, is the heart that defense plays with. They have a bunch of randoms at LB, CB, and S. Yet, Suh leads that defense with passion. People call him dirty, but hell, I wish Mayo played with the ferocity that Suh plays with. That defense has a mean streak, and it all starts with Suh. We don't have a leader on this defense right now. Vince is blue collar, Mayo seems to be the same. We need a Rodney like guy, and the closest thing we had to that was Meriweather. His hit on Heap was cheap last year, but even Vince admitted it fired the defense up - and they went on to win that game.

 

[VOODOOZF]

The Patriots haven't had a good defense in years. Maybe if we stopped trading down to get "value" and took the best defensive players on the board (see Clay Matthews) our defense would be better.

Hate to say it, but this team isn't going anywhere unless this team makes gigantic leaps on defense.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

The Patriots haven't had a good defense in years. Maybe if we stopped trading down to get "value" and took the best defensive players on the board (see Clay Matthews) our defense would be better.

Hate to say it, but this team isn't going anywhere unless this team makes gigantic leaps on defense.

Belichick probably needs to sacrifice the future for the present if he wants Brady to get another ring before retirement.

Aiming for the future is fine if you can hit regularly in Free Agency aquisitions....Burress,Thomas,Banta Cain,Brown,Beisel are just a few of the failures that did not make it able to keep adding draft picks by trading down.

 

[aurakilla]

guess I can start Denarius Moore at WR next week in fantasy :bricks:

 

[FalconHeavy]

guess I can start Denarius Moore at WR next week in fantasy :bricks:

I just traded for McFadden in one of my leagues

The truth hurts !

 

[Modest]

I just traded for McFadden in one of my leagues

The truth hurts !

Glad I have him and I'll damn well start him too. You know the kicker? I also have the NE Defense. :bricks:

 

[borg]

I just traded for McFadden in one of my leagues

The truth hurts !

I got the Gronk on 8 of my 10 teams (yes...I have no life)....and went 8-2 (All Gronk teams won). The beauty of the Gronk, the most I spent on Gronk was $3 (ESPN). Gronk Gronk Gronk

 

[Banjo]

Darren McFadden is going to destroy this defense. I'll be shocked if he doesn't get at least 100 yards

 

[TB=TD]

Welcome to the same old Pats DEFENSE: Nonaggressive, Boring, Carbon copy

From a franchise that prided itself on defense to no defense at all.

 

[LasVegasPatsFan]

Re: Welcome to the same old Pats DEFENSE: Nonaggressive, Boring, Carbon copy

Patriots are #32 in the league on defense. They would be much lower but fortunately for them there are only 32 teams.

 

[TheComeback]

No, he hasn't.

The bottom line is that people aren't getting what they want, which is a shut down defense, so their answer is to find the easiest scapegoat possible. The current trend is to blame the safeties instead of the pass rush.

Explain to me how much James Sanders and Meriweather would have helped. Meriweather wasn't even able to make the team, and Sanders wasn't worth $3 million to anyone.

Both were starters on the 3rd worst pass defense in 2010. But all of a sudden, the pass defense sucks because of the new safeties?

Is that because you've watched the current safeties play and compared that last year's safeties, or is it because you personally dislike the idea of cutting two familiar veterans?

I'm betting that the real reason is much closer to the latter.

 

[aurakilla]

I just traded for McFadden in one of my leagues

The truth hurts !

I`m thinking of having my starting WRs hagan/moore/ford..........just because

wish I could get McFadden...you really lucked out

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Re: Welcome to the same old Pats DEFENSE: Nonaggressive, Boring, Carbon copy

Awesome thread. Great analysis here...should quit your job and start writing for espn

 

[FalconHeavy]

Re: Welcome to the same old Pats DEFENSE: Nonaggressive, Boring, Carbon copy

Hey, look at this this way. There is only one way to go from this point onwards

 

[DonBlackmon55]

Deion Branch is on pace for 80 catches and just under 1200 yard so far - that is pretty productive so far for crickets.

LOL. Call me when Twig makes it halfway home to 40 by game 16.

By the way, how many seasons of 80 catches has Deion Branch had ? let me give you a hint it's less than 1.

2002-2010 Branch has played an AVERAGE of 11.5 Games per SEASON. good 'ole reliable Deion Branch ready to light it up at age 33

Yes, now crickets are infact chirping

 

[DonBlackmon55]

Watching Merriweather yesterday play well was frustrating because he played well when he was here too. Yeah he blew assignments here and there, but he made more good plays than bad. The guys we have now may know their assignments, but they're just not good enough to stop the offensive guys they are covering.

What good is it knowing your assignment if you just plain suck?

Another case of the Cleveland BB outsmarting himself.
But he looked good sucking and knew his assignment. Get used to seeing a lot of more of this

 

[DonBlackmon55]

Fitzpatrick didn't lead them to 14 points in under 3 minutes. People like AndyJohnson ignore the fact that the call on Love was absolute BS. As was the call on Brown since the WR was the one who initiated contact..

But hey you can't have it both ways. you know the Bills WR played great game since they "created" two penalties just like Fat Albert week before was very effective in "creating" 2 holding penalties though he didn't do jack crap rest of the day.

LOL homers galore. when opposing team player creates penalties those are phantom calls :singing:

 

[TheComeback]

Re: Welcome to the same old Pats DEFENSE: Nonaggressive, Boring, Carbon copy

Welcome to the same old Pats MESSAGEBOARD.

 

[BradyFTW!]

1) the defense wasn't bad. They were the main reason why we were up 21-0 in the first place, and the interceptions were the main reason why that lead didn't end up being enough.

2) If anything, this defense is *too* young. There are a lot of moves that the Pats made this offseason that I agreed/disagreed with to varying degrees, but cutting both Sanders and Meriweather was simply dumb. Cut either one of them, and make the other one the #3 safety if you really have to, but going into the season with Chung/Brown/Barrett doesn't make any sense.

The blame for yesterday's loss is mostly on the offense. The defense wasn't great by a long shot, but they were good enough to win if the offense had managed to "only" turn it over 3 times.