1) Although commonly done so, yards allowed is not a good way to judge a defense. With the Patriots, that has more to do with scheme and philosophy than talent. We play a lot of vanilla coverages and give up a lot of garbage time yards.
BB's philosophy has always been more predicated on forcing turnovers and keeping them off the scoreboard. Our defenses have actually performed quite well in these areas. I don't have the rankings in front of me but in the past three years I'd guesstimate that we rank somewhere in the vicinity of 8-10 in points allowed and 1-3 in takeaways. I actually think we may be #1 in that category. Doing it one year could be fluky. Consistently ranking high in the top five is a pattern. Our defense deserves more credit than they've been given. In our postseason losses, its been Brady and the offense that have underwhelmed.....not the defense.
2) As for the Harmon pick, I don't see the mystery. BB has a relationship with Schiano who used to be his coach. While 30 other teams "may" have had him off their radar, BB figured that Schiano didn't and that he would have to grab him where he did or risk losing him to TB. Whether those assumptions were accurate or not, nobody knows, but it was certainly a reasonable thought process. Why is this point so hidden to most?
3) We've got a ton of young talent on this team, including the defense. We've transitioned from a veteran team to this youth movement while consistently competing the whole time. No other team does this. The proof is in the results. Listening to some of these posters, you'd think we were like the Eagles or one of these teams suffering through 6-10 seasons. HELLO PEOPLE!!! WE'VE GOT THE BEST RECORD IN THE NFL OVER THE PAST THREE SEASONS!!! GET A GRIP!!!