No one is mentioning these things.......

[MrNathanDrake]

- Mark Anderson. He has 4 sacks in 5 games and hasn't even been starting. I'd like to see him get more playing time. Good things seem to happen when he's out there, weather its a TFL or a Sack.

- Our defense played well, but Burress also dropped a couple important passes on his own.

- Our offense has been much more balanced since the loss to the Buffalo Bills, when we literally threw the game away instead of running the clock out with BJGE.

- The defense looks completely different with Haynesworth in there. Especially on 3rd downs. Having him healthy for the playoffs will be important.

 

[Shockt327]

- Mark Anderson. He has 4 sacks in 5 games and hasn't even been starting. I'd like to see him get more playing time. Good things seem to happen when he's out there, weather its a TFL or a Sack.

- Our defense played well, but Burress also dropped a couple important passes on his own.

- Our offense has been much more balanced since the loss to the Buffalo Bills, when we literally threw the game away instead of running the clock out with BJGE.

- The defense looks completely different with Haynesworth in there. Especially on 3rd downs. Having him healthy for the playoffs will be important.

You read my mind on the 1st and 4th parts.

Anderson in shouldn't just be relegated to cleanup duty when the games are over. Norv Turner said flat out that he was worried about Anderson the most as far as NE passrushers go. Seems like he only gets consistent reps in the 4th Q.

Anderson and Haynesworth should almost always be out there on 3rd and >7 situations. Haynesworth consistently collapses the pocket. Consistently. If you add Anderson coming off the edge to that; I really think we're in decent shape with the pass rush situation. Not great, but decent.

 

[Kid~Brady]

These are some good points.

We also rank 6th in rushing yards as well.

 

[Rob0729]

Watching some games around the league this weekend, there is no way the Pats have the worst defense in the league. Not even close. I have watched some miserable defensive play by some supposive good teams. No one takes into effect that a lot of the yards the Pats gave up this season was in garbage time since they have won all of their 4 wins by 9 points or more.

 

[Metaphors]

Anderson seems to be getting more reps and this week is ideal for him. I do think you want to save his reps for the 2nd half and particularly for the 4th quarter. If you don't need him, you are probably going to win. If you do need him, you don't want him taking his 40th snap after running into a 320 lb OT all game long.

The most interesting tid-bit of info I've seen (which I've mentioned weekly in the "Pats defense is historically bad" threads) is that the opposing QBs have not taken a snap this year with the lead. That just seems wild to me. Every single time the Pats have been behind, the offense has answered with a score to tie or retake the lead.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

Watching some games around the league this weekend, there is no way the Pats have the worst defense in the league. Not even close. I have watched some miserable defensive play by some supposive good teams. No one takes into effect that a lot of the yards the Pats gave up this season was in garbage time since they have won all of their 4 wins by 9 points or more.

I actually now want the media and the opponents to go by those published #s and think that we have the worst D.

Hopefully they will have an unpleasant surprise.

 

[ALP]

Anderson seems to be getting more reps and this week is ideal for him. I do think you want to save his reps for the 2nd half and particularly for the 4th quarter. If you don't need him, you are probably going to win. If you do need him, you don't want him taking his 40th snap after running into a 320 lb OT all game long.

The most interesting tid-bit of info I've seen (which I've mentioned weekly in the "Pats defense is historically bad" threads) is that the opposing QBs have not taken a snap this year with the lead. That just seems wild to me. Every single time the Pats have been behind, the offense has answered with a score to tie or retake the lead.

wait...really? that is insane, so what you are saying is, we have never had less points on the scoreboard than the opposing team for more than 1 series???

 

[Guts]

"Some interesting stats:

2010 through 5 games

PPG - 23.2
3rd Down - 49.3%
Comp - 70.6%
Pass YPG - 273
Pass YPA - 7.3
Rush YPG - 109.6
Rush YPC - 4.0
Turnovers forced - 7

2011 through 5 games

PPG - 23.8
3rd Down - 44.3%
Comp - 65.5%
Pass YPG - 327
Pass YPA - 8.6
Rush YPG - 106
Rush YPC - 4.6
Turnovers forced - 9 "


We gonna improve on defense too

 

[satz]

-- Anderson is in a perfect role, why run a pass rusher 1 trick pony every down when you can use him when he is needed.

-- Benny - This year he is waiting till the blocking develops and then goes. We did not see this from benny last year. A reason he was churning yards and ridley could not. with the Jets bigger stronger guys he needs to wait for his blockers to block before hitting the hole .ridley is good when a less disciples defense is encountered.When we play the steelers or baltimore you will see this again.

-- Cowboys will be a good challenge for the pass defense to step up.

 

[sbpatfan]

Anderson is bad against the run. Stopping the run > pass rushing, especially in the playoffs.

 

[italia44]

Anderson is bad against the run. Stopping the run > pass rushing, especially in the playoffs.

Andersen made two good run-stop tackles on Sunday......must have not read your post:rocker:

 

[NinjaZX6R]

 

[NEPatriot]

Anderson seems to be getting more reps and this week is ideal for him. I do think you want to save his reps for the 2nd half and particularly for the 4th quarter. If you don't need him, you are probably going to win. If you do need him, you don't want him taking his 40th snap after running into a 320 lb OT all game long.

The most interesting tid-bit of info I've seen (which I've mentioned weekly in the "Pats defense is historically bad" threads) is that the opposing QBs have not taken a snap this year with the lead. That just seems wild to me. Every single time the Pats have been behind, the offense has answered with a score to tie or retake the lead.

Agreed. Carter plays the run better, thus he's getting more playing time.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Agreed. Carter plays the run better, thus he's getting more playing time.

Edge rushers, far too often, are absolutely atrocious against the run. Everytime I watch Clay Matthews, for example (Sunday night included), that's one of the first things that strikes me. He'll hit the edge hard, trying to get around the tackle, and in the process he'll leave open an enormous lane that any running back in the league can charge through and make it to the second level untouched. It's a real flaw, and it's inherent in the role that these guys play. Yet if Matthews gets two seven yard sacks and gives up four fifteen yard runs, everyone will say that he had a dominant game.

The Pats seem to be intent on manufacturing whatever pass rush they can without creating that exploitable weakness, for better or worse. Playing Carter over Anderson is consistent with this.

 

[Metaphors]

wait...really? that is insane, so what you are saying is, we have never had less points on the scoreboard than the opposing team for more than 1 series???

Yep. The Pats offense has responded every time they've been behind (when there has been time remaining). They have only faced the situation 4 times in 50+ drives (opening drive in Miami, after the pick 6 in Buffalo and the 2 early scoring drives in Oakland).

I went back to 2007 to see when that Pats team first faced that situation. Turns out they faced it in game #3 against Buffalo. What about the mighty Packers this year? Only made it until the 1st quarter of game #2 in Carolina.

It says a lot about how brutally efficient this offense is and how that must mess with the heads of opposing teams. How much pressure is behind the thinking that the best you can hope for is a tied game with your offense having the last possession and ending the game with a last second score. Not saying that is a fact, but the longer this weird streak goes that mentality is sure to seep into opponents' brains.

Being behind 2 scores is an uncomfortable feeling (despite the Lions seeming addiction to that situation) and the Pats defense hasn't even faced the possibility of that happening. I hope they never do...but if they must, I hope it doesn't happen in the playoffs.

 

[patchick]

- Mark Anderson. He has 4 sacks in 5 games and hasn't even been starting. I'd like to see him get more playing time. Good things seem to happen when he's out there, weather its a TFL or a Sack.

Others have said this in other ways, but Anderson is already playing the snaps -- more than a third of them -- where a pass rush specialist is called for. It's doubtful that doubling his snaps would significantly increase his sack total, since he wouldn't be sent hair-on-fire toward the QB in those snaps. Instead, he would almost surely go from effective specialist to ineffective starter.

As a rookie in Chicago Anderson made a huge splash as a situational sub, tallying 12 sacks. So the next year the Bears installed him as a starter. The result wasn't pretty; he was a liability against the run, and his pash rush suffered. He's never started except as a spot sub since.

I'm happy to have him for his strengths, but Carter & especially Ninkovich seem like more complete players.

 

[NEPatriot]

Edge rushers, far too often, are absolutely atrocious against the run. Everytime I watch Clay Matthews, for example (Sunday night included), that's one of the first things that strikes me. He'll hit the edge hard, trying to get around the tackle, and in the process he'll leave open an enormous lane that any running back in the league can charge through and make it to the second level untouched. It's a real flaw, and it's inherent in the role that these guys play. Yet if Matthews gets two seven yard sacks and gives up four fifteen yard runs, everyone will say that he had a dominant game.

The Pats seem to be intent on manufacturing whatever pass rush they can without creating that exploitable weakness, for better or worse. Playing Carter over Anderson is consistent with this.

Rewatching the Jets game today, I was thinking the same thing. BB wants some discipline in the pash rush, which limits the rush but also the exposure. If I remember correctly, in the preseason it seemed they were being turned loose more. Then again, we were also blitzing more in the preseason. I do feel the pass rush is going to improve.

 

[NinjaZX6R]

Answer?

 

[TruthSeeker]

Another thing not being mentioned is the play of Solder. He's been excellent for a rookie, a much better run blocker than I thought he'd be. I can only imagine the running game and pass protection will be even better when/if we get Vollmer healthy, and use Solder as a blocking TE.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Answer?

if you're going to say finish him, shouldn't you get a picture of Martin Kove as Kreese?

Still, that's a great pic, so it will do.