Aus, I see your point. The Patriots have played two, seemingly, below average offenses. You believe they haven't been tested in a manner that provides enough proof of their effectiveness (or lack of). While I choose to be optimistic by looking at it from the standpoint of 'the 2 opponents so far were the 2 opponents so far, the performance was the performance, they are what they are as of the finish of week 2', again I see the point of view you are coming from. But my view of the D as of week 2 isn't based solely on optimism. I'm also seeing it from a comparison to last season's D. And last season (and the last several years) the Patriots' passing D, at least as I remember it, had a very bad habit of making sub par QBs look above par from a stats perspective. This year, so far, the Patriots have done something I don't recall them doing in quite a while; two weeks in a row they made 2 seemingly sub par quarterbacks actually look sub par, both on the field and in the stat columns (i'll accept that is wrong if someone recalls them doing this last year -- this is just to the best of my recollection).
Man I'll tell you what, and again maybe I recall incorrectly, to me last year's pass D was scary. I just had no faith in them (towards the end of the year that definitely started to change). It wasn't just opposing receivers getting open or even getting quite open on occasion (which happens), there would be too many times where receivers were virtually uncovered, running freely, and running freely more than just 5 to 7 yards downfield. Simply put, last year's pass D was making the job of the opposing QB too easy too often (fortunately the potency of our O would often render their poor play moot). So while I do see your point on the Patriots pass D not yet facing top offenses, when I look at these first two games, see how many many more times the D had to be on the field than in the past, see how nearly every opposition's possession in the fourth quarter was probably a game deciding possession, to then see mostly competitive coverage, to see passes actually defensed/broken up in critical spots, to see the opposing QB's stats reflect their actual abilities, I'm very pleased and optimistic with the pass D so far.
Lastly, as far as playing the Saints or Denver to see where the pass D is at, I'm not proclaiming our pass d is like a brick wall. But let's keep perspective, these offenses score on just about anyone. What I'll be interested most in (in terms of stats), does the pass D give up 350/400 yards like it was nothing (like last year) or do they put up a higher bar of difficulty for the big numbers to be achieved. With that said, unless our O improves, these top offenses are going to score on us, likely quite a bit. They're too good and they'll get too many possessions not to.
