Great article on Patriots' amazing defense (Bleacher Report)

[neuronet]

Patriots' Defensive Dominance Has NFL Rivals in Awe of Bill Belichick Again

There are people in the NFL who have spent much of their careers studying everything Bill Belichick does, and they say what he is doing this season with the Patriots defense is unprecedented, even for him.

 

[NashuaPats]

My understanding is that Bill is taking on a larger role with the defense this year since there is technically no defensive coordinator. I wonder how much that factors in to it. The guy is a football genius.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Patriots' Defensive Dominance Has NFL Rivals in Awe of Bill Belichick Again

@ashley1992

There are "easily three or four players on that defense who would each be huge stars in this league, but they blend in there, and that's the just the starters," an AFC East assistant said.

To be sure, the defense is loaded with talented players, from a linebacking corps that includes Jamie Collins, Dont'a Hightower and Elandon Roberts to a secondary that boasts Devin and Jason McCourty as well as Jonathan Jones.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Hahahaha Elandon Roberts.

Sorry Van Noy.

.

 

[mosslost]

My understanding is that Bill is taking on a larger role with the defense this year since there is technically no defensive coordinator. I wonder how much that factors in to it. The guy is a football genius.

his boys have been handling the D this year

 

[BlueThunder]

I thought Mayo was a LB coordinator

 

[Ghost of Ben Dreith]

How much credit goes to Mayo and play calling? Isn’t he a quasi Defensive Coordinator with, i’m sure, significant input from BB.

Even with the Defensive Coordinators in the past 20 years...I don’t recall any having the aggressiveness I see in this team. Is it a function of talent allowing it or just a philosophy change. I don’t buy just talent since in the early years of the greatest Dynasty in NFL history, you had McGinest, Bruschi, Law, etc.....very talented defense.

This Pats defense is a different breed for sure though.

 

[Ivan]

Yep, good article. I’m looking forward to them facing stronger offenses.

 

[Patjew]

Yep, good article. I’m looking forward to them facing stronger offenses.

Not me. I hope they get progressively worse.

 

[BTTA]

A measurable portion of this success that the coach is having can be attributed to the GM getting him an historical amount of talent.

 

[patfanken]

@ashley1992

That popped right out to me as well. I'm not a big fan of Freeman. His actually lack of knowledge of the team was shown by that paragraph. Leaving out KVN and Gilmore just showed how little he knows about the team.

Always nice when a complimentary article comes out on your team. Liked the fact that he focused on the "all for one" slant of it. So it ends up being a decent article if you are a Pats fan, but it could have been a GREAT one in the hands of a more capable writer.

 

[RobertWeathers]

That popped right out to me as well. I'm not a big fan of Freeman. His actually lack of knowledge of the team was shown by that paragraph. Leaving out KVN and Gilmore just showed how little he knows about the team.

Always nice when a complimentary article comes out on your team. Liked the fact that he focused on the "all for one" slant of it. So it ends up being a decent article if you are a Pats fan, but it could have been a GREAT one in the hands of a more capable writer.

It was embarrassing.

 

[patfanken]

How much credit goes to Mayo and play calling? Isn’t he a quasi Defensive Coordinator with, i’m sure, significant input from BB.

Even with the Defensive Coordinators in the past 20 years...I don’t recall any having the aggressiveness I see in this team. Is it a function of talent allowing it or just a philosophy change. I don’t buy just talent since in the early years of the greatest Dynasty in NFL history, you had McGinest, Bruschi, Law, etc.....very talented defense.

This Pats defense is a different breed for sure though.

I think that Bill has given Mayo AND Steve Bellichick quasi-equal roles in the development of the week's defensive game plans.

I would suspect early in the week Bill gives them a basic foundation of what he thinks will work best for that week's opponent. They go off and put it together with the rest of the D staff. By the end of the week they have the plan, as well as plans B and C). BB gets final say so when they make final decisions. They know what they want to do vs various personnel packages and game situations. Mayo makes the calls based on what they have planned as a group. BB probably pipes in a few times per game

I think the key thing that Mayo and Steve have to get squared away is their OWN personnel packages. It's not like they have a group of starters and occasionally sub someone in. They are constantly running 20 odd guys in and out depending on so many factors the logistics have to be daunting.

BTW- I don't think the initial play call is all that critical, since any change in a personnel package, formation, or motion probably changes what was called anyway.

 

[oldrover]

What, no Bleacher Report love for Jordan Richards?!?!

 

[Midship]

Hahahaha Elandon Roberts.

Sorry Van Noy.

.

First thing I noticed as well

 

[Kasmir]

his boys have been handling the D this year

Yep. My brother and I were talking about that. Chances are that at least one of his boys is going to carry forward the legacy. So we have at least double Belichick coaching defense this year...

 

[Patjew]

Yep. My brother and I were talking about that. Chances are that at least one of his boys is going to carry forward the legacy. So we have at least double Belichick coaching defense this year...

What did your dad have to say about it?

(Sorry, that may have been a little too obscure of a joke.)

 

[SBLIII]

Belichick as a coach is doing a great job but even better was how he put together the secondary.

That is the key to our defense and overall team this season and it was last season.

The secondary allows him to bring pressure at any time and leave them on an island.

 

[everlong]

The crazy thing is they're one play away from defensive shutouts in both the Redskins and Giants games. The Redskins TD the entire defense just had a brain fart and forgot how to tackle, took bad angles and pretty much looked like the 2009 defense not the 2019 so that's on them. The Tate TD I'd love to hear the Next Gen Stats on the odds of completing that pass because Jones has perfect coverage and deflects the ball. Unfortunately for him it bounces right off of Tate's chest and into his hands but that has to be about a 5% completion.

If that's how teams are going to score other than the Chiefs and maybe the Eagles teams might now reach 20 points this entire season. Browns, Ravens and Cowboys just won't be able to be consistent enough so as long as they avoid those big plays they should dominate.

 

[maust]

What did your dad have to say about it?

(Sorry, that may have been a little too obscure of a joke.)

It wasn't