Can the Patriots still win low-scoring games?

[Ron Sellers]

It should go without saying that the defense is a work in progress. There's a few people here that seem to think the Patriots should have been able to snap their fingers and replace Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, etc. etc. on the fly without the slightest bump in performance; that's just not realistic.

Add in the fact some attempts to revamp the defense (Adalius Thomas, Derrick Burgess, Shawn Crable, Tyrone McKenzie) did not work out for a variety of reasons and the situation was exacerbated.

However, for the first time in a while the Pats do have a very good player in all three levels of their defense: Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo, and Devin McCourty. Now the Pats have an opportunity to fill in some of the surrounding pieces this offseason.


Back to the original question: "Can the Patriots still win low-scoring games?"

Based on some of the recent transformation plus expectations from this upcoming draft, I would say this. When looking at that question, rather than focusing on what the offense scored perhaps it would make more sense to focus on how many points the defense allowed. As maligned as the defense was, they gave up less than 20 or fewer points in half (eight) of their games in 2010.

I haven't taken the time to compare - obviously it's not going to be as good as teams with a 'good defense, average offense' philosophy - but that seems to me like that is a better number than would be expected considering how bad the Pats defense is made out to be by some.

Does the defense need to improve? Of course, I don't think anybody is questioning that. However, don't forget the Pats held opponents to seven or fewer points four times and won all three games decided by three or fewer points - all aided in large part by what the defense did in those games.

 

[rabthepat]

Definitive answer: NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anything under 30 points and the Pats are in trouble.

The Pats are also not a comeback team. Anytime they trail by more than 11 points it is good night Irene.

 

[jays52]

I wouldn't say that it's a function of low scoring so much as it's rendering a team predictable early on. Games that become games give them problems because the proximity of score places the emphasis on playmaking, not coaching.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

The offense carried us in the first half of 2010 while the defense struggled alot but I thought the defense was starting to hit it's stride down the stretch They played great against 3 teams that ended up playing on championship weekend, struggled against GB though. Would have been a nice test in the postseason to see the offense score 17-23 points in a game and not hang the defense out to dry to get a fair assessment of what they can do. Alot of people crapped on the defense for the performance 3 weeks ago but honestly, the Jets started on our side of the field 4 times. No matter how good your defense is, you're not going to hold that team to 17 points over the whole game when they start on your side of the field 4 times. I know our offense didn't light the world on fire in the championship years but they and the ST's didn't put our defense in that type of position multiple times in any of the playoff games then. I can remember 2 instances from the dynasty era, Brady pick in the tuck game and the following week in Pittsburgh the Steelers had a big punt return to our 30 or so. Other than that, I think we always did a fair job of putting our defense in favorable situations, giving them a chance to be agressive and not with their backs against the wall.

And like was mentioned, this is still early in the rebuilding phase. You've got to give it another year or so because you don't build a dominant defense overnight. I think if there's football in '11 towards the end you could see what you've been waiting for, judging by the rate of improvement over this season.