Have we overrated the Patriots defense more specifically the front 7?

[FCB02062]

Yes, the defense is incredibly overrated. They will do fine against poor teams and bad coaching, but they will struggle to get off the field when they face competent NFL outfits. Simply look at their failures the second half of 2019, the entirety of 2020, and last Sunday. In that time span the defense has FAILED more often than not when they absolutely need a stop at the end of the game. This can all be traced to the departure of Brian Flores and the installment of the Jerod Mayo / Stephen Belichick duo to run the defense. Both of them have woefully underperformed.

 

[Tunescribe]

Yes, the defense is incredibly overrated. They will do fine against poor teams and bad coaching, but they will struggle to get off the field when they face competent NFL outfits. Simply look at their failures the second half of 2019, the entirety of 2020, and last Sunday. In that time span the defense has FAILED more often than not when they absolutely need a stop at the end of the game. This can all be traced to the departure of Brian Flores and the installment of the Jerod Mayo / Stephen Belichick duo to run the defense. Both of them have woefully underperformed.

New season. One game. Different lineup. But don't let that stop you from taking comfort in your usual knee-jerk negativity.

 

[50-yard-line]

It's always very easy to see which posters here watch F&M.

Pats lost a game they should have won by two scores. Costly, untimely penalties and that late fumble...

Those are fixable/unlucky, sot hat's not good enough. Now, of course, it must be a sucky defense, because we need tension, d%#*!@t!

 

[Family]

New season. One game. Different lineup. But don't let that stop you from taking comfort in your usual knee-jerk negativity.

Yes stopping the run is correctable provided the team has the personnel to do so. No one is arguing that. But when the issue is repeated from the previous seasons there is more cause for concern.

Did you feel there was a chance the tight end situation would improve after game one last season?

I know we have new players. But isn't anyone concerned, as an example, that Guy has been pushed around since day one of training camp.

Interior linemen suddenly lose it. Remember Alan Branch. From MVP on defense (Hightower said it I think) for a Super Bowl winner to completely useless the next season.

 

[pats_premi]

I think Patriots middle linebackers are too slow to keep up with the running backs in passing game. If they are not dominating in the run game then what is their strength ?

 

[Sicilian]

One game is too small a sample size, Patriots defenses usually start slow/simple and get better as the season goes on (so long as they have relatively good health), they faced a team that knew them inside and out, and they finished the game giving up the 12th fewest points and 5th fewest yards of any team in week 1. I'd say whatever people had them rated, nothing in week 1 should have really changed it one way or the other. This was a pretty standard par for week 1 of a new season.

 

[MrTibbs]

From our old friend Rodney #37

Rodney Harrison 'stunned' by Patriots' 'average' front seven vs. Dolphins

“I was just really stunned by the Patriots’ front seven.”

patriotswire.usatoday.com

OOPS sorry didn't see the article above.

 

[MrTibbs]

Gave up 2/2 in red zone and also failed on the 3rd and short to effectively end the game clock.

That's the thing that gets me, rewatch all the short yardage situations and you'll see the dline get completely blown off the line of scrimmage...getting pushed back. Don't know if it was effort or ability but it wasn't a good look.

 

[Rob0729]

It was one game. The Pats lost their first game of the season in three of the six Super Bowl season with one of them being in epic fashion (31-0 to the Bills who ended up going 6-10 that season). Let's not judge anything based on one game.

 

[jah]

New season. One game. Different lineup. But don't let that stop you from taking comfort in your usual knee-jerk negativity.

I know who you're replying to is mostly a lost cause, but he's right in that we really didn't see a particularly different output last week compared to the timeframe he's describing.

We lost another low scoring game because we settled for too many field goals. That's an extremely late 2019 Patriots thing to do.

Now for the part where I agree with you: all of what I described reflects more on the offense than the defense. Also, it's just one game and we have reinforcements coming in a few weeks.

 

[BTTA]

Bedard is a dozen box of donuts eating fat slob NOBODY that couldn't even make the girls field hockey team as manager in high school. It's ONE FRIGGIN' GAME!!!! NO ONE will be able to make a RATIONAL judgement about what this team's strengths and weaknesses are until at least the end of October. Jeezus krist...Betard...why not drag out the CHB and Tomase the scumbag to boot?

 

[NewEraWithMac]

Anyone who wants to say “but they only gave up 17 points they were good!” should shut up and look back at the two Giants Super Bowls. Points allowed is not the be all end all metric. Hell wasn’t the 2011 defense top 10 in points allowed despite it being historically garba

I've seen plenty of good or great Pats Ds look a lot worse than that in Week 1.

The Pats Ds in each SB vs the Giants outperformed the ceiling of the offense. Yes, in an offensive league, if you allow 17 points and create a turnover, that's enough to win, not to mention their run game did next to nothing outside of the first drive. Do people even watch these games?

 

[reflexblue]

From our old friend Rodney #37

Rodney Harrison 'stunned' by Patriots' 'average' front seven vs. Dolphins

“I was just really stunned by the Patriots’ front seven.”

patriotswire.usatoday.com

OOPS sorry didn't see the article above.

I read it before i posted my comment about the defense coming together in mid october

 

[Tunescribe]

I know who you're replying to is mostly a lost cause, but he's right in that we really didn't see a particularly different output last week compared to the timeframe he's describing.

We lost another low scoring game because we settled for too many field goals. That's an extremely late 2019 Patriots thing to do.

Now for the part where I agree with you: all of what I described reflects more on the offense than the defense. Also, it's just one game and we have reinforcements coming in a few weeks.

He's addressing the defense, not the offense or team overall and no, he's not right.

 

[oceansizer]

Tackling seems to be an issue but it is just one game and I am willing to give our defense a credit.

 

[Rob0729]

Anyone who wants to say “but they only gave up 17 points they were good!” should shut up and look back at the two Giants Super Bowls. Points allowed is not the be all end all metric. Hell wasn’t the 2011 defense top 10 in points allowed despite it being historically garbage?

In today's NFL, holding the opposing team to 17 points is enough to win any game. The defense didn't look all that great last Sunday, but it was enough to win.

Beside, the Pats did outplay the Dolphins and gave away the game. If Harris didn't fumble the ball, the Pats most likely would have won the game and the narrative about the whole game would have changed,

The defense is not where it needs to be for a playoff run. But it was the first game. And they did enough to win.

And some of the stats support they played better than they are given credit for. Miami only converted 36% of the time on third down. The Pats dominated the time of possession. They held Miami to 74 rushing yards (3.2 YPC average). Miami was tied for second fewest first downs in the league on Sunday. They only gave up 185 yards passing and Tua's QB rating was 79.5.

 

[jah]

He's addressing the defense, not the offense or team overall and no, he's not right.

I was just trying to take a rare chance to be charitable toward that person's opinion. It was admittedly a stretch.

 

[Ryan]

Through one game, the defense was fine. Giving up 17 points is really nothing in today's NFL. Almost every game is high scoring nowadays. The offense turned the ball over too much and didn't finish drives and that's why we lost.

 

[patsinthesnow]

The #2 defense in the NFL last year WFT has been gashed two weeks in a row & their four first round picks on the DL have been underwhelming.

The Bucs couldn’t stop a nosebleed & the Cowboys were missing an all-pro on the OL.

The Ravens gave up nearly 500 yards to the Raiders. The average passer rating leaguewide is basically 100.

Have to be patient as defenses are currently behind offenses leaguewide. Something similar happened in 2018.

I think they have the personnel to be a pretty good D. The 2018 champion defense gave up 376 yards & 4 TDs to Bortles. They looked slow vs. the Lions. They’ll figure out how to use Judon, Uche, Barmore to get the most out of them IMO.

 

[ivanvamp]

They didn't do everything right obviously. But they held Miami to 3.2 yards per rush and Tua was 16-27, 202 yds, 1 td, 1 int and a passer rating of just 79.6, which is pretty low. Moreover, Miami was just 4-11 on third down, which is pretty solid for the defense.

So despite Miami doing some things, the defense played a pretty good game overall. Not dominant, but pretty good. Certainly nothing to really worry about yet.