Is this defense for real?

[chasa]

we won't know until the bills game
Whole lot of trash offense in the league right now.

 

[VrabelJr]

It all comes down to health and our linebackers. LB is our weakness and good teams will attack that. If we’re good we can overcome that.

 

[rochrist]

I don't know what "for real" really means, but I'll say this: I won't believe in this team's ability to stop Josh Allen until I see them do it without the aid of nature. I do believe in their ability to handle most opposing offenses and give the Patriots offense a chance to win games.

Is there anybody (besides possibly himself) who can stop Josh Allen the way he's playing this year?

 

[Brick27]

Improved play of Wise to complement Judon has been a nice surprise.

 

[Joker]

well...Fnordcircle could probably do it if Allen never got the Covid jab. Fnord went nuclear on Jan 2nd and exploded himself right off this board over an issue he was 100% wrong about but accused Ian and the rest of the board of being "NAZIS!!!" because intelligent people , already vaccinated, questioned the efficacy of vaccines which we have all come to find out are far less effective than advertised. So if PFinVa or any other Fnord butt buddies know where he is, tell him to get on the impending Allen problem post haste.

 

[Kasmir]

Going into this game the Patriots had played the toughest slate of offenses by DVOA. And Cleveland was the #4 offense by DVOA as well. The Pats defense has been well tested.

By DVOA, Buffalo's strength this year is actually their defense which was #2 overall entering this weekend. Their offense was #7. Pats defense was #9, but their offense was #22.

 

[PScottman]

It all comes down to health and our linebackers. LB is our weakness and good teams will attack that. If we’re good we can overcome that.

I don't know if I agree. What player have offenses consistently attacked on third down or for scores...Miles Bryant. Even when he's been at safety instead of CB, that's who opposing QBs look for every time he's out there - and usually get results. Not as much Tavai or Bentley - but Bryant.

Now I agree I don't want either of those LBs covering guys - and usually they're not asked to - it's Wilson and Peppers drawing coverage assignments (and increasingly McMillan as well), but not always.

It's an evolving defense and there are ways to get good matchups (like getting Tavai or Bentley on a RB) but I'm not sure another team could win an entire game with just that strategy as the pats would adjust too...guess we'll see

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

Didn't the defense do this last year?

 

[doesntmatter1]

The way we stopped Chubb was encouraging. The front seven makes or breaks everything. I've been Wise's biggest hater for years. He played more snaps than just about everyone and never cracked more than 5 sacks for the season against even against horrible tackles but look at what he is doing this year. Very encouraging. Dugger is giving us physical safety play that we haven't seen since Chung left. Our defense for one half played extremely well against Lamar Jackson before falling apart. The potential is there.

I also see troubling things as well. Lawrence Guy and McCourty are older players that may fall apart at the end of the season. We signed Collins and know he has lost a step, but maybe we manage him better this time. Myles Bryant is a ticking time bomb to hurt us in important moments. We will know for sure if we can stop the Bills in ideal weather conditions without relying on lucky turnovers.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

What is the status of Barmore? I think that is the important question gong forward for this D

 

[1960Pats]

I know it's a lot better than the pundits were saying preseason.

Many of the pundits here at Pats fans, myself included, predicted that the Pats defense would be good but the offense would take some time. That's exactly what's happening.

 

[1960Pats]

Is there anybody (besides possibly himself) who can stop Josh Allen the way he's playing this year?

I thought he was close to done yesterday when he foolishly turned his back toward a defender as he was about to be hit. If he keeps running, and he's very good at that, he'll eventually take a serious hit and his macho attitude may come back to bit him.

 

[JayNM]

I thought we would take longer than 6 games to figure out on defense, but they clearly were comfortable with what they had, even if there is clear exploits, at least to me.

But i came here to eat crow: Davon Godchaux played very well yesterday. First game I could immerse myself into that he showed up, as far as I can remember. I will drop the moniker Godsucks for the time being

 

[State]

Linebacker corps still the weak link. The secondary has been the pleasant surprise with the rookies. Still concerned about the lack of an effective true zero technique Ted Washington type. I did hear Carl Davis’s name once.

 

[Pape]

The defense is good enough to take away the one dimension of average teams... Baltimore is a different kind of animal though... Not too many teams stop LJ... It happens though...

What we haven't seen is them play against a team with multiple weapons (not counting Miami because Miami) ... When we do, then we will have a better understanding of how well they can limit opposing offenses...

Not sure they will face any really dynamic offenses until buffalo... Minnesota is interesting.... but cousins kinda always craps the bed during showcase games...Jury should be out until then...

 

[RIpats88]

They are good, but how good is unknown. I mean the Packers just lost to the Jets, and Detroit/Cleveland are bad teams.

Next week won't be much of a test either as the bears look abysmal