Keeping track of the defense.

[Biffins]

I honestly don't know why everyone Patriots fan is so down on the team and our chances. We're one fluke, last second, miracle play away from securing the #1 overall seed, and still got a bye anyway. We have a running game. We have a good secondary. We have a weaker run defense and no matter what anyone says about the passing game, we have TFB. I can't remember a time he hasn't delivered in the playoffs. Even when we lost it's butterfingers or OL issues etc. I think our team is fairly well rounded. Tom has enough targets between White, Edelman, and Gronk with some Hogan and Dorsett thrown in to keep defenses honest. Frankly we haven't had this good a running game all decade and that's an element that usually shines in playoffs. I think we're very well positioned.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Pretty good article on how xtra exotic the defense has been this year.

According to New England defenders, Belichick pulled more from it this season than any other of their careers. He introduced and occasionally fused the chapter’s contents with worn parts of their playbook to forge an unprecedented number of game-plan wrinkles.

“Since I’ve been here, we really haven’t done as much as what we’re doing right now with some packages," nine-year safety Devin McCourty says.

Duron Harmon needs no time to pinpoint when New England took its first of many turns into uncharted schematic territory.

“It all started with Kansas City," he says.

Or how.

“Disguise," he explains. "What we’re doing, where we’re lining up, where we gotta get to. We’re making things hard on the quarterback. Not just lining it up and giving (the coverage) to him.”

“We’re just changing things up," Chung says. “We’re just doing different things game by game and try to hide our tendencies. You know, whatever coach calls, we play it.”

I thought this was an interesting little nugget.

A bald, 33-year-old secret weapon walks into the safeties' meeting room in mid-October. He’s got some advice on how to confound Patrick Mahomes, and he’ll be back again many times over the season.

If the room were a bar, Brian Hoyer would be a regular. And that’s just how they would have it.

“He lets us know what the quarterback is looking for and how he’s going through his progressions," Harmon says of New England’s backup quarterback. "What confuses him, what will make him hold the ball and give the rush another second to get home.”

After Belichick and the defensive staff implement the week’s game plan, a three-day long dialogue is born over its finer details and sometimes potential tweaks. Conversations are held between players and coaches, coaches and coaches and occasionally backup quarterback and teammates.

Hoyer is here to help specifically with the pre-snap movements on passing downs. Everyone seeks the same goal: disguise like hell.

How the Patriots defense put Bill Belichick’s brain to greater use this season than it had in a decade

 

[Nunchucks]

I honestly don't know why everyone Patriots fan is so down on the team and our chances. We're one fluke, last second, miracle play away from securing the #1 overall seed, and still got a bye anyway. We have a running game. We have a good secondary. We have a weaker run defense and no matter what anyone says about the passing game, we have TFB. I can't remember a time he hasn't delivered in the playoffs. Even when we lost it's butterfingers or OL issues etc. I think our team is fairly well rounded. Tom has enough targets between White, Edelman, and Gronk with some Hogan and Dorsett thrown in to keep defenses honest. Frankly we haven't had this good a running game all decade and that's an element that usually shines in playoffs. I think we're very well positioned.

Just look at the Dolphins game. That team is terrible, so terrible that they fired their coach. The Patriots let the Dolphins whip em all game long. That game should never have been close, yet the Dolphins managed to win on the final play. The Patriots let the Lions, Titans, and Jaguars push them around. Those performances happened, you cannot erase them, this team is capable of playing that badly.

Against Pittsburgh, the Patriots could not manage to win, despite the Steelers trying their damndest to give the game away, the Patriots just could not do it.

I am not saying the Patriots aren't good enough to go to the Superbowl, because they have also ha moments where they looked great. But, this team has shown, more than most Patriots teams in the past, a penchant for terrible play.

 

[WaterfallJumper]

Just look at the Dolphins game. That team is terrible, so terrible that they fired their coach. The Patriots let the Dolphins whip em all game long. That game should never have been close, yet the Dolphins managed to win on the final play. The Patriots let the Lions, Titans, and Jaguars push them around. Those performances happened, you cannot erase them, this team is capable of playing that badly.

Against Pittsburgh, the Patriots could not manage to win, despite the Steelers trying their damndest to give the game away, the Patriots just could not do it.

I am not saying the Patriots aren't good enough to go to the Superbowl, because they have also ha moments where they looked great. But, this team has shown, more than most Patriots teams in the past, a penchant for terrible play.

Each of your perspectives has an element of truth to it. I could see this season going either way, and we'd go back over the season, squint at the data and film, and come up with a number of reasons why it was expected that we won the Super Bowl or got bounced in our first game. Weird year. Maybe it was destined to be this way, to bring the homers and complainers together.

 

[jmt57]

Thanks @KontradictioN for making the time to track this all season long.

Much appreciated.

 

[Nunchucks]

Each of your perspectives has an element of truth to it. I could see this season going either way, and we'd go back over the season, squint at the data and film, and come up with a number of reasons why it was expected that we won the Super Bowl or got bounced in our first game. Weird year. Maybe it was destined to be this way, to bring the homers and complainers together.

I think it is fine going into the playoffs without knowing what team will show up. I hope the team we've seen in the past shows up and kicks arse, but it is really an unknown.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Just look at the Dolphins game. That team is terrible, so terrible that they fired their coach. The Patriots let the Dolphins whip em all game long. That game should never have been close, yet the Dolphins managed to win on the final play. The Patriots let the Lions, Titans, and Jaguars push them around. Those performances happened, you cannot erase them, this team is capable of playing that badly.

Against Pittsburgh, the Patriots could not manage to win, despite the Steelers trying their damndest to give the game away, the Patriots just could not do it.

I am not saying the Patriots aren't good enough to go to the Superbowl, because they have also ha moments where they looked great. But, this team has shown, more than most Patriots teams in the past, a penchant for terrible play.

Anything can happen in the playoffs if a team gets hot at the right time. Look at the 2007 and 2011 Giants. The Pats may play flawless football in the divisional and their confidence could go way up. I am calling it - if the Pats beat KC in the AFCCG they are winning the Super Bowl.

 

[Uptown]

Key: (thanks @robertweathers)

“This season, however, the Patriots were not prisoners to the communication lapses that dogged them a year ago and shrunk the playbook. Instead, crafty disguises and blitzes cultivated one of the league’s highest unblocked pressure rates. That led directly the NFL’s highest defensive pressure rate on third downs. And such consistent success in those critical situations helped fuel the Pats' ascension back to DVOA respectability and a No. 7 ranking in points allowed per game.”

How the Patriots defense put Bill Belichick’s brain to greater use this season than it had in a decade

 

[Kontradiction]

Key: (thanks @robertweathers)

“This season, however, the Patriots were not prisoners to the communication lapses that dogged them a year ago and shrunk the playbook. Instead, crafty disguises and blitzes cultivated one of the league’s highest unblocked pressure rates. That led directly the NFL’s highest defensive pressure rate on third downs. And such consistent success in those critical situations helped fuel the Pats' ascension back to DVOA respectability and a No. 7 ranking in points allowed per game.”

How the Patriots defense put Bill Belichick’s brain to greater use this season than it had in a decade

I see that as both a good thing and a bad thing. The good is obviously mentioned in that excerpt. The bad is that you don't want to have a defense that is overly reliant on scheming things like pressure. It ultimately catches up with you eventually.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Pretty good article on how xtra exotic the defense has been this year.

How the Patriots defense put Bill Belichick’s brain to greater use this season than it had in a decade

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Good to see someone's linked this. I'd go beyond "pretty good". I thought it was a model of the kind of article you'd hope for from a local beat writer -- like the difference between Tony Romo and Dan Fouts. Well done, Mr Callahan!

 

[Uptown]

Well deserved! Terrific play since he got acclimated to the NE system.

 

[SBLIII]

Well deserved! Terrific play since he got acclimated to the NE system.

I thought it was a good signing at that time but he is even better than people expected. For the last 30 games or so he has been arguably the best CB in the NFL.

 

[Uptown]