Official eat your words on defense thread

[MossWelkowski]

I'll be the first to admit, I never thought this defense would grow mature in one year like they did this year. I was wrong. This defense is fast, hard hitting, and smart. We get to watch them for the next 5 years. Enjoy folks, and post here if you'd like to eat crow for what you said at the beginning of the year like it did.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

They've been better than the #'s indicate IMO. I'm confident they'll be alot better by January too.

To think this defense would stifle the Baltimore Ravens 5 straight times in the 4th Q/OT to beat them, shut down Big Ben and the Steelers, stop Phillip Rivers after we hand him the ball at midfield up by just 3, and pick off Peyton with 25 ticks to protect a 3 point lead there too. Those are bigtime holds, regardless of the yards/points given up resilience and clutch play is a critical trait. That said, plenty room for improvement...with some adjustments they can be a great D.

 

[abejarano12]

I'am so glad that I will not have to eat crow on this one I knew that this D was changing over. I thought there would be bad to OMG kill me now bad , but they are getting better every week. Hopefully every in Jan and Feb they will be at their best.

 

[WhiZa]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

 

[Patspsycho]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

On top of giving up 400 yards and 4 TDs to Manning. Far from being an ideal defense..

However it's scary to think what this D will be like in a year or two.

 

[patsfanboy]

I think we have one of the best D against the run in the league, but in the air we suck. But what saves us is that this D creates a lot of turnovers.

 

[sbpatfan]

I don't give two ****s about statistics.

You know what the difference is between this team and last years? Last year around this time Manning threw a last minute TD to beat us by a point. A year later, practically the same situation, the defense picks Manning off to finish the game. This team finds ways to come out on top in dog fights. Maybe it's not pretty, but they find ways to win.

 

[PatsDeb]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

Agreed. We were damn lucky not to lose the game. We actually played pretty well except for the 4th quarter, on both sides of the ball. WTF with the playcalling, on both O and D? The ability to create turnovers is a plus, but we've got a lot of work to do on 3rd & long.

 

[The Dynasty]

I think we have one of the best D against the run in the league, but in the air we suck. But what saves us is that this D creates a lot of turnovers.

Pats are 17th in rushing defense.

Pats are 30th against the pass.

Pats are 10th in the AFC in takeaways.

These stats are going into this week. Clearly, the Pats arent one of the best run defenses. Their stats against the pass are a bit off because of the games like last week vs the Steelers in garbage time. Takeaways arent that big of a part. I think its just the defense comes up with big stops when they need it. The Sanders pick and all the stops in the Ravens game come to mind

 

[Willie55]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

That's on the coaching staff on both sides of the ball. They went conservative on offense and defense and almost cost them the game. If the Pats had stayed with what had got them to 31-14 the game never would have been as close as it turned out to be.

 

[MossWelkowski]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

How can you even say that? Thats like saying The patriots were 3 tds away from scoring 52 points. The defense made the stop to keep the colts one throw away. One throw, 10 throws.. who cares. Its all relative.

 

[Joker]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

On top of giving up 400 yards and 4 TDs to Manning. Far from being an ideal defense..

However it's scary to think what this D will be like in a year or two.

Up until 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, the Patriots D was good enough to enjoy a 17 point lead. When they went to that 2 deep safety prevent, all hell broke loose.That scheme is supposed to work in theory...in practice it is ATROCIOUS. The players began missing easy tackles, the deep safeties continually took bad angles coming up to tackle and the pressure on Manning decreased to nothing. I hate it. It doesn't work with THESE defensive players. I'd rather live and die with these young guys playing straight up.

 

[Ring 6]

On top of giving up 400 yards and 4 TDs to Manning. Far from being an ideal defense..

However it's scary to think what this D will be like in a year or two.

While at some level it may be excuse making for allowing plays vs shutting down teams, I think context is important.
While the defense has been generous in allowing points that reduced a lead, it has been very rare this season for the defense to allow go ahead scores. We never trailed against Pitt and Indy, and have rarely allowed go ahead 2nd half of 4th quarter scores.
I think its wrong to ignore situational football. I am sue that BB will never say play back and let them score. But when a lead is built and the clock suggests that there isnt enough time for methodical drives to get them back in the game, I am quite certain that BB will play a defense that invites methodical drives and that is not as well equipped at stopping them (obviously thats how you invite them).
Look at tonight. From the 10 minute mark when we went up 17 every single thing went exactly right for the Colts. They did as well as they could taking what we gave. Wehad no sacks, they were aided by a big 15 yard penalty and a surprising 38 yard run on a draw, more yards than they ran for all day. We were 3 and out and 4 and out on offense.
I cannot imagine a set of circumstances where they could have used less time against such a conservative style of D. Yet there we only 25 seconds left. One glitch and it would have been impossible.
I think we have to recognize that if we went up by 3 with 10 minutes left instead of 17, everything that followed would have happened differently. I think it is wrong to assume the Colts would have had the same success if we were up 3,7, 10 or 14 as if we were up 17, because we certainly would have played different defensive schemes.

 

[MossWelkowski]

Up until 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, the Patriots D was good enough to enjoy a 17 point lead. When they went to that 2 deep safety prevent, all hell broke loose.That scheme is supposed to work in theory...in practice it is ATROCIOUS. The players began missing easy tackles, the deep safeties continually took bad angles coming up to tackle and the pressure on Manning decreased to nothing. I hate it. It doesn't work with THESE defensive players. I'd rather live and die with these young guys playing straight up.

Yea, but theyve had good practice over the past two weeks. I'll say this tho, I'd rather watch the D struggle with prevent up 17 than the offense struggle down 17(cough cough browns)

 

[aluminum seats]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

Exactly...while there are big positives to take from how the D has evolved, saying "official eat your words" is pretty silly at this point.

 

[Ring 6]

Up until 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, the Patriots D was good enough to enjoy a 17 point lead. When they went to that 2 deep safety prevent, all hell broke loose.That scheme is supposed to work in theory...in practice it is ATROCIOUS. The players began missing easy tackles, the deep safeties continually took bad angles coming up to tackle and the pressure on Manning decreased to nothing. I hate it. It doesn't work with THESE defensive players. I'd rather live and die with these young guys playing straight up.

I dont know how you can fault the strategy when as you said everything went wrong and it still worked.
Had we been more aggressive if they scored they would have scored quickly.
Again if there are 2 minutes left, and I play a style that would cause you to take 2:05 to score, and you run out of time on my 1, I a a genius, and they guy who plays a style that has a 90% chance of stoning you and a 10% chance of giving you a score, he looks prettier in 9 games but loses one while the first guys looks ugly and wins 10.

Prevent defense is designed to win, not designed to not allow it to get close.

 

[wizwor]

I don't give two ****s about statistics.

You know what the difference is between this team and last years? Last year around this time Manning threw a last minute TD to beat us by a point. A year later, practically the same situation, the defense picks Manning off to finish the game. This team finds ways to come out on top in dog fights. Maybe it's not pretty, but they find ways to win.

Amen. On that last drive I was thinking we needed a Harrison or a Bruschi to end this game. Then Sanders comes up with an amazing int. Felt good.

 

[The Dynasty]

Up until 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, the Patriots D was good enough to enjoy a 17 point lead. When they went to that 2 deep safety prevent, all hell broke loose.That scheme is supposed to work in theory...in practice it is ATROCIOUS. The players began missing easy tackles, the deep safeties continually took bad angles coming up to tackle and the pressure on Manning decreased to nothing. I hate it. It doesn't work with THESE defensive players. I'd rather live and die with these young guys playing straight up.

The mis tackles definitely made the prevent look at lot worse. That has been a problem with Patriots defenses for the past few years, but not as much with this team.

 

[Kontradiction]

This D was one throw away from losing the game. I dont think any words need to be eaten yet

I agree with your last sentence. However, the only reason why the defense was one throw away from losing the game was because they went into the prevent. We need to face the fact that we're not going to confuse Manning for all four quarters anymore. Going into the game, I expected it to be extremely close. The reason for that is because of the familiarity between the two. However, the defense, for as young as they are and with the personnel issues they have, played well enough to win the game until the fourth quarter. Enter the fourth quarter and we, for some reason, switch into the prevent. That was good enough to hold off the Steelers (in no small part to our offense), but against a QB like Manning, going into the prevent is a sure fire way to lose the game. He was already finding the holes in our zone all night* and we only aided him by going into that formation. If we see a re-match against the Colts, I hope to God that we keep the intensity on.

* Anybody have a good guess for why we still primarily play zone defense? My guess is because Belichick doesn't trust his linebackers in coverage underneath. Is there anybody that has a better guess? It would seem that, with all of the athleticism we now have on defense, we would be better off in man coverage.

 

[Joker]

I dont know how you can fault the strategy when as you said everything went wrong and it still worked.
Had we been more aggressive if they scored they would have scored quickly.
Again if there are 2 minutes left, and I play a style that would cause you to take 2:05 to score, and you run out of time on my 1, I a a genius, and they guy who plays a style that has a 90% chance of stoning you and a 10% chance of giving you a score, he looks prettier in 9 games but loses one while the first guys looks ugly and wins 10.

Prevent defense is designed to win, not designed to not allow it to get close.

Uh...I was THERE...I could have sworn Manning was in FG range and Vinitieri was ready to come in for the tie. Are you seriously suggesting that Manning throwing that INT was caused by the Pats prevent??? What did the prevent stop at 10 minutes? a two minute drive for a TD????and then two minutes later? another TD drive? THIS is good football strategy? I KNOW what the 2 deep safety shell SHOULD do when the team is up by 17 points...what I DO NOT agree with is that THIS defense as played by THIS current iteration of the Pats knows how to play it so that the clock is bled and the other team loses by attrition. I mean, you're telling me my eyes are lying to me and everyone else that was THERE watching this unfold and that the previous defensive calls that led to control of the game would have suddenly become ineffective with 10 minutes left???? as ineffective as what we witnessed???? I can't buy that....the Pats need a ton of work on this scheme as far as I'm concerned.