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It's certainly possible. Although Chung did have have 10 solo and 3 assisted tackles. I know a bunch of those were in coverage but Chung definitely helped in limiting the damage in the run game.
In fact, the first time I thought we were in trouble was a 3rd and 5 or 6 in the redzone late in the first when instead of passing like 90% of the teams do, they ran off tackle to the right with Ajayi for like 10 yards. The fact that they could run such a basic safe play and still convert showed that we were going to have trouble controlling their run game.
So like I said, maybe they win with Butler, or maybe the Eagles run wild for 250 yards and we're having the same disappointed conversation just with different goats. Can't really argue with your opinion though...
I'm not rehashing the whole Butler thing again, since there's a very long thread dedicated to that. I'll just note that, after the Patriots straightened out the defense (usually considered to have begun after the first 4 weeks), the Patriots went the rest of the season without surrendering more than 27 points (Dolphins loss where nobody on the Patriots showed up to play). So, after 14 games where opponents scored more than 20 points just twice (Dolphins and Steelers in back-to-back weeks), we have a game where, minus Butler, the defense gives up 41.
I have no problem acknowledging that it was a year where the defensive personnel looked much better because of the coaching, and I have no problem with the idea that they simply reached the personnel breaking point in the SB. But you'll have to excuse me if I take issue with the notion that undermining the personnel by putting the CB2 on the bench wasn't a significant part of the problem, and a significant contributing factor to the personnel reaching said breaking point.