Patriots have the #1 defense (PPG) in the NFL

[ALP]

this D is getting crazy disrespect in the playoffs...not talked about at all

what happened to everyoen that always thought defense wins championships in the media? they're taking a 1 year hiatus from that stance?

arguably we have the best D in the league this year, and yet no one is even willing to call it that

 

[fightingirish595]

this D is getting crazy disrespect in the playoffs...not talked about at all

what happened to everyoen that always thought defense wins championships in the media? they're taking a 1 year hiatus from that stance?

arguably we have the best D in the league this year, and yet no one is even willing to call it that

Because of the way we get it done. We don't really dominate in one area. Be kinda just do a bunch of things well and get the job done arguably better than anyone in the league. The other best defenses just had awful offenses. If the Giants and the texans had okay offenses. It's entirely possible they'd still be standing (We might of been playing Houston this week instead of last week) it was just kind of a weird year. To me there's been no change, even if the Patriots lose. Defense doesn't win championships, balance does. Denver could atleast run the ball last year

And no one in the league is as balanced as us

 

[fightingirish595]

Atlanta's defense isn't bad. They can get after the QB.

They have been beetter lately at not giving up points

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

They have been beetter lately at not giving up points

Agree. This article does a little bit of cherry picking, but the Falcons offense is definately trending in the right direction, and peaking at the exact right time:

The Atlanta Falcons Have What It Takes to Win the Super Bowl

Since the bye, the Falcons have been on a tear. Their turnover rate would place them in the top-5 for the season had they maintained that pace all year, their points allowed per game would have them inside the top-12, and their yards allowed would have them in the top-16.

Furthermore, our analytics back this assessment -- the Falcons poor analytical rankings are haunted by their early-season performance. If we extrapolate their post-bye week analytics and use them based on a full season, the Falcons would be ranked in the top-15 for Adjusted Defensive NEP (total defense) and top-12 for Adjusted Defensive Passing NEP (passing defense).​

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Patriots' defensive parts make up a top-ranked whole

The fact that the Patriots gave up the fewest points in the NFL this season — by a healthy margin — caught plenty by surprise. In fact, they were all but impenetrable the second half of the season, since their 31-24 loss at home to the Seahawks. They haven’t lost since then, and enter the AFC championship game against the Steelers on an eight-game winning streak — and giving up 12.9 points a game during that streak, a healthy step below the 15.6 they gave up overall in the regular season.

Nothing in particular about them screams out “No. 1 defense.” Two starters made the Pro Bowl, which is impressive but not mind-blowing (the Titans are among the teams that also had two Pro Bowl defenders). There’s no segment of it that comes off as dominant, nothing they do that says, “You can’t try that on the Patriots” or “You’d better not let them take over.”

Putting it fairly simply: It’s not about overwhelming teams with one strength. It’s about adjusting to every offense they face and drilling down on stopping it, then doing it again for the next team the next week. It all reflects well on coordinator Matt Patricia and the position coaches — and explains why Patricia’s name keeps coming up in head-coaching conversations every year.

"In this league, you're going to go against different teams; every offense is different," said safety Devin McCourty, one of the Pro Bowl defenders. “We've been able to week-by-week try to come up with a game plan that says, ‘This is what we need to stop,’ and we go out there and we try to stop those things.

Their defense is incredibly versatile, at every level, so that they always have the players on the field who can handle every situation. The players themselves are versatile, rarely one-dimensional, and even avoid the big mistakes more often than their opponents.

So if they don’t have a player offenses have to scheme around, they have several players — McCourty, Malcolm Butler, Dont’a Hightower, Robb Ninkovich among them — who are a headache for opposing coordinators to handle.​

 

[LightSkinSmurf]

this D is getting crazy disrespect in the playoffs...not talked about at all

Well they have the perfect opportunity to earn that respect now.

 

[mgteich]

this D is getting crazy disrespect in the playoffs...not talked about at all

what happened to everyoen that always thought defense wins championships in the media? they're taking a 1 year hiatus from that stance?

arguably we have the best D in the league this year, and yet no one is even willing to call it that

There is no need to talk about our defense. It is clearly the #1 defense in the league.

The patriots are favorites to win the Super Bowl. We are heavily favored to beat PITT, especially since we're at home. The only STORY about the patriots is the putrid performance by the offense against Houston, and the health of Bennett, Hogan and Mitchell (are any of the 3 anywhere near 100%). All will likely be active.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Putting the Patriots 2016 Defense in Historical Context

One of the driving forces behind this blog was my realization in 2008 that Bill Belichick was going to have a chance to construct another whole defense from scratch. Few Coach/GMs have the kind of longevity to attempt this kind of thing, and as old stalwarts like Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison and Mike Vrabel faded from New England, it was up to Belichick to build another defense that could help win Tom Brady another Super Bowl or three in the second half of his career.

2007 was the Dynasty Defense’s last hurrah. In 2008, they were old and slow and by the 2009 offseason Belichick went into full “blow it up” mode. Richard Seymour was traded, Bruschi and Harrison retired, Vrabel was shipped to Kansas City. Surprisingly the 2009 defense was actually still pretty good statistically — 12th on third down, 6th in PPG, 14th overall in DVOA. But with Ray Rice‘s first-play 83-yard touchdown run in the 2009 AFCWC which kickstarted a thorough Raven domination, it was clear the Pats still had a ways to go.

2010 and 2011 were the low points, and the Pats still went 14-2 in ’10 and almost won the Super Bowl in ’11, despite ranking 32nd and 28th respectively on third down, and 21st and 30th in defensive DVOA. The arrival of Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower, along with the acquisition of Aqib Talib which signaled a move to more man coverage concepts in 2012, were the first signs of real progress.

2016 was supposed to be a culmination of the years of rebuilding the defense. But when Dominique Easley, Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins were all shipped out of town it lowered expectations of this being the year the Patriots’ defense cemented their place in the top-10 of NFL defenses.

Early in the season, with Collins still in the mix, the defense seemed to regress. They failed to force a turnover in six of their first 10 games, hovering near the bottom of every important defensive category, save one, the most important — points. They bottomed out against the Seahawks, allowing sustained scoring drives on seven of nine Seattle possessions.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to the playoffs. The Patriots defense just kept getting better every week. Yes, some ****ty opponents certainly had something to do with it, but after 2010 and 2011, when plenty of ****ty opponents still moved the ball with ease, it’s hard to complain about the Pats shutdown second half to the season.

The Patriots would finish 1st in PPG (15.6), 7th on 3rd down, 9th in Red Zone, Belichick’s holy triumvirate of defensive stats . From Football Outsiders DVOA, which measures efficiency adjusted for opponents, they had their best run defense under Belichick (4th). Those are the good stats.

The bad ones? 23rd in pass DVOA, 16th overall in defensive DVOA, and 28th in takeaways.

It’s a strange dichotomy. By some measurements this is the best Patriots defense we’ve seen since the Dynasty days. By others, it’s one of the bottom five defenses under Belichick. So there’s little question why the Patriots defense is being so hotly debated right now.

As someone who has followed this ups and downs of the defensive rebuild and wrote extensively about them over the last decade, here’s what I can tell you — despite their slow start, this is a solid and extremely well-coached defense more than capable of stopping any opponent en route to the Super Bowl. They’ve gotten better every week, and while that can be a cliche, with this defense it’s absolutely true.

Perhaps the biggest key is how fundamentally sound they are. They tackle well and ever since the Seattle game have all played within the system, aka Doing their jobs. Those traits translate to solid defense regardless of who the opponent is.

Who knows how the playoff games will unfold. That’s what’s so hard about trying to judge the quality of a defense from their stats and who they’ve played. I always say it takes a perfect game to beat the Patriots, especially in Foxborough, but it’s not impossible to imagine a turnover-free offensive performance against them where they’re picked apart underneath on long scoring drives that limit Tom Brady’s time of possession.

But even if the games do unfold that way, this Patriots defense has demonstrated all season that they’ll play a full 60 minutes, put the bad drives behind them and often have a knack for the big play when they need it most. Add in a world-class gameplan from Belichick and we just might see the defense finally live up to the preseason hype we believed. They’ve been building to it the entire season.​

 

[supafly]

Putting the Patriots 2016 Defense in Historical Context

One of the driving forces behind this blog was my realization in 2008 that Bill Belichick was going to have a chance to construct another whole defense from scratch. Few Coach/GMs have the kind of longevity to attempt this kind of thing, and as old stalwarts like Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison and Mike Vrabel faded from New England, it was up to Belichick to build another defense that could help win Tom Brady another Super Bowl or three in the second half of his career.

2007 was the Dynasty Defense’s last hurrah. In 2008, they were old and slow and by the 2009 offseason Belichick went into full “blow it up” mode. Richard Seymour was traded, Bruschi and Harrison retired, Vrabel was shipped to Kansas City. Surprisingly the 2009 defense was actually still pretty good statistically — 12th on third down, 6th in PPG, 14th overall in DVOA. But with Ray Rice‘s first-play 83-yard touchdown run in the 2009 AFCWC which kickstarted a thorough Raven domination, it was clear the Pats still had a ways to go.

2010 and 2011 were the low points, and the Pats still went 14-2 in ’10 and almost won the Super Bowl in ’11, despite ranking 32nd and 28th respectively on third down, and 21st and 30th in defensive DVOA. The arrival of Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower, along with the acquisition of Aqib Talib which signaled a move to more man coverage concepts in 2012, were the first signs of real progress.

2016 was supposed to be a culmination of the years of rebuilding the defense. But when Dominique Easley, Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins were all shipped out of town it lowered expectations of this being the year the Patriots’ defense cemented their place in the top-10 of NFL defenses.

Early in the season, with Collins still in the mix, the defense seemed to regress. They failed to force a turnover in six of their first 10 games, hovering near the bottom of every important defensive category, save one, the most important — points. They bottomed out against the Seahawks, allowing sustained scoring drives on seven of nine Seattle possessions.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to the playoffs. The Patriots defense just kept getting better every week. Yes, some ****ty opponents certainly had something to do with it, but after 2010 and 2011, when plenty of ****ty opponents still moved the ball with ease, it’s hard to complain about the Pats shutdown second half to the season.

The Patriots would finish 1st in PPG (15.6), 7th on 3rd down, 9th in Red Zone, Belichick’s holy triumvirate of defensive stats . From Football Outsiders DVOA, which measures efficiency adjusted for opponents, they had their best run defense under Belichick (4th). Those are the good stats.

The bad ones? 23rd in pass DVOA, 16th overall in defensive DVOA, and 28th in takeaways.

It’s a strange dichotomy. By some measurements this is the best Patriots defense we’ve seen since the Dynasty days. By others, it’s one of the bottom five defenses under Belichick. So there’s little question why the Patriots defense is being so hotly debated right now.

As someone who has followed this ups and downs of the defensive rebuild and wrote extensively about them over the last decade, here’s what I can tell you — despite their slow start, this is a solid and extremely well-coached defense more than capable of stopping any opponent en route to the Super Bowl. They’ve gotten better every week, and while that can be a cliche, with this defense it’s absolutely true.

Perhaps the biggest key is how fundamentally sound they are. They tackle well and ever since the Seattle game have all played within the system, aka Doing their jobs. Those traits translate to solid defense regardless of who the opponent is.

Who knows how the playoff games will unfold. That’s what’s so hard about trying to judge the quality of a defense from their stats and who they’ve played. I always say it takes a perfect game to beat the Patriots, especially in Foxborough, but it’s not impossible to imagine a turnover-free offensive performance against them where they’re picked apart underneath on long scoring drives that limit Tom Brady’s time of possession.

But even if the games do unfold that way, this Patriots defense has demonstrated all season that they’ll play a full 60 minutes, put the bad drives behind them and often have a knack for the big play when they need it most. Add in a world-class gameplan from Belichick and we just might see the defense finally live up to the preseason hype we believed. They’ve been building to it the entire season.​

Is this from your own personal blog? If so, nice job. Personally, I need to see a good performance against a good opponent, particularly since Seattle came here and played so well.

I still think it's one of the better defenses that we've had in awhile and they've earned their #1 points allowed ranking, but my concern is on the back end in the passing game. As you mention, the ability to create a turnover or two will be huge. It may make or break the game for them.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Is this from your own personal blog? If so, nice job. Personally, I need to see a good performance against a good opponent, particularly since Seattle came here and played so well.

I still think it's one of the better defenses that we've had in awhile and they've earned their #1 points allowed ranking, but my concern is on the back end in the passing game. As you mention, the ability to create a turnover or two will be huge. It may make or break the game for them.

I'm not Mike Dessault But I agree. It was a really good breakdown of what Belichick has done to rebuild a championship caliber defense

 

[supafly]

There is no need to talk about our defense. It is clearly the #1 defense in the league.

The patriots are favorites to win the Super Bowl. We are heavily favored to beat PITT, especially since we're at home. The only STORY about the patriots is the putrid performance by the offense against Houston, and the health of Bennett, Hogan and Mitchell (are any of the 3 anywhere near 100%). All will likely be active.

Bennett wasn't even on the injury report last week, was he? I could've sworn that I read about how much the bye week helped him and how they had removed him from the report entirely.

Hogan said that he could've came back in last week.

 

[Wheelman]

Bennett wasn't even on the injury report last week, was he? I could've sworn that I read about how much the bye week helped him and how they had removed him from the report entirely.

He hyper-extended his knee in the game, remember?

 

[supafly]

He hyper-extended his knee in the game, remember?

Oh yeah, I totally forgot because he returned after only missing one play, I think.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

 

[Ring 6]

Well they have the perfect opportunity to earn that respect now.

That's what its all about. Right now it does not matter at all if the defense was the best in the league or the worst in the league, what matters is how they play Sunday, and hopefully, 2 Sundays later.
Ultimately the defense was good enough to get the team a #1 seed. It didn't need to be any better than that because there was nothing else to earn.
It was good enough to beat Houston.
If it is good enough to beat Pittsburgh, and win the SB, it will have been a perfect defense.
And if it is a 2-0 or a 50-49 win, it doesn't really matter. Ultimately the defense needs to be good enough for this team to win the SB, and anything 'better' than just being that is meaningless.
Its great to debate statistics and rankings and all that crap, but the job of every player on this team at the start of the season was to contribute to winning the SB. Achieving that means everything was as good as it needed to be.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Let's not get @Ian in trouble -- probably shouldn't post such long excerpts, especially from commercial content sites like BR.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

In the Tanier/BR piece I liked the analogy to the 2001 defense at the end of the article.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Kevin Duffy, in recapping how well the Patriots have performed defensively, points out that the Steelers averaged 24.9 points per game this year.

What Duffy doesn't mention is that in Pittsburgh's last six postseason games (2014-present), they have scored 16, 17, 18, 18, 30, and 18 (the 30 was @ home against Miami with a depleted secondary).

Just how good is the New England Patriots top-ranked defense? We'll find out Sunday

I will now sing the Patriots' praises: Their defense could not have reasonably been better in the second half of the 2016 season. They annihilated eight consecutive opponents, holding teams to 12.9 points per game since they surrendered 31 to the Seahawks in Week 10, the game that prompted some of us to write -- in so many words -- that the Patriots defense "sucked."

Stats are for losers, as Bill Belichick once famously said, but the Patriots will like this one: They held almost all of their opponents, inept as some were, well below their respective scoring averages.

The Rams scored 14.2 points per game against their other 15 opponents. They scored 10 against the Patriots. The Jets managed a field goal in Week 16 against the Pats. They averaged 18.1 points otherwise. Ditto for the Broncos, who otherwise scored 22 points per game. The Dolphins averaged 23.2 points per game against other opponents, and scored 14 versus the Pats in the regular season finale.

Now comes the part the Pats will not like. Just because the Patriots held incompetent-to-mediocre offenses below their respective scoring averages does not mean they will definitely do the same to a well-rounded offense with a proven quarterback.

How will the Patriots defense fare against a legitimate offense? We really have no way of knowing until Sunday night, because we haven't seen it.

The Steelers averaged 24.9 points per game this year. Among the Patriots' opponents, only the Cardinals (26.1) scored more than Pittsburgh.

If the Steelers match their average, this will be a highly competitive game. If the Steelers surpass their average, there's a good chance they will be representing the AFC in Super Bowl LI.
​

 

[Kdo5]

Is this from your own personal blog? If so, nice job. Personally, I need to see a good performance against a good opponent, particularly since Seattle came here and played so well.

I still think it's one of the better defenses that we've had in awhile and they've earned their #1 points allowed ranking, but my concern is on the back end in the passing game. As you mention, the ability to create a turnover or two will be huge. It may make or break the game for them.

I tend to agree. While I don't like to admit it, I still have hesitancy to label this defense elite. Can't ignore that we have faced a slew of weak offenses along the way and haven't been tested like the 2014 crew was.

That said I think they still deserve credit. They've played who has been on their schedule and done a great job overall. They struggled getting turnovers for a while but that's been changing and there have been a number of big defensive plays that have highlighted the latter half of the season.

They have been disrespected and shrugged off by a lot of people. Logan Ryan has been particularly vocal about it. Let's see if they can prove that they are as good as the PPG stat says.

I think they can do it, so we shall see. This is one of those games where I'm more interested in seeing how our defense plays rather than the offense.