Seems to me that this board has been discussing the pass rush situation since its inception, BB has had many opportunities to find the answer that media and posters want, but BB has chosen a different direction..
THIS is an important aspect to any discussion of a pass rush for the Pats. "setting the edge" has ALWAYS been the priority for any DE/OLB here in NE. It has NEVER been the glamour position that the outside edge rusher has become for other defensive systems. Its the main reason Chris Long is in Philly, and Koney Ealy failed here. It's also the likely reason Freeney is in Seattle and never thought of coming here. Von Miller would have clearly been a great player here as he has been in Denver. But that being said, I doubt he'd have the same sack totals playing in THIS defense as he's had with the Broncos
I think we sometimes forget that for the most part, BB has rarely had a "featured" pass rusher. Willie McGinest might have been the most talented guy, but even he had only ONE double digit sack year under BB. And in those years where the Pats defense was among the best every years (2003-2007), while the Pats were among the top 5 in sacks, it was generally done by committee rather than one or two individuals getting most of the sacks.
With the group we have now, there are no great INDIVIDUAL pass rushers. Flowers is the closest we have and other teams know it and they are making it very hard for him to excel. The rest are just hard trying power guys like Wise and Guy just looking to push the pocket and create pressure. The result has been just 16 sacks which puts us just below the middle of the league (ie the Jets are #18 with 18 sacks in 9 games).
The fact is I believe that BB isn't that worried about the lack of actual sacks. I think he will play to the strength of this defense which is the 2ndary. I think the key stats for him are how many "pressures" the DL creates, how quickly the QB is forced to throw, and how often his forced to reset.
Sometimes we forget that Sacks are the happy result that are made possible by a number of things that have little to do with the individual pass rushers, but rather how well the pass defenders do THEIR jobs or how well the coaches (in their preparation) have done is creating the right match ups for that particular formation and down/distance situation.
I believe strongly that BB believes that sacks are truly a team stat, and he has shown over the last 2 decades that they CAN be "created" within a team concept. So for that reason, I don't think we are likely to see anything different over the next 8 games. This team will get about 2 sacks a game, get inconsistent pressure on the QB, and still win most of them.
It is often frustrating to watch as fans, but it is the result of a critical core philosophy that Bellichick demands of his defense. And given what he has available for talent it shouldn't surprise us that a great majority of the fast pressure we are going to see is going to have to be manufactured.
