Second Half Points Allowed: 6

[Disco Volante]

Along with 2 TDs for the entire game.

Am I the only person left who feels absolutely fine with our defense?

Funny, just listening to Mike Francesca and Phill Simms who claim our defense is "Old and slow, Belichick is patching it together and that the rest of the league knows that they can be taken".

 

[richpats]

I'm fine with it. If everybody can get past the fact that it isn't 2003 and our defense is more strategic than dominant, then people will get how effective our defense is.

 

[PonyExpress]

The Jags scored the fewest points they have in 11 weeks last night. They also allowed the most points in 9 weeks (discounting the last regular season game when they rested all of their key defensive players vs Houston).

 

[ShrewBeer]

the problem is that brady had to play perfect to win. the secondary didnt show up for some reason or another. im not saying that our secondary sucks, but last night it was the worst ive ever seen. i understand that they didnt give up a ton of points, but they couldnt seem to even come close to covering guys. that quote you said from mike and phil is definitely crap though. i think the secondary just farted. the rest of the team showed up nicely

 

[chrisfx811]

2nd highest scoring team down the stretch, in the league was held to 20 points.
I'm ok with that. If you told me the Colt's or Chargers were going to get 20 next week, I'd take it.

It's the playoffs, the Jags were a very good team, and the Pats still dispatched them.
This isn't the pre-salary cap era of the Cowboys, 49ers, Bears, et al and we can't expect to see 20+ point wins every week.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

i hate to sound negative, but our best defense last night was our offense. TOP was even, but both offenses had long drives most of the night. jax had 6 real possessions (im not counting the one b4 half with barely any time left) and they scored on 4 of them. i have no complaints for the run D but our secondary needs to step up because if jax scores on 66% of their possessions indy will have a field day against us.

also i think indy has a better D than jax so if we dont get off the field defensively, there's no guarantee we can sustain the same long drives. this performance by the D will do against a team like the jaguars, but not the colts.

 

[PonyExpress]

i hate to sound negative, but our best defense last night was our offense. TOP was even, but both offenses had long drives most of the night. jax had 6 real possessions (im not counting the one b4 half with barely any time left) and they scored on 4 of them. i have no complaints for the run D but our secondary needs to step up because if jax scores on 66% of their possessions indy will have a field day against us.

also i think indy has a better D than jax so if we dont get off the field defensively, there's no guarantee we can sustain the same long drives. this performance by the D will do against a team like the jaguars, but not the colts.

Like last season's Jax game, the game was not as close as the final score indicated. It was more of a 38-20 game (missed field goal, Stallworth jogging and getting caught from behind).

The Pats identified the Jax center of gravity as the running game, and made Garrard beat them. He put up a good fight for 2 1/2 Quarters, and failed. They will play a similar game vs the Chargers and win that. Against the Colts, they will play much differently. The Colts center of gravity is the passing attack, so they will make Addai beat them. He will put up a good fight and fail.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Like last season's Jax game, the game was not as close as the final score indicated. It was more of a 38-20 game (missed field goal, Stallworth jogging and getting caught from behind).

The Pats identified the Jax center of gravity as the running game, and made Garrard beat them. He put up a good fight for 2 1/2 Quarters, and failed. They will play a similar game vs the Chargers and win that. Against the Colts, they will play much differently. The Colts center of gravity is the passing attack, so they will make Addai beat them. He will put up a good fight and fail.

i agree for the most part. i dont think garrard failed tho, he shouldve had a 3rd td pass that was dropped by northcutt. so we got a break there like they did with the missed fg. he simply couldnt keep up with brady, thats not failing.

if brady doesnt play a perfect game last night, we wouldve been in trouble. no matter how good a team's offense is, defense wins titles. its damn near impossible to outgun 3 straight good ballclubs (i would say impossible but brady has defied all logic this year, which is why I think he'll go down as the greatest to play the position). so who knows, maybe we can put up 31+ on both the colts and whoever we face in the super bowl if we get there. but i certainly dont want to have to rely on that.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Holding that offense to six points in a half is amazing.

I wasn't able to be on the Game Thread last night so I don't know how folks were feeling, but, while i wasn't happy that the jags scored on their opening drive, I never thought the game was in doubt when we came right back and certainly after we took the first lead (unlike the philly and ravens games where I was taking deep breaths much of the fourth quarter...i can't explain it but, as i think about it, i also never thought the giants game was in doubt, even when we were behind i felt we were in control).

I do think, however, that if last nights second half was an "A" game by our D, we will need four quarters of an "A+" game to beat the Colts next Sunday.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Along with 2 TDs for the entire game.

Am I the only person left who feels absolutely fine with our defense?

Funny, just listening to Mike Francesca and Phill Simms who claim our defense is "Old and slow, Belichick is patching it together and that the rest of the league knows that they can be taken".

Well, it's a little misleading.

The Jags essentially only had two real possessions in the second half from which you can judge our defense. On the first, they rolled for 50 yards in about three minutes. They got derailed in the red zone by a false start, and, even so, should have scored a touchdown. Gerrard put it right on Northcut's hands.

On the second possession, the Jags again rolled down the field with ease -- taking it 86 yards. Patriots did buck up in the red zone, though, and stopped them at the 7 yard line. Probably our best defensive series of the game, except for the one where they got the fumble. Strange to say that about an 86 yard drive.

The defense also played well on the Jags third possession, but it's tough to know what that means, since it was a late fourth quarter drive where the Jags needed two scores, so they were forced into a pass only, take away the sidelines, prevent style. It's more specialized.

Our best "defense" this game was our ball control offense. From the time our offense took the ball in the second quarter and began the long drive (the one that ended with the missed FG) until the end of the third quarter, our defense was only on the field for about 6:00, and about 1:00 of that was during garbage time in the end of the second half where the Jags weren't even really trying to do too much. So, for 23 minutes of game time, and for the duration of the halftime break, our defense was only really involved in having to defend one drive.