The defense has a speed issue.

[Kontradiction]

The Chiefs were using nothing but misdirection and routes to the sidelines tonight. This is say nothing about the Chiefs RBs just basically outrunning our LBs at will. Clearly they were aiming to take advatange of the lack of speed in our LB corps and front seven. The question is how does this get fixed? Drop Chung in as a LB and play there safeties (which will give pure running teams an advantage)? Or is this just the team no-showing tonight?

 

[SalemPats]

The D-Line could not tackle tonight, how many times did they have a hand on Hunt or Kelce and they couldn't get a thing down.

I know it's hard to blitz a west coast offense like Andy Reid's, but we needed something

 

[TennisBallHead]

They also have a talent issue

 

[WaterfallJumper]

The Chiefs were using nothing but misdirection and routes to the sidelines tonight. This is say nothing about the Chiefs RBs just basically outrunning our LBs at will. Clearly they were aiming to take advatange of the lack of speed in our LB corps and front seven. The question is how does this get fixed? Drop Chung in as a LB and play there safeties (which will give pure running teams an advantage)? Or is this just the team no-showing tonight?

It seems like a combination of new players learning their roles/responsibilities, and some sloppy early season plays, but you may be right about speed. We have some athletes in the secondary, but not much quickness in the linebacking corp. I expect we'll see more emphasis on fundamentals next week, and I hope that will help, but it would be nice to have a long term plan to address LB (too bad we lost our 1st and a 4th picks).

Also, kudos for a valid critique without hand-wringing or hysteria.

 

[slash83]

You don't say...

 

[DropKickFlutie]

To be very specific, the defense will be a lot better once #55 and #53 play zero more defensive snaps the rest of the year, only special teams

.

 

[Brady_Moss]

We need to trade for Mykal Kendricks...I've said it time and time on this board

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

This team has always had issues covering running backs. Not the first time we have seen this . Their gameplan worked to perfection.

 

[luuked]

I am going to ****ing downvote any comment that tries to derail this thread into a hottake fest. If you wanna write something in here then at least respond to the OPs point.

 

[FreeCourtroomBrady]

Looked like a standard college team trying to stop Chip Kelly's old Duck offense.

 

[Kontradiction]

Hightower was covering a LOT tonight. I'd like to see him used as a rusher more and maybe swing a trade for a backer or use three safeties more. Obviously that would put us at a disadvantage against run-first teams, but it's the only thing I can think of. The backers looked like they were stuck in mud tonight.

 

[luuked]

The Chiefs were using nothing but misdirection and routes to the sidelines tonight. This is say nothing about the Chiefs RBs just basically outrunning our LBs at will. Clearly they were aiming to take advatange of the lack of speed in our LB corps and front seven. The question is how does this get fixed? Drop Chung in as a LB and play there safeties (which will give pure running teams an advantage)? Or is this just the team no-showing tonight?

Honestly I was encouraged by what we have seen from Marsh given how long he had been here and how he was pushed into a starter role when HT got injured. Yes he gave up that TD against Hunt but it was not on him. He should have never been in a position where he had to match up with him. In that context I thought he followed him pretty nicely.

It seemed like there was a lot of chaos when we were in zone which is not unusual for the point in time. I wont spend a moment worrying unless we still look so slow and chaotic in October.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

The Patriots have been without the "speed" you speak of in other successful seasons. IMHO what we are seeing here tonight, among several failures, is a failure at the coaching/adjustment level. KC adjusted and supercharged at halftime and the Patriots were unprepared for it. Much like when the Patriots go no huddle and defenses are flatfooted, the Patriots were stumped and dumbfounded.
Maybe personnel didn't allow for a good adjustment? Maybe first game of the season out of wack-ness? Maybe KC saw something that BB and staff didn't see? Maybe a combination of all?
The Patriots D has enough horses to keep KC from gaining 3 (I believe it was 3) plays of 60 friggin yards or more (appalling!). But anyone who has watched the Patriots with a modicum of cognitive reasoning know it's very likely these will get ironed out to a large degree.

Same for the O side of the ball. Brady (with Jules then DA gone) has new receivers and he looked to be out of wack with. Brady is human, the receivers are human, BB and staff are human -- they all just need to get it worked out. Again history says they will.

What the Patriots are will be revealed in November but I doubt we will see many of these type wallopings (second half was a walloping). We're on to ____

 

[Ring 6]

We played 4 safeties most of the game.
3-2-6
I don't get it. We can't defend the run like that and there was no cohesion in the pass defense.

This loss is on game planning IMO.
Blown coverages, an offense that seemed to have no plan and let KC dupe is into throwing 20 bombs.

 

[ScottishPatriots]

Linebackers are painfully slow, it looks like an entire LB core of Brandon Spikes out there

 

[luuked]

Hightower was covering a LOT tonight. I'd like to see him used as a rusher more and maybe swing a trade for a backer or use three safeties more. Obviously that would put us at a disadvantage against run-first teams, but it's the only thing I can think of. The backers looked like they were stuck in mud tonight.

Looking forward to seeing the coaches tape and focusing on Branch & co. Didnt really get to do that during the game apart from 1-2 plays where he landed on his back. If he has any issues or is slowing down then we might really have an issue against the run.

 

[Kontradiction]

We played 4 safeties most of the game.
3-2-6
I don't get it. We can't defend the run like that and there was no cohesion in the pass defense.

This loss is on game planning IMO.
Blown coverages, an offense that seemed to have no plan and let KC dupe is into throwing 20 bombs.

Andy their backs were breezing past our backers like they were wearing 50 lb. weights on their ankles. This wasn't just an issue in the passing game, this was also an issue against the run. They targeted it specifically, too, with the routes they were running and the use of the read option. Speed and a lack of cohesion was what killed this defense. One issue will be fixable... probably by next week. That's the latter. The former needs to be addressed, though.

 

[Kontradiction]

Looking forward to seeing the coaches tape and focusing on Branch & co. Didnt really get to do that during the game apart from 1-2 plays where he landed on his back. If he has any issues or is slowing down then we might really have an issue against the run.

From what I saw, Branch was being double teamed on every run down I watched and nobody else was winning their one on one battles.

 

[Ring 6]

Andy their backs were breezing past our backers like they were wearing 50 lb. weights on their ankles. This wasn't just an issue in the passing game, this was also an issue against the run. They targeted it specifically, too, with the routes they were running and the use of the read option. Speed and a lack of cohesion was what killed this defense. One issue will be fixable... probably by next week. That's the latter. The former needs to be addressed, though.

What LBs? That's the issue. We played most of the game with a FRONT FIVE.
we have no speed issue that we didn't have every other year.

 

[Kontradiction]

Just an update, but reports on Hightower are encouraging thus far.