You aren't Belichick and pretending you have even a modicum of his knowledge is a joke.
Where did I make this claim again?
Second, there is only so many injuries that can be covered before you see a downgrade. We clearly hit that with the loss of Gregory, Talib and Dennard. This was the 1st game that ALL THREE were out. So, it's an entirely DIFFERENT situation. I would think that you'd understand that. Clearly I was giving you too much gredit.
Talib was in for most of the game along with a three year starter in Arrington and one of the better safeties in the AFC in McCourty. They were still horrible on third down, especially in the money quarter. It wasn't all on the secondary, though. The DL was consistently pushing too far upfield and guys were blowing their assignments which allowed Newton to escape from the pocket for a couple of big third down runs. A good example of this is when Hightower just simply ran into the back of the DL as Carter pushed upfield to try to generate a pass rush (which was also pathetic for most of the night).
The defense didn't suck tonight.
Sure it did.
Clearly you don't know what it means to have a defense that sucks. You've clearly forgotten 2002, 2000, and 1991, just to name a few.
I remember all of those defenses save '91, given my age at that time. I also remember the way the defense played at the beginning of this season, which was night and day from last night. Want to know what they all have in common besides being bad? They're all irrelevant to the topic of last night's defense being awful.
The defense actually played pretty well, especially when you consider that C. Jones, Ninkovich, Chandler Jones, and Vellano were all TACKLED at one point or another tonight. And that doesn't include Ninkovich being held on the Newton scramble late in the game.
Can you point to a picture, GIF, or video where those guys are all being tackled? Because I didn't see that. If it happened all game, it shouldn't be that hard to find. Instead, what I remember is routine holding which, unless it's egregious, goes uncalled a lot of the time. The Pats did it a good amount too. What I saw was Gross thoroughly controlling Chandler Jones at the point of attack and the rest of the DL unable to generate anywhere near a consistent pass rush. When they got into the backfield, Newton usually broke away and ran because someone behind them would usually blow their assignment and failed to contain.
Something tells me that Belichick always tempers his criticism based on the player he's dealing with. That includes rookies..
Given everything we've heard about his film breakdowns, it would appear that you're, wait a minute... let me just quote you because you said it better than I can...
talking out your rear end.
But hey, I'm glad you're happy with that defensive performance. Apparently it doesn't take much to impress you. :rocker::rocker::rocker:
