Good defenses do better than the Pats have done allowing almost 30 points per game against good teams as opposed to half of that against bad teams.
White is pedestrian. Come on now. He's a worse version of Trey Flowers. Like Flowers, they can't take over games with their god given ability.
Yes, they were the most untalented in 2001 overall. Although they were coming off of bad seasons, they still had Pro Bowl and All Pro players in Law, Milloy and McGinest. They had complementary players in Bruschi and Johnson. Then they brought over hungry veterans in Cox, and Phiffer and other players such as Pleasant, Hamilton in 2000, Otis Smith, Terrell Buckley. Comparing this defense to the current Pats defenses is an insult to the 2001 team.
The offense was the major problem with no help for Bledsoe at WR on the outside besides Glenn, no TE and the OL and Antowain Smith were not going to scare anyone.
With that said, they had a losing record against teams .500 and above and would've possibly missed the playoffs had they not had a last place schedule.