What would be acceptable defense?

[Ring 6]

Sure but on the 3 chunk plays in question, the trailing coverage by Malcolm, JJ and Richards was not very good.

I have to look back at the plays. Which ones are you talking about?

 

[Ring 6]

14 points allowed on the road on 3 days

13 points allowed to Drew Brees in the Superdome (Ya it was 20 but 7 of those came with under 5 minutes when the Pats were up 36-13)

Someone suggested communication is easier on defense on the road because it's quiet.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Allowing 14 points, holding Winston to a low completion % and 4-13 3rd down is a helluva lot better than a 5

Hey! I gave them a 5.5 not a 5. And with the built in MOE of +/- 1.5 that everyone knows a rating system like this comes with, we could be talking a 7!

 

[RobertWeathers]

I have to look back at the plays. Which ones are you talking about?

The last 3 completions on the final TB drive.

I don't argue with the defensive call. Just the actual execution.

Malcolm's was ok. Could have been stickier but JJs and Richards's was bad..

It was MtM underneath and zone/double other the top to protect vs the deep ball which is fine but the coverage underneath was garbage.

Whatever. They won. Moving on.

 

[brdmaverick]

It's definitely more than just the numbers. For instance, last night's game had a much different feel than the Houston game. Last night's the game the Pats were much more in control and played to the situation.

 

[brdmaverick]

I chalk up last night's game as a good defensive performance despite the final numbers.

 

[mgteich]

We’re back to 2016; awesome. Blame the opponent, ignore the performance.

Who cares the Bucs are a pretty good offense that added Howard & Jackson in the offseason. Not as if they threw for three TDs vs. the Giants secondary.

Yup. they'r great. They scored 3 TD's against an 0-4 team.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Somebody back on the first page said 21 points allowed would be good, and hey, given the first 4 games, it's only ironic in retrospect that 21 wouldn't have won it. (Barring, of course, any theoretical offensive performance increase attending more of a dogfight.)

We still had a "they suck"/"We didn't win, Nick Folk lost" contingent, whattayagonnado.

Hold every opponent to 14, and I'm happy.

Despite the offseason revelry, it was never going to be a steamroller year. But there's also always been a lot of talent on this team, both sides of the ball. No Bennett to cure Gronkless days/nights though... no JE11... No Mitchell, for a while, for what he can contribute.

That doesn't mean boo hoo we'll never win again, it means if anybody thought this was going to be the pre-ordained year, the bug bit early and often this year. It's going to be a gut-it-out year, whatever the outcome.

Now it's 10 days to see what the D builds on what they did against Tampa (and 10 days of praying the OLine that we're seeing isn't as good as it gets.)

 

[Mack Herron]

This is dumb. The Bucs accumulated all those yards when we played soft coverage towards the end of the game. Our coverage was really good prior to us playing prevent.

Good for 3Q. Fourth quarter, not so good. No problem playing the clock, but they played it poorly. Van Noy poor on the run, Butler on the long pass, and consecutive roughing the passer penalties nearly coughed up the game despite the missed field goals.

 

[Ring 6]

I chalk up last night's game as a good defensive performance despite the final numbers.

I chalk up the game as a good defensive performance because of the only final number that counts. 14.