Whose job is it to stop those 10-15 yard passes?

[Snarf]

The linebackers? The cornerbacks?

It wasn't just the colts... a LOT of teams managed to throw those intermediate passes on the Pats all season, over and over again... it seemed like the Pats had absolutely no way to defend against them. Last night was just icing on the intermediate-pass-failure cake.

So... what can they do to fix this for next season?

 

[zippo59]

This game was lost in the middle of the field...which says to it comes down to the linebackers and the safeties.

Ellis Hobbs and Asante Samuel played great. Wayne and Harrison are two of the best but they held them in check for most of the day despite mostly being in single coverage.

 

[Patriot Missile]

Whose job is it to stop those 10-15 yard passes?

I think it was Nem's. He looked gassed in the 2nd half and couldn't step up to make the big play. Seriously,the safeties and LB's could not keep up with those guys. As good as this defense was about giving up points,the injuries were too much. Colvin and Hawkins were irreplaceable on that day and it showed.

 

[DefenseRules]

This game was lost in the middle of the field...which says to it comes down to the linebackers and the safeties.

Ellis Hobbs and Asante Samuel played great. Wayne and Harrison are two of the best but they held them in check for most of the day despite mostly being in single coverage.

EXACTLY! We are weak at ILB and Safety. It's been that way for two years. Ted Johnson retires, and Bruschi suffers the stroke. Enter Chad Brown, and Monty Beisel. We all saw how that tandem worked out.
We've all been saying it for years..."WE NEED YOUTH AT LINEBACKER".
That flaw got exposed last night.

This is the second year in a row that we've lost both of our starting safeties for a good portion of the season. Hawkins and Sanders did a commendable job, but there was no depth behind them, IMO. We've just had bad luck at safety for the last two years, but I think that we will be ok there. I still hope that we draft a young stud SS to groom behind Rodney. But, IMO, our ILB position needs a serious UPGRADE.