ICYMI: The Patriots Have One of the Best Defenses in Football
The Patriots don’t want to talk about it. But since Week 4, the defense has morphed from embarrassing to dominant.
On the impressive turnaround:https://t.co/jB6fJ6Z5IK pic.twitter.com/5OV6CkYQE2
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) December 11, 2017
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Here’s what I wrote in the Knee Jerk Reaction to the Week 4 game against Carolina:
There’s no sense in trying to polish the turd that is this Patriots defense right now. It’s not bad. It’s atrociously awful. Historically bad. … The the Patriots D is a nightmarish hellscape out of Bill Belichick’s worst bad-acid freak out.
Their passer rating against right now is 116.5. Meaning they’ve turned Alex Smith, Drew Brees, Deshaun Watson and even this version of Cam Newton into last year’s Matt Ryan, the league MVP. Opposing quarterbacks are having their way to the tune of 8.6 Net Yards per Attempt. To put that in perspective, the second worst defense is Cleveland’s and their NY/A is 7.7. And the Pats are giving up 60 yards more per game than any other in football. … Carolina had eight “explosive” plays, meaning passes of 25 yards or more, rushes of 10 or more. That gives this D 24 of them through four games. They only gave up 59 all last season.
And what I wrote two weeks later, after the Jets game:
They are the first team in NFL history to allow 300 passing yards in each of its first six games. The 14 touchdown passes they’ve given up is not only tied with Cleveland for most in the league, it’s three more than their 2003 champions gave up all season. They’re dead last in football in: Yards per Drive, TDs per Drive and Yards per Attempt. Though to be fair, they’re only 29th in Points per Drive and have only given up the second most big shot, 20+ yard passes (thanks, Indy!)
And here, in graphic form, is where they are now:
And just to dive a little deeper, these were the cornerbacks’ passer ratings against through the first four games:
Malcolm Butler, 109.2
Stephon Gilmore, 101.8
Jonathan Jones, 103.6
Eric Rowe, 107.9
And yet since Gilmore – who was Patient Zero of the zombie virus that was affecting the whole unit – came back from missing three games with a concussion, he’s given up just 32.5 yards per game and passer rating of 48.6. The last time they faced Miami two weeks ago, when Matt Moore targeted Butler and Gilmore, his numbers were 3-9, 27 yards, 1 interceptions, 2 passes broken up and a passer rating of 2.7.
Which is all a long-winded but factually accurate way of saying they were horrifically bad, turned it around, and have been among the best defenses in the league for a very long time. And they’ve done it without their green dotted quarterback Dont’a Hightower, after losing Rob Ninkovich, missing at various times their best athlete in Trey Flowers, a versatile veteran in Shea McClellin and plugging in guys like Marquis Flowers, Deatrich Wise and the instant folk legend Eric Lee.
I’d love to tell you there’s some genius at work here. That Matt Patricia and Bill Belichick made some brilliant adjustment that revolutionized the football defense industry for good. But I’m just not seeing it. The boring answer is they’re simply doing what they’ve always done. Just better. Living by the Belichickian philosophy of playing high-to-low. Playing deep zones to take away the home run balls, bracketing opponents’ No. 1 option, communicating on bunch formations and combo routes, closing off the middle of the field and basically daring teams to beat them underneath and along the sidelines, knowing sooner or later they’ll take a shot and make a mistake. In the front 7, it’s all role players like Kyle Van Noy and Elandon Roberts and Pat Chung making plays behind solid gap defenders like Malcom Brown. I’m not arguing they’re elite by any means. Just that they’re good enough. The numbers don’t lie.
Just remind me of this next September if they’re playing like garbage and I’m losing my shit over it again. There’s a pattern here. We saw it last year and we saw it in 2014 when Darrelle Revis took a few weeks to fit in. This defense is a complicated, precision mechanism. It takes time to get it up and running. And once is does, it’s dominant, like it is now. I own everything I wrote back in October. But this is one of those times when nothing makes me happier than being wrong.