The Patriots defense turned in another signature effort against the Bills that we’ve seen in recent weeks — early struggles on third down, some big plays allowed, only to see them tighten up in the second half and allow the offense to pull away.
I’m not here to sugar coat it guys, this defense is a shell of what we’ve seen in recent years and obviously injuries are a huge part of it. The other part of it is that the secondary, which is healthy, needed to step up and lead the way for the decimated front seven. At best, they’ve been inconsistent. At worst they’ve been lit up repeatedly no matter who they’re facing. But again, they’ve made the plays they needed to to win games.
But as I look around at the personnel up front I wonder how many stop gaps there are and how many actual building blocks there are.
I’d break it down like so:
Building Blocks: Brown, Guy, T. Flowers, Van Noy.
Stop Gaps: Roberts, M. Flowers, Richards, Jean Francois.
On the Fence: Lee, Wise, Butler
Earlier this year I would’ve easily put Butler and Wise on the building block lists, but both have been reduced to being third down pass rushers, and fairly invisible ones at that. Wise’s sack against the Bills was much needed.
Lee is playing more than either Wise or Butler after coming over from the Bills practice squad. I wish I could say that I’m excited by him still, and while he seems to understand how to play in good position, he’s slow off the ball and not all that impactful. But he’s more athletic on his feet than Wise and at least against the Bills, where the Pats favored three defensive tackle types, the Pats chose to lean on Lee.
Of course, the young guys can and should progress, and that includes Roberts, and the returns of Van Noy and Hightower would instantly make things a lot better, but there’s a lot of work to do this offseason on defense. Though can we really count on Hightower to play a full season?
With one game to go this is the defense we’re left with and the one the Pats must try to win another Super Bowl with. They are well-coached and despite the lack of talent seem to understand the do your job mantra. They don’t get down after allowing big plays and they always get better as the game goes on. That counts for a lot.
Will it be enough this time around? We’ll see. But I’d be lying if I didn’t wonder where the big plays like Hightower made in the last two Super Bowls are going to come from. Trey Flowers, Malcom Brown and a hopefully healthy Kyle Van Noy will have to play out of their minds. The secondary will have to play up to expectations, and those stop gaps will have to hit a level we haven’t seen from them yet.
The NFL season is a battle of attrition as much as anything and the Patriots defense was hit hard up front this year. If the Pats are to win their third Super Bowl in three years they’ll have to do it with the most unremarkable defense in recent memory, going back at least to 2011.
I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it’s incredibly tough when the amount of negative plays your defense creates are so few. They’re a far more talented defense than 2011’s, despite the losses this year. But their third down struggles and big plays allowed must be reduced in the playoffs or they’re going to get themselves into a hole Tom Brady can’t dig them out of.
You make some excellent points. As currently constituted this defense kind of sucks. But they do have a knack for making a play when they absolutely have to have it and that’s not inconsequential.
I also realized that the front 7 is not exactly reminding any one 2003 and 2004 Patriots, but how bad the back four have been this year is truly stunning. It’s time to admit, Bill missed on Gilmore. He was brought in to be the next great number 24 playing corner instead he’s turned into Duane Starks. I still can’t believe how inconsistent Malcolm Butler has been. He still tackles well for the most part and finishes plays but now more often than not he’s finishing them after giving up a 30-yard completion. That young man has cost himself quite a chunk of change. The safeties…. McCourty looks like he’s lost a step and neither he nor Harmon intimidate anybody. As for Patrick Chung?Not sure where this defense would be without Patrick Chung. He’s continued his career Renaissance with the Pats and I hope he gets that half million dollar bonus!
At the end of the day, this seems to be the year where you don’t have to have a real dominant team to win a Superbowl. Especially since Carson Wentz went down. They just have to be a little better than average on 3rd down. It’s good that they’re holding people to threes in the red zone but if the other team has the ball for 8 minutes even if they only Come Away with three that’s a huge win for the other team. If they can find a way to keep teams under say 40%, they are going to be an awfully awfully tough team to beat.