The Patriots won their sixth straight game on Sunday in Mexico City, improving to 8-2 thanks to a complete domination of the Raiders. While the offense has been putting up gaudy numbers of late, and really for the entire season, more attention needs to be paid to the marked shift in the Patriots defensive effort in the past few weeks.
Torn apart by anyone and everyone in their first four games, the Patriots defense looked like the worst defense in football, and a potential roadblock to the team’s Super Bowl aspirations. In those first four games, the Patriots defense allowed 32 points per game and 456.8 yards per game, both figures that would rank dead last in the NFL today. In fact, they were so bad that, in this millennium, only the 0-16 Detroit Lions have finished a season allowing more points per game than the Patriots did during the first four games, and no team has allowed more yards per game in a single season in the 21st century. The Patriots defense was that bad during the first four weeks, but since that point, we have seen a vast alteration in performance from the much-maligned unit.
Since Week 4, the Patriots defense has allowed 374.8 yards per game, which still isn’t all that good (it would rank them 27th in the NFL this year), but is a major improvement from the hideous effort of the first four weeks. When only looking at the past four games, the Patriots have allowed 343.8 yards per game, which would place them 19th in the league. Also in the past four games, the Patriots have allowed only allowed 217.7 passing yards per game, 129 yards down from their average in Weeks 1-4. This leap is absurd, especially when considering the fact that defensive signal-caller Dont’a Hightower was lost for the season after Week 7, Stephon Gilmore missed Weeks 6-8, and Eric Rowe hasn’t played since Week 5.
But the defense’s biggest jump has come in the points per game department, as they have only allowed 12.5 PPG since Week 4, and haven’t allowed a team to score over 17 points since Week 4 against Carolina. This 20 point drop in PPG is absurd, and signals a defense headed in the right direction, and while that direction might not be towards the elite category, it is far, far away from the horrendous performance of the first four games. And keep in mind that Brady and the Patriots have still managed to reach, and even win, the Super Bowl without an elite defense, as witnessed in their Super Bowl win in 2014, when the Patriots ranked 13th in yardage allowed per game, and in 2011, when they made it to the Super Bowl despite ranking 31st in yards per game.
Despite this improvement, I doubt that the yardage per game figure will ever improve to the point in which they rank in the top 20 of NFL defenses. The yardage per game stat will be skewed the rest of the season, thanks to the first four games, so I’m sure Patriot haters will still harp on the fact the Patriots possess one of the worst yardage defenses in the NFL, but don’t let that number deceive you. This defense has made huge strides since their 2-2 start, and it appears that they can only go up from here. The way the schedule has broken for the Patriots down the stretch is tremendous, particularly for the still-improving defense, as they play Miami twice (30th in yards per game), Buffalo twice (27th in yards per game), and the Jets once (25th in yards per game). Look for the Patriots defense to carry their momentum through the end of the season and into the playoffs, as the franchise embarks on a run for its sixth Super Bowl.