PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

defense

Patriots-Bills Film Review: Defense Edition

by

Yes, it’s time to take a look back at the car crash that happened on Sunday, when the Bills beat the Patriots pretty much across the board. And where else would I start than with the defense?

Now the common refrain I’ve heard over the past couple days is THEY ONLY GAVE UP 16 POINTS!

Well, this is true. And overall the Patriots defense is fourth in the league in points-per-game. That can’t be overlooked and as maddening as the Bend-Don’t-Break can be, it’s a proven game winner.

But from there just about every other defensive stat is bad. Real bad. They’re 29th in 3rd down defense and 28th in red zone defense. We’ll see how far they’ve fallen in DVOA on Tuesday.

So yes, the number of points allowed is certainly an important stat, and when you combine that with how the bad tackling, lack of edge setting, and overall sloppiness should all be corrected and there’s certainly a valid argument to be made that the Patriots defense will be okay.

But don’t ask me to feel good about how they’ve regressed in some of the most important aspects of the game since last year. Hopefully this game was just a stinker they needed to get out of the way.

Let’s take a closer look at the All 22 to get an emotionless look at what went wrong.

[Read more…] about Patriots-Bills Film Review: Defense Edition

Will the Patriots Defense Reach Their Potential in 2016?

by

<a rel=

Things are going to change in 2017 for the Patriots defense. The list of defenders due to hit free agency after this season is long and talented — Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Jabaal Sheard, Alan Branch, Logan Ryan, Duron Harmon and Chris Long are some of the high profile names.

Now, the Patriots have the cap space to re-sign who they want. They won’t re-sign all of them, but they have enough in the pipeline to overcome a few departures from that group. Guys like Trey Flowers, Cyrus Jones, Vincent Valentine and Eric Rowe are some who could potentially take elevated roles in 2017 if guys leave.

But make no mistake, change is coming and what the Patriots have right now on defense is as experienced and talented a group on paper as they’ve had since the mid-2000’s. We knew coming into the season that this defense had the chance to be special. This was supposed to be peak Patriots defense for the second time in Bill Belichick’s reign. That’s what happens when you return everyone except one defensive end, and add even more talented contributors like Long and Valentine.

But what is troubling is similar issues continue to haunt this defense and I can’t help but wonder if they’ll truly reach the level Patriots fan believed them capable of this offseason.

[Read more…] about Will the Patriots Defense Reach Their Potential in 2016?

Breaking Down the Patriots Four-Drive Defensive Breakdown

by

Quick turnaround this week so I’m jumping right in on the film review (before the A22 is released) to take a closer look at the last four Dolphins’ drives of the game. Miami scored three-straight touchdowns on 70-plus yard drives that ranged from five plays to nine plays, turning what should’ve been a blowout into a game that went down to the final play.

The Dolphins moved the ball with frightening ease, but it’s important to remember this is how the Patriots defense started off the game:

  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Fumble
  • Interception
  • Field Goal

The Patriots defense is far better than what they showed on the final four drives before the game-sealing interception.

Let’s take a closer look at what was going on:

[Read more…] about Breaking Down the Patriots Four-Drive Defensive Breakdown

Patriots vs. Cardinals Film Review: Defense Edition

by

It’s always exciting when the Patriots unveil their fully operational defense in the first game of the season, but there wasn’t much surprise this year. The Pats continued to stick to their Cover-1 Man coverage that they’ve played extensively the last two seasons. There were occasional zone coverages and blitzes mixed in, but otherwise it was about lining up and forcing their receivers to beat our cornerbacks.

The real fun of the defense is in the front seven, where you have a collection of athletic pieces who can all rush the passer or drop into pass coverage on any given down. They’ll show a front like the one below, and then let the offense figure out who’s going where. On this particular play, Flowers, Collins and Hightower all drop, leaving a three man rush. Chris Long got the one-on-one and not only got the sack but drew a facemask.

Cardinals Wk 1 Defensive Front

So there you have it. Five guys on the LOS and the offense has to figure out how to block who’s coming after the snap. This is where the magic of this Patriots defense lies and when Rob Ninkovich returns and if Barkevious Mingo finds a defensive role, they’ll have another two pieces to play with like this.

The other fun things they can do are fake a coverage drop, then come on a delayed blitz, or just the opposite, start to come, then stop and drop. This allows the defense to stick to their conservative roots of mostly four- and three-man rushes, but makes the front so fluid it creates more opportunities for free rushers.

Here are some more observations about the defense after reviewing the All-22 film…

[Read more…] about Patriots vs. Cardinals Film Review: Defense Edition

Breaking Down Patriots’ Preseason Defense

by

Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 10.16.31 AMEveryone knows the Patriots preseason defense is vanilla ice cream. You’re not going to unveil some revolutionary new tactic or formation when it doesn’t matter. And Bill Belichick is never one to tip his hand if he has something interesting brewing.

It seems like every season everyone gets so wrapped up in 3-4 vs. 4-3, who’s standing up, etc. that we get confused trying to figure out something that is far less complicated than we’re all making it out to be.

Here’s the biggest thing to remember — the Patriots were in sub defense for 84 percent of the snaps in 2016. They’ve been trending that way since 2009. So any discussion of 3-4 vs. 4-3 applies to less than 15 percent of the snaps. And the truth is that the techniques in both these defenses are the same. Just because one guy is standing up or has his hand down doesn’t make much difference.

For all the talk of “Ninkovich is playing linebacker!!”, here he is, playing linebacker in the 4-3 under in 2011, just like McClellin was doing last week.

Patriots Preseason Defense

So here’s a look at the vanilla base schemes the Patriots defense ran against the Saints, using the plays right out of Bill Belichick’s 1997 Jets playbook.

[Read more…] about Breaking Down Patriots’ Preseason Defense

Belichick’s 2.0 Patriots Defense Hitting Their Prime

by

Remember Gary Guyton?

One of the major influences on why I started blogging about the Patriots was to see how Bill Belichick would execute a full defensive turnover with absolute power. How many times in football history has a coach had full control to rebuild a defense from scratch? Few have that kind of longevity, and while Tom Brady has been Belichick’s constant on the offensive side of the ball, the defense barely resembles what it looked like just five short years ago.

Despite the record-setting 2007 season, the Patriots defense was getting old and slow. A lot of their deficiencies were covered by their unstoppable offense. By 2008 the cracks were even more apparent, especially without Asante Samuel. That offseason things went into full turnover mode.

Mike Vrabel was traded. Rodney Harrison, Rosevelt Colvin, and Tedy Bruschi retired. Richard Seymour was traded. And just like that, the dynasty defense was no more.

Jerod Mayo and Vince Wilfork were the cogs to build around, but the holes around them from 2009-2012 were glaring. It was a revolving door in the secondary, where no cornerback or safety seemed to stick outside of Devin McCourty. Gary Guyton and Tully Banta-Cain played prominent roles. Street free agents were regularly making starting appearances. It was ugly.

By the grace of Tom Brady, the Patriots offense was just so good, the team glided through this down period of having a terrible defense. They gave up a ton of yards and more big plays than anyone else from 2009-2012, and were near the bottom of the league on third down. They still won 49 games because they forced turnovers and had Brady.

[Read more…] about Belichick’s 2.0 Patriots Defense Hitting Their Prime

Patriots 2016 Preview: Defensive Overview

by

We’re just 17 days away from the start of Patriots training camp! The offseason always seems so long but somehow goes by so quickly. As we gear up for a huge new season here on the blog (more on that in the coming days), I’m posting some excerpts from my 40-page Patriots 2016 preview.

Here’s my defensive overview,  you can buy a digital copy of the preview book its entirety here for just $4.

2015 Defensive Statistical Rankings

Overall DVOA – 12th           Yards-per-Game – 24th (339.4)

Passing DVOA – 10th           Points-per-Game – 10th (19.7)

Running DVOA – 13th          Third Down – 10th (37 percent)

Fourth Down –  10th (44 percent)

The Patriots had perhaps their best defensive season since the dynasty days in 2015. After much concern about transitioning from Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner, the Pats seamlessly transitioned to Malcolm Butler and Logan Ryan, and saw their third down defense enter the top-10 in the NFL after being ranked 16th in 2015.

Most encouraging was that the Pats stuck primarily with the Cover-1 Robber defense that they used most often in 2014 as well. Man defense is critical in today’s NFL and the Pats held up well minimizing zone defenses that can be picked apart.

Jamie CollinsWhile the offense was decimated with injuries, the defense had better injury luck. Both Jamie Collins and Dont’a Hightower missed some games, but everyone was available for the playoffs and they turned in two solid performances.

With everyone returning except Chandler Jones, there’s little reason to think they won’t be even better this year.

One factor could be a significantly tougher schedule in 2016. Instead of cake walks with the AFC South and NFC East, they’ll now have to face the daunting NFC West and AFC North, which feature a number of top quarterbacks and difficult matchups.

The major additions on defense include Chris Long, Shea McClellin and Terrence Knighton. While Rob Ninkovich and Jabaal Sheard should take the starting defensive end roles, Long is more than capable as the designated pass rusher and rotational defensive end.

Prior to two years of injury, Long showed little sign of dropoff in an otherwise healthy career. He’ll surprise anyone writing him off and I expect this trio to be even better than they were with Chandler Jones. By the end of 2015, Sheard had surpassed Jones on the depth chart anyway, playing more snaps in both playoff games.

McClellin gives the Patriots a third linebacker/edge hybrid player who can do a little of everything like Hightower and Collins, though he worked with the defensive ends in minicamp. He also gives them long term insurance as both Collins and Hightower enter the final years of their deals (though I’d expect both to re-sign before the 2016 season is done).

Acquiring Knighton, picking up Alan Branch’s option, the release of Dominique Easley and the drafting of Vincent Valentine all signal the direction of the Patriots’ defense schematically. No longer are they interested in undersized three-technique penetrators.

No, now it’s now all about size in the middle and essentially a paired down version of Belichick’s old 3-4 defense. Malcom Brown is an outstanding athlete, and though he doesn’t quite have the height of the other three tackles, he and the others will be able to occupy the middle of offensive lines while the linebackers and defensive ends make the plays.

It’s exciting to return nearly the entire defense, along with some solid additions in both free agency and the draft who should contribute immediately. Expectations should be through the roof, but they’ll be tested right out of the gate and see every variation of offense that exists in the NFL. They’re built to deal with all of them.