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The 2012 Patriots had the sixth-best rush defense in the league at 3.9 yards per rush. (Last season, the Patriots’ rush defense allowed 4.6 yards per rush, ranked 24th in the NFL.) In addition, despite facing 10 more rushes in the regular season this year (415) than last year (405), the Patriots’ defense allowed five rushes of at least 20 yards this season, half as many as last year. While the New England pass defense struggled at times, the run defense was equal to the task for most of the 2012 season. Only one running back (Ray Rice) hit them for 100 yards or more. (He finished with 101 yards in Baltimore’s win in September.) Defensive lineman Vince Wilfork was his usual steady self up front, while linebacker Brandon Spikes emerged as one of the most potent run stoppers in the league.

patriots – By the numbers: Ten stats that help tell story of 2012 Patriots – WEEI | Christopher Price

https://www.patspropaganda.com/the-2012-patriots-had-the-sixth-best-rush-defense/

Patriots – By the numbers: Ten stats that help tell story of 2012 Patriots – WEEI | Christopher Price

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Patriots – By the numbers: Ten stats that help tell story of 2012 Patriots – WEEI | Christopher Price

If you’re looking for reasons why the future is still bright in New England this would be a good place to start for the offense…

The Patriots ran the ball 523 times during the 2012 regular season – the highest number of carries for a New England team since the 2004 team ran the ball 524 times over the course of the regular season. There was simply no comparison between the 2011 and 2012 running attacks: In the 2011 regular season, the Patriots had 438 carries, 1,764 yards, 4.0 yards per carry and 18 touchdowns. In the 2012 regular season, those numbers jumped to 523 carries, 2,184 yards, 4.2 yards per carry and 25 touchdowns. That’s an increase of six carries per game (from an average of 27 to 33) and 27 yards per game (from 110 yards per game to 137 yards per game), both of which represent sizable increases, particularly in this era of spread offenses. As a group, New England was able to hit 500 carries and 2,100 rushing yards and maintain an average of better than four yards per carry for the third time in the Bill Belichick era.

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Again, having had experience with 3-4 defense, a lot of those guys, the Willie McGinests, the Mike Vrabels, the Rosie [Roosevelt] Colvins, those guys, whether you want to call them outside linebackers, defensive ends, they essentially line up in the same spot and do a lot of the same things. There has to be like 80, 90 percent carryover between those positions. Now you have some coverage responsibilities that maybe a 3-4 linebacker has that some 4-3 ends don’t have although teams are dropping 4-3 ends off too so it kind of is the same. But I’d say more of it in 3-4 but the rest of it, playing at the end of the line, whether they’re up or down or in a 4-3 or 3-4, I think is a matter of semantics.

Bill Belichick Press Conference Transcript

https://www.patspropaganda.com/again-having-had-experience-with-3-4-defense-a/

In their biggest game, the Patriots failed to measure up – Patriots – Boston.com

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In their biggest game, the Patriots failed to measure up – Patriots – Boston.com

This one is loaded with the unfortunate truth, too much interesting stuff to pull any nuggets but let’s just sum it up with this one:

The Patriots played their worst game of the season on offense and defense, weren’t exactly helped out by the coaches, still had multiple chances to be in the game at the end, and failed to take advantage.