“I think you can talk about the pass defense, but at the same time, you need to also talk about the pass rush,” Parcells said. “I know Bill addressed that this past season with the addition of a few guys like Chandler Jones, but I think they could use another guy coming off that edge. They could use another pressure player off the corner.”
“Bill knows what the problems are, and he’s better than just about anyone when it comes to identifying the problems and going about trying to fix it and adjust it,” Parcells said. “With the wide-open offenses, the problems with pass defense are everywhere. It’s just a matter of making the adjustments and seeing who can play best late in the season, and I’m confident that Bill will have them headed in the right direction.”
new england patriots
New England Patriots with another ugly win over the Buffalo Bills
I’m still trying to wrap my head around this one. The Bills had:
- 481 yards of offense
- 7 of 11 on Third Down
- 5.8 yards per rush attempt
Yet it was losing the turnover battle 3-0 that did them in.
The Patriots for their part were pretty good on the area that has haunted them all year, twenty-plus passing plays, yet seemingly went to sleep in every other area.
I don’t really know where to start. The run defense? The pass rush outside a few plays? The inability to cover tight ends or anyone else in the middle of the field?
And then there’s the offense, who still just couldn’t put the game away, even when they had a chance from the four yard line.
It was all brutal. And I don’t think anyone feels confident in stopping Andrew Luck or anyone else at this point.
But it’s a tough way to go through a football season when you know at any moment your defense could just be invisible.
Had the Pats lost today, it would’ve looked exactly like every other loss this year and that is a disturbing trend that continues. The 2012 Pats have just seemed to run out of gas at the end and struggles closing games out.
Relying on turnovers this much is a dangerous way to play, but they got one against the Bills and finished.
6-3. I’ll take it.
But really, let’s hope Aqib Talib adds something. Anything.
Buffalo Bills vs. New England Patriots: Live Score, Highlights and Analysis
Buffalo Bills vs. New England Patriots: Live Score, Highlights and Analysis
We’re live blogging today!
The Best of PatsPropaganda This Week
Usually there isn’t much to talk about after the Sunday bye since everything was already over-discussed last week. But here’s a collection of the best reads from around the Patriots blogosphere…
PatsPropaganda/Mike D. Analysis
5 Points of Emphasis for Patriots vs. Bills
PatsPropaganda & Frenz Podcast: 11/7 Bills Preview 11am EST!
How Do the Patriots Match Up Against Potential Playoff, Super Bowl Opponents? | Bleacher Report
Another happy DYJ tee customer, pick one up while supplies last!
Local/National Coverage
Bruschi’s Breakdown – Buffalo Bills shouldn’t pose threat to New England Patriots – ESPN Boston
Sketching out the New England Patriots Ideal Depth Chart in the Secondary | Bleacher Report
Defensive snapshot via playing time – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
5 Points of Emphasis for Patriots vs. Bills
The Patriots get started on their second half of the season this weekend, and it comes against the Bills, a divisional opponent who almost always give them a tough time.
In Week Four the Patriots nailed all of our five keys, especially with the dominance of the ground game. What could be different this time? Let’s break it down…
1. Take what the Bills defense gives – Perhaps the biggest question this time around is whether the Bills continue to go with more defensive backs and a lighter lineup like they did last time and got run all over, or if they’ll go with more of their base defense and try a more balances approach. From the Pats perspective it doesn’t really matter, because the Pats can attack them where ever they’re most susceptible. But the fact is the Bills are the worst run defense in football and their pass defense isn’t much better. The Pats can plan for a balanced attack and force the Bills to figure out how to stop them.
2. Win the turnover battle – This could obviously be a key any week but against a team like the Bills it’s especially important. There’s no question that the Bills offense will turn the ball over, so the Patriots must take care of the football. If you want to see what can happen when the Pats don’t hold on to the football against the Bills look no further than the 21-7 lead the Bills had in the third quarter last time. Fumbles by Gronk and Welker gave away the lead and momentum and as soon as the Pats stopped fumbling the game wasn’t even close.
3. No break out games for Williams and Williams – The Pats offensive line totally shut down Mario and Kyle Williams in the first meeting, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy this time around. Everyone knows that beating the Pats starts and ends with getting pressure on Brady, and the Williamses are two guys that could cause a lot of problems if the Patriots offensive line is out of sync. Hopefully Logan Mankins should be back and that will give them a boost.
4. Only three twenty-plus passes – This could continue to be a key if the Patriots can’t lock down their biggest problem area, preventing the deep ball. Assuming the Patriots run defense is able to shut down CJ Spiller (no easy task by any means), it will just come down to fixing the one big weakness on the team. Who knows what the secondary will look like from a personnel standpoint, but last time around they gave up their season second-worst amount of bombs (7) to the Bills. Cutting that to 3 would be a positive step.
5. Finish – Despite the Patriots historical dominance over the Bills in the last decade a good portion of the games were significantly closer than their scores might indicated. Let’s not forget Brady had his best comeback of all time against the Bills in the 2009 opener, and the first game this year looked pretty grim as well before the Patriots turned it around. If there’s one key that will be vitally important to the Patriots Super Bowl chances it’s to finish on both sides of the ball.
Let’s talk Patriots! Q & A Friday is a go!
“New England Patriots. The organization does a good job of bringing guys in and plugging them in different places and getting it done. The backfield for instance—they’re shuffling that around. And some of the receivers when Tom Brady won the Super Bowl, they weren’t huge names, but that got it done.” — NFC defensive player