Hopefully, when we get those awesome youtube videos of the 2017-18 Championship New England Patriots, they will be liberally spiced with the "worst defense ever" commentary from this week!And coming off a SB win and the offseason everyone thought we had exacerbates it.
That's happens a lot in 4th quarters of games where teams are trying to come back. Trying to extrapolate the quarter to the game doesn't work.if winston plays the first 3 qtrs like he played the last one they give up 800 yards passing.
Like they did last night?I have zero confidence in this D to make a stop with the game on the line.
If Jose Altuve plays every game like he did yesterday he'll hit 486 home runs.if winston plays the first 3 qtrs like he played the last one they give up 800 yards passing.
So you fell asleep last night or are you watching on your DVR for the first time? Jesus guys, bring SOMETHING to the table. You literally just said you have no confidence that they can do something they just did.I have zero confidence in this D to make a stop with the game on the line.
Exactly.The biggest problem that this defense has had all season was terrible communication. That has resulted in tons of big plays and boatloads of points allowed.
Despite have a short week to address this shortcoming, they basically did. They gave up 14 points.
I'm not saying that everything on defense is now running like a Swiss car or anything, bit I think that it's fair to say that OL is shooting up the big board of problems.
When your defense gives up 14, it's not the problem.
I was thinking the same. Perhaps he was giving him a cushion because he thought that there was no way they were going to drive the field twice by keeping everything in front of them and didn't want to get burned over the top with no safety help?So, I was stuck watching the game on a plane last night, and it was about 2 seconds of freeze for every two seconds of streaming. One of the longer freezes was when the Bucs were looking at 3rd and 2 in the third quarter, and DeSean Jackson is all alone on his side of the field with Butler, who was giving him literally a 10-yard cushion. I'm screaming that he's going to get an easy first down on the slant, and mine is no great football mind. When the picture unfroze, Jackson had picked up 41 yards. I guess my point is, too frequently this defense looks like it's not even aware of the game situation.
Hreres the play:
The stats would look even better if the Pats had challenged (and won) the catch by Jackson deep down the right sideline at 2:30 remaining in the 4th. This was the play immediately following the Pats' successful challenge. From the sideline camera replay it sure looked like the ball bobbled loose when Jackson hit the turf. The official NFL.com replay conveniently fades to black while Jackson is still standing up.Exactly.
Also, while the total yard stats don't look great they were pretty excellent through three quarters and they were allowed over 12 drives, which is a lot. The Patriots offense didn't give this defense much help in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter when they picked 42 yards total on three drives and couldn't hold the ball.
I might have gone with "Swiss watch", there but I guess a Swiss car is better than Swiss cheese when it comes to analogies to the Pat's defense.The biggest problem that this defense has had all season was terrible communication. That has resulted in tons of big plays and boatloads of points allowed.
Despite have a short week to address this shortcoming, they basically did. They gave up 14 points.
I'm not saying that everything on defense is now running like a Swiss car or anything, bit I think that it's fair to say that OL is shooting up the big board of problems.
When your defense gives up 14, it's not the problem.
This was probably the biggest breakdown of the game so I don't think its fair to say that its indicative of the defense frequently looking like they were unaware of the game situation (at least in this game).So, I was stuck watching the game on a plane last night, and it was about 2 seconds of freeze for every two seconds of streaming. One of the longer freezes was when the Bucs were looking at 3rd and 2 in the third quarter, and DeSean Jackson is all alone on his side of the field with Butler, who was giving him literally a 10-yard cushion. I'm screaming that he's going to get an easy first down on the slant, and mine is no great football mind. When the picture unfroze, Jackson had picked up 41 yards. I guess my point is, too frequently this defense looks like it's not even aware of the game situation.
Hreres the play:
It looks to me like the lack of communication is leading to a lack of confidence and guys either trying to do too much or hesitating a step even when they are doing their job. In the NFL that'll make you look pretty bad, especially with how much the pats change focus from week to week. Hopefully this game will help them gel and gain some confidence so they can just diagnose plays and react, rather than playing like they have.The biggest problem that this defense has had all season was terrible communication. That has resulted in tons of big plays and boatloads of points allowed.
Despite have a short week to address this shortcoming, they basically did. They gave up 14 points.
I'm not saying that everything on defense is now running like a Swiss car or anything, bit I think that it's fair to say that OL is shooting up the big board of problems.
When your defense gives up 14, it's not the problem.
Will that improvement be able to extend to Gilmore if he hasn't been able even to practice for the last 10 days?It was a joke. Although everyone admitted communication difficulties, and Butler in today's Globe said they had been greatly improved in that regard.
It won't in the sense they won't just keep throwing him out there is he keeps playing terrible or isnt being coachable just because he has a big contract. But the paycheck and free agency pursuit are indicative of what the team thinks of Gilmore's talent level. So I think he's gonna be out there the bulk of the time when he gets healthy. At least initially, I dont think they are gonna be to the point where he's losing snaps to Bademosi.Paychecks won't factor in to Gilmore getting reps once healthy. He's going to have to earn them.
To update this...Defense by the numbers:
First 4 games (3 home, 1 road):
- 32.0 pts/g
- 456.8 yds/g
- 5 turnovers (1.3/g)
Last 3 games (1 home, 2 road):
- 12.7 pts/g
- 386.7 yds/g
- 3 turnovers (1.0/g)
Drives/Results:
Game 1 - KC
- 14 drives
- 6 TD (42.9%)
- 0 FG (0.0%) - 42.9% scoring drives
- 6 punts (42.9%)
- 1 turnover (7.1%)
- 0 missed FG
- 1 downs/half/game (7.1%)
Game 2 - NO
- 10 drives
- 2 TD (20.0%)
- 2 FG (20.0%) - 40.0% scoring drives
- 3 punts (30.0%)
- 0 turnovers
- 1 missed FG (10.0%)
- 2 downs/half/game (20.0%)
Game 3 - Houston
- 12 drives
- 2 TD (16.7%)
- 4 FG (33.3%) - 50% scoring drives
- 4 punts (33.3%)
- 2 turnovers (16.7%)
- 0 missed FG
- 0 downs/half/game
Game 4 - Carolina
- 9 drives
- 4 TD (44.4%)
- 2 FG (22.2%) - 66.7% scoring drives
- 1 punt (11.1%)
- 2 turnovers (22.2%)
- 0 missed FG
- 0 downs/half/game
Game 5 - TB
- 12 drives
- 2 TD (16.7%)
- 0 FG (0.0%) - 16.7% scoring drives
- 6 punts (50.0%)
- 0 turnovers
- 3 missed FG (25.0%)
- 1 downs/half/game (8.3%)
Game 6 - NYJ
- 12 drives
- 2 TD (16.7%)
- 1 FG (8.3%) - 25.0% scoring drives
- 4 punts (33.3%)
- 3 turnovers (25.0%)
- 2 downs/half/game (16.7%)
Game 7 - Atlanta
- 9 drives
- 1 TD (11.0%)
- 0 FG (0.0%) - 11.0% scoring drives
- 2 punts (22.2%)
- 0 turnovers
- 2 missed FG (22.2%)
- 3 downs/half/game (33.3%)
In the first four games:
- Opponents had 45 drives
- Opponents scored TD on 14 drives (31.1%)
- Opponents scored FG on 8 drives (17.8%)
- Opponents scored points on 22 drives (48.9%)
In the last three games:
- Opponents had 33 drives
- Opponents scored TD on 5 drives (15.2%)
- Opponents scored FG on 1 drive (3.0%)
- Opponents scored points on 6 drives (18.2%)
Another way to look at it....Here's their opponents, their points allowed, relative to those opponents' scoring average points scored against non-Patriots' opponents:
First four weeks
- KC: 42 vs NE, 27.5 vs others (+14.5 against NE)
- NO: 20 vs NE, 30.2 vs others (-20.2 against NE)
- Hou: 33 vs NE, 28.8 vs others (+4.2 against NE)
- Car: 33 vs NE, 16.3 vs others (+16.7 against NE)
- AVG: 32.0 vs NE, 25.7 vs others (+6.3 against NE)
Last three weeks
- TB: 14 vs NE, 26.2 vs others (-12.2 against NE)
- NYJ: 17 vs NE, 20.0 vs others (-3.0 against NE)
- Atl: 7 vs NE, 24.2 vs others (-17.2 against NE)
- AVG: 12.7 vs NE, 23.5 vs others (-10.8 against NE)
So yeah, the defense is playing MUCH MUCH MUCH better the last three weeks.
That's not really what happened today though, right? LA's two TD drives were two plays and three plays. They allowed the big play, they just played well otherwise.I don't care how it happens so holding the last 4 opponents under 20 points is a great sign. Stop the big plays and magically this defense starts holding teams down to point totals similar to typical BB defenses.
87 yard TD aside, they played very well on defense today. My comment was an overall assessment of the last 4 weeks versus the first 4. If they can eliminate the "big play" and make the opposing offense put together sustained drives they will be doing their job.That's not really what happened today though, right? LA's two TD drives were two plays and three plays. They allowed the big play, they just played well otherwise.
One was a legit block last week, this week it may have been another block.Jeezus, there is a lot of missed FG luck the past four weeks.
Mentioned this in the game thread, but when they showed the starting lineups on CBS yesterday, they had 5 DBs (DMC, Chung, Harmon, Butler, Gilmore) and only two LBs (Van Noy and I don't even remember who).Who needs linebackers?