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Analysis

Bend Don’t Break Report: How 2017 Pats D Stacks Up

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Bend Don’t Break is what frustrated fans know as the Patriots’ favored style of defensive strategy. They don’t sell out by sending a ton of pressure, instead they preach not getting beat deep and good tackling. That forces opposing offenses to continually execute, something most of them can’t do for any sustained period without mistakes, whether it’s third-down red-zone stops, takeaways or missed field goals.

Sometimes, often on the first drive of the game, opponents seem to move the ball right down the field, only to stall out and have to settle for a field goal or worse. From there the Patriots’ constriction begins, often aided by turnovers, and that simply gives Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offense enough margin to win the game.

But the BDB leaves a bad taste in many dismissive minds. That’s because the Pats always tend to give up yards. In nine of the last 16 seasons they were in the bottom half of the league in yards-per-drive. The last two seasons saw dramatic improvement, with them finishing 7th in 2015 and 8th in 2016, their best back-to-back seasons under Belichick. Only once (2003) were they inside the top five at 4th.

Your eyes are not deceiving you. Teams consistently move the ball on New England’s defense. They just don’t score, and that’s the Bend Don’t Break.

So how does the 2017 team stack up so far? It’s developed from a total Bend AND Break edition early in the season to one far more typical of the last 16 years of Patriots defenses. Let’s take a look:

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The Patriots Defense is Pretty Damn Good After All

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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.

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Is 2017 Most Balanced Patriots Passing Attack Ever?

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The Patriots offense suffered a devastating blow in preseason when Julian Edelman tore his ACL. Edelman was the engine that made the offense go, the guy who made the tough catches in the biggest moments and without him there wouldn’t be two more banners hanging over Gillette Stadium

However this season the Patriots were uniquely prepared for such a loss. They added two very good running backs to go with two they already had, and gave up a first round pick for the explosive Brandin Cooks. Even after Malcolm Mitchell, a promising rookie from 2016, started the season on IR, the Patriots still had enough depth with Chris Hogan and in-season acquisition Phillip Dorsett to keep the passing offense going.

With their best receiver missing the Patriots have almost become harder to defend. We all remember the original Tom Brady motto — that his favorite receiver was the open one. Well in 2017 that might be truer than ever, as Brady has spread the ball around far more evenly than any recent season. This has made the Patriots offense even harder to stop because there’s no one to key on.

Let’s take a closer look this devastating balance that is making 2017 one of the most unique years of the Brady offense and how it stacks up historically.

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The Offensive Line’s Stellar Play Against Von and the Broncos

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The Patriots completely dominated the Broncos on Sunday night to the tune of a 41-16 drubbing that essentially eliminated Denver from playoff contention after just nine weeks (!). Throughout the week, heavy emphasis was placed on Brady’s return to Mile High Stadium, his personal “House of Horrors”, a stadium in which he is just 3-7 lifetime. However, Brady shredded the Broncos vaunted defense, throwing for 266 yards and three touchdowns in the blowout, thanks in large part to the play of his offensive line, who had another stellar game overall on Sunday night.

Brady was sacked just once against the Broncos, a play in which James White could not pick up the blitzing Justin Simmons, and Brady was only three times all night, a remarkable achievement when playing against one of the best pass-rushers in recent memory without your starting right tackle. Brady was hit on just 11.4% of his drop backs, which is a great rate when considering the percentage Brady has been hit in previous games in Denver.

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Patriots Bring Back Martellus Bennett

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnl6t27YJHg

I didn’t want to get my hopes up about the Patriots re-acquiring Marty Bennett after he was released by Green Bay. It seemed like another team higher in the waiver priority would make a claim on him, if not just to make sure he didn’t go to the Patriots.

But alas, Adam Schefter reported that the Patriots did in fact claim Bennett, bringing him back to where he won a Super Bowl last season.

It’s a much needed jolt of reinforcement that the Patriots really needed. Were they still doing okay without Julian Edelman? Sure, but recent injuries to Chris Hogan and an unknown timetable if Malcolm Mitchell could return have left them extra thin. The additional struggles to finish off drive with touchdowns only made bringing back Bennett that much more of a slam dunk.

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Pats’ Personnel Dance Continues

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The Patriots’ roster is never really set. We spend all offseason planning which free agents and draftees would make an impact, then football starts, guys start getting hurt and underperforming and all those best laid plans are out the window. This leaves the Patriots to scramble,

It seems like almost every year the Patriots are picking up some castoff in the middle of the season who ends up becoming a contributor despite missing all of training camp and being a part of no one’s big plans for the season.

The roster juggling has continued this week for the Pats, with Shea McClelin suffering a setback, Ricky Jean Francois joining the team and Martellus Bennett suddenly becoming available after he was cut last night by the Packers.

Let’s take a quick look at those three and how they could impact the rest of the Patriots season.

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Patriots Mid-Season Awards

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The Patriots play five of their next six games on the road before finishing the season with back-to-back home games. It will be a difficult stretch that defines the 2017 Patriots and either reinforces or changes everything we think we’ve come to know about this team.

There’s no question, the 2017 Pats were hit hard by injuries and departures and got off to one of their slowest starts in years. Of course, we’re all well aware by now that it’s not the start that matters but the finish.

But by now the half season has played out in a way slightly different than we’ve come to expect. All teams are unique, but the 2017 Pats version is in many ways a new variation. The deep passing game is suddenly a viable weapon. There are four running backs who can do it all. And then there’s the defense, with many new faces up front leading the way, while the expensive veteran secondary looked lost and uncoordinated through much of the first eight games.

Let’s break the first half of the season down in everyone’s favorite way — handing out awards!

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