I remember his first game against – we played Buffalo at home. I think it was the third game of the season. He had a similar-type run play for a touchdown. We kind of joked on the sideline, (former offensive coordinator) Billy (O’Brien) and I, we kind of said, ‘The legend is born.’ We saw him that week in practice, what he was capable of doing, and said, ‘Why did the Jets release that guy?’ They had him playing receiver and he was a running back in college.
Patriots defense was indeed bad, but will likely rebound – Patriots – Boston.com
Patriots defense was indeed bad, but will likely rebound – Patriots – Boston.com
As always the final word of the week on last weekend’s debacle comes from Greg Bedard and his thorough breakdown confirms much of what I thought I saw. No one is going to ever say the 2012 Patriots defense is elite but usually they’re okay, but against the Bills they just had a horrible game. That happens to every defense, even the elite ones. It’s just when you’re average to begin with your bad games look like football blasphemy as it did with the Pats.
So let’s put this one behind us and try to get back on the train of improvement.
Give a good portion of the blame to the players, who failed to perform the fundamental duties of the defense, things they had no problem doing before Sunday. They were the ones who missed a season-high 15 tackles (on 10 plays), which gave the Bills another 70 yards of offense. They were the ones who at times totally disregarded their gap and edge responsibilities against the run, and in pass coverage were often more concerned with what was happening in the backfield instead of on the routes developing in the acreage behind them. They alone are responsible for the undisciplined penalties that gave the Bills free yardage and moved the chains. But the coaches must also share in the blame. The coverage players looked lost trying to sort out some of the bunch concepts the Bills used through the air. The Bills did absolutely nothing new. The Patriots obviously weren’t drilled properly. There was a plethora of communication mistakes that showed a lack of preparation. And the Patriots coaches apparently didn’t have much up their sleeve, either, because there were hardly any adjustments made. No extra pressures dialed up (five blitzes total, or 10.2 percent), and the same vanilla coverages (mostly Cover 3 with a safety and two cornerbacks playing over the top) for much of the game. However, if recent history is any judge, there is reason to believe the Patriots will right the ship.
Too many problems to choose from – BostonHerald.com
Too many problems to choose from – BostonHerald.com
Nice breakdown here of all the breakdowns. Look I know that was a travesty of defense on Sunday, but let’s also chalk it up to just a game where an already suspect defense was off, making it look even worse than it already is. You need to look no further than tackling, something that the Patriots are good at. This defense is what it is and that was a painful game to watch, but they’re really not that bad.
Run game struggles? No easy answers there, as a number of components played a part, from not “setting the edge” on a month’s worth of lost force plays, to poor tackling pursuit angles, to the actual tackling itself, to the quality of the pursuit, to the inability to get off blocks at different times on all three levels. The secondary is its own briar patch, and coverage matchup problems within the linebacker group were every bit as prevalent as guys getting beat at the corner or safety position. Are linebackers not a part of the coverage? Both groups had problems. Multiple corners seemed to develop a newfound love for “peeking,” or taking their eyes off their coverage for just enough time to lose their receiver — something that through all the growing pains thus far with this young group, I hadn’t seen as a persistent issue.
