Secondary: What goes on back there? – Patriots – Boston.com

Time to officially bury the “bend don’t break”. Now I know everyone will be killing the secondary this week, heck, we were leading the charge on the whole deep ball thing two weeks ago, but really if the Patriots can fix this one thing it’s going to make them a lot better. 

The formula for being moderately successful defensively is fairly simple: don’t give up big plays. It’s the mantra of coach Bill Belichick. The play calls by defensive coordinator Matt Patricia are almost always conservative, specifically to minimize risk for big plays that can swing a game. Yet the Patriots keep allowing them. And opponents know they are going to give them up if the Patriots don’t develop a consistent pass rush that can’t do more than spark up here or there.