If there’s one point I think Bill Belichick might be hammering home this week is just how shredded the Pats defense was by the Ravens back in Week 3.
Chew on some of these numbers:
- Flacco 382 yards passing.
- Ravens 503 yards total offense.
- Flacco 9.7 yards/attempt.
- Ravens 4.7 yards per rushing attempt.
- Patriots Defense 0 Sacks. 1 QB hit.
- Ravens 4 80-plus yard touchdown drives.
Some other things of note from Pro Football Focus:
- Just one Patriot defender “in the green” for grading out above average: Devin McCourty.
- 6 Patriots defensive starters “in the red” for grading out below average.
And despite all this awfulness the Patriots still only lost by one point as time expired. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
We should certainly expect a better performance from the Pats D, and not just because they’ve replaced/moved 4 of their five top defensive backs since the last game.