The Bend-But-Don’t-Break Defense can drive fans nuts. Thrilling, eye catching hot take, I know.
As the Patriots’ season has gone along through eight games, it certainly has become much less prone to break, and even better, less bendy. Third down defense has steadily gone up (19th in the league, 10th in the last 3 games), red zone stops have steadily gone up (19th in the league, 8th in the last 3 games), and points allowed has been a strength, the Patriots at third in the league as of this writing with 16.5/game behind Minnesota (14.9) and Seattle (15.6).
One more thing has started to tick up in recent weeks, and that is something else that makes a Bend-But-Don’t-Break defense hit the next level: Big Hits!
Not just big hits…but intelligent, punishing, and fundamentally sound big hits. Nothing dirty, nothing late, no launching. Discipline. Growing up playing football, every good coach will give some version of this instruction on hitting the opponent: Hit them clean, make them HATE football.
Let’s go back to a classic. Week 3, 2001: Tom Brady’s first career start. EVERYBODY needs to step up their game…this unproven late round pick is going in for this 0-2 team with a maligned head coach versus a young, Heisman winning quarterback on a hot offense, Peyton Manning. On the second Colts’ snap of the game, the tone for the entire rest of the season is set:
Bryan Cox absolutely LEVELS Jerome Pathon on this play. The crowd goes wild…or at least, they should. I certainly did while watching it live 15 years ago.
This sort of play went on to define the dominant defenses of the early Belichick era. It came to a crest in various games…Super Bowl 36, the 03/04 AFC Championship game against the Colts, 2006 against the Packers.
How about this season? Let’s start with the most recent hit everyone not named Mike Gillislee probably remembers:
Gillislee took himself out of the game after this play, his bell certainly being rung. Hightower wasn’t done:
Jerome Felton took this like a champ, but it was the second loudest pop of the game as far as CBS audio went (for number 1, see above).
Of course, Hightower wasn’t the only guy teeing off on Bills players to set the tone. Elandon Roberts made Eric Wood look like a rag doll on this play:
Let’s hope for a lot more of these tone setting plays by these linebackers for the rest of the season. The whole team feeds off of it. I’m sure we’ll see a few from both teams this Sunday against Seattle.
One more thing before I wrap up here, a few weeks ago, during the weekend of the Bengals game, I was in New Orleans. Patriots fans, you guys represented BIG out there. It was glorious. I was keeping track of the sports paraphernalia that I saw to get a feel for who was around, who goes to New Orleans, etc. Here was what I saw:
- New Orleans Saints
- LSU
- Patriots (it was a distant third, but still easily third)
- Steelers (in an even more distant fourth)
I saw a lot of you guys seeking each other out for high fives, quick “isn’t this awesome?!” discussions, and more. Great to see everyone represent on the road like that!