defense

This won’t last forever but I’m sure enjoying it…

If this is how the Patriots’ defense is going to play this season, the N.F.L. could save us all time and give Robert Kraft the Lombardi Trophy right now. Bill Belichick’s men weren’t spectacular at Tennessee, but they were solid. Rock solid. The first-round rookie Chandler Jones stood out in run defense and got pressure on Jake Locker a time or two. Linebackers Jerod Mayo, Brandon Spikes and first-rounder Dont’a Hightower were fantastic at identifying running lanes and keeping everything in front of them in pass defense. The Titans’ offense didn’t do much to challenge this group. Chris Johnson was once again terrible, dancing in the backfield and avoiding contact at all cost. The Patriots didn’t even bother bringing an eighth defender into the box against him. In fact, the Patriots didn’t bother to do anything complex, aside from disguising some of their Cover 3 looks as two-deep zones early in the down. They played a very basic, fundamentally sound brand of football.

Epic breakdown from Frenz here breaking down the nuts and bolts of the transition from the last days of the dynasty defense to what we saw on the field this past Sunday.

This has really been one of my main focuses since I started blogging about the Pats during the 2007 season. The most interesting thing to me is how the current incarnation of the defense was not built in the model of what worked in the early 2000’s, it’s something completely of it’s own.

Still they have a lot of similarities. The nose tackle is arguably the most important piece of the old 3-4 defense, and while that’s no longer the base defense Vince Wilfork is still the most vital piece on the board.

Chandler Jones is a different kind of player than Richard Seymour was, but just as vital in a Willie McGinest-type role at defensive end.

Finally Rodney Harrison was absolutely vital to the old defense as the safety who was most commonly employed in the box or as a “robber”. The biggest question the Pats will have to face next on this defensive evolution is whether or not Patrick Chung is the player that can fill that role long term.

The Patriots played two different sub packages on Sunday – a nickel with cornerback Ras-I Dowling replacing either linebacker Dont’a Hightower or linebacker Brandon Spikes, and a dime with Dowling and safety Tavon Wilson replacing Spikes and Hightower.

Quick look at the Patriots defensive packages on Sunday:

4-3 Base

50-75-74-95

54-55-51

32-28-25-24

Nickel

50-75-96-95

51-55

32-28-25-24-21

Dime

50-75-96-95

51

32-27-28-25-24-21

Of course there are tweaks to these groupings, including using Deaderick instead of Ninkovich for a heavier look, but really it hasn’t been this simple for the Pats on defense in a long time.

The great part of not using a ton of different guys is that it help communication develop. Imagine how well these guys should be working together by January. You can’t put a price on having a defense that is always on the same page. If they can stay healthy this could be a dominant group, and not just this year, but for the next five to ten years.

Linebackers Dont’a Hightower and Brandon Spikes split time in the nickel. Both came off in the dime as Jerod Mayo is the lone all-packages linebacker. … Cornerback Ras-I Dowling was the nickel back, and when he came on to the field, it pushed Kyle Arrington into the slot. … One line of thinking was that maybe Vince Wilfork would see a reduction in snaps with more depth on the line, but that wasn’t the case in the opener. He had a heavy workload. … Jermaine Cunningham saw time at defensive end in the base defense and also as an interior rusher in the dime package, and was productive based on his snaps, also drawing a holding penalty. … The top three safeties – Patrick Chung, Steve Gregory and Tavon Wilson – were part of a rotation.