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Film Review: Patriots D Gives Tom Brady a Chance

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Yes, if there’s one thing people are worried about with the Patriots it’s the defense because you know, after three games and like 150 snaps, they’re last in a lot of stat rankings. But this ignores the fact that without two bend-don’t-break drives in the fourth quarter from the defense that held the Texans to six points instead of 14, Tom Brady never would’ve had a chance for his heroics.

You could also throw the final game-sealing interception in there as a key play from the defense that helped with the win, but you get the point. There is plenty for the defense to get better at, none more important than stopping the big plays, but in this win over the Texans the defense wasn’t just saved by Tom Brady, they made plays when the game was on the line and deserve credit for that.

Here are two plays on the final Texans scoring drive, where they kicked a field goal to go up 33-28.

via NFLGameRewind

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Patriots vs. Jets Film Review: Defense Edition

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The Patriots defense made three big plays against the Jets and it was enough to set the stage for another Tom Brady comeback and then close it out. Overall the Patriots leaned heavily on their zone coverage in this one, especially in the second half, with a focus on putting six defenders in the Jets primary target areas.

It worked because of the brilliant play against the run that made the Jets one-dimensional and heavily reliant on check downs. They had their breakdowns but it worked well enough to win and sparked the team out of their takeaway funk.

Here’s what stood out on the film review of the defense…

— Right off the bat it was apparent that Brown and Branch came to play. Both had maybe their best games in this one, especially against the run, where they were unmovable. Brown has really good low center of gravity and he’s a problem for any two blockers to move off the spot. Meanwhile, when left one-on-one Branch manhandles fools.

— Closely monitoring zone vs. man for this review, and on the first drive they played zone just once, one the first third down which was converted. On the second third down they went to man and good coverage, including a pretty good interior rush by Flowers that drew a hold, didn’t leave Fitz much to work with.

— Elandon Roberts has had his playing time reduced recently, but showed more great anticipation on the first play of the second drive, making the tackle for loss. He’d been quiet the last couple games but it was good to see that kind of play out of him.

roberts

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