Prelude To A Title, Part III: Patriots' Defense Belongs In Elite Class With Jags, Vikes And Eagles

The New England Patriots' defense allowed 202 total yards and two touchdowns combined in the first and fourth quarters to the Tennessee Titans in Saturday night's divisional round playoff game at Gillette Stadium.

In between, the Patriots shut them down and shut them out.

Once they spotted the Titans a seven-point lead to close out the opening frame on an eleven-play, ninety-five yard drive, Tennessee's offense ran just one meaningful play in Patriots' territory for the rest of the game, were forced into six three-and-outs and allowed quarterback Marcus Mariota to be sacked eight times as New England cruised to their seventh straight conference championship game berth...

Early season addition Marquis Flowers embodies Patriots' philosophy

...their 35-14 victory setting up a meeting with the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars for the right to advance to Super Bowl 52 in Minneapolis early next month.

In many ways, the game played out in anything but typical fashion for these Patriots. Usually, their script sees New England on offense driving down the field to take an early lead, looking increasingly complacent in bogging down twice or thrice before catching their footing and timing midway through the second quarter and scoring points in bunches...

...while on defense the Patriots usually allow plenty of yardage between the twenties and clamping down once they allow the opposition entrance to the red zone.

But on Saturday, both the offense and the defense came out flat, with only punter Ryan Allen and the special teams seeming on track, pinning the Titans inside their own ten yard line twice after two fruitless possessions on offense - but the second time Mariota led Tennessee on an eleven-play, 95 yard touchdown drive to take the early lead.

But that was the last time the Titans would even get within sniffing distance of Patriots' territory until garbage time.

From the end of the first quarter until there was less than four minutes left in the game, the Titans had seven possessions to work with, but managed only 35 total yards in that span and actually lost yardage on five of those, thanks to a persistent Patriots' pass rush that pummeled Mariota mercilessly - as the third-year signal caller was dealing with three major issues.

First was the fact that New England head ball coach Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia were obviously keying on limiting feed-bag runner Derrick Henry's effectiveness in the ground game, as they held him to just 28 yards on 12 carries for a 2.3 yards per carry average - then Mariota tweaked his quad at some point in the opening quarter which affected his mobility.

Third, and most importantly, was that linebacker Kyle Van Noy was assigned to mirror the shifty Mariota and not let him step up and run to the sticks nor escape and extend into the flat. Once Van Noy had him under wraps, the Titans' offense went into early hibernation while Tom Brady and the New England offense shifted into overdrive scoring, 35 unanswered points to send the game Titans back to Tennessee.

The eight sacks - a record for a Patriots' team in the postseason - epitomized the defensive success, as there was a sack of Mariota in every one of their second half possessions, leading to dismal yardage totals on drives with -2, -7, -6 and 14 yards, in order, before their garbage time drive that went 80 yards in fifteen plays against a three-deep prevent shell for a meaningless score.

It's no secret that the Patriots' defensive philosophy always seems to turn out being more of a bend-but-don't-break entity, but there is something very special about the way this particular defense has evolved.

For instance, in holding Mariota to 256 passing yards, the Patriots extended their streak of not allowing a 300 yard passer to eleven games, and have collected a mind-blowing 18 sacks in their last three games, and have won twelve of thirteen games since their horrific four-game drunken stagger to start the season...

...and they are doing it with a patchwork linebacking corps, a solid-and-improving-by-the-game secondary, and with what has evolved into one of the best defensive line rotation schemes in the league.

They knew what their shortcomings were and, with some deft personnel poachings by Belichick and some serious coaching up, they built a unit based on fundamental soundness and hustle rather than notoriety or experience and the result has been - and is - another AFC Championship berth featuring one of the best defenses in the league, and the very best where it really counts.

And where it really counts is on the scoreboard where, since the beginning of October, they have had the top scoring defense in the league, averaging just 14 points per game.

In contrast, the Minnesota Vikings are second at 14.66 points per game allowed, the Jacksonville Jaguars are at 16.16 and the Philadelphia Eagles are at 16.91 - good marks all, and a major reason why all of these teams are still alive closing in on Championship Sunday.

Sure, the Patriots allow plenty more yards both through the air and on the ground, and there is no rhyme nor reason to it, it just is, and the way the philosophy is addressed - playing their best ball after Thanksgiving on an annual basis - it could and should be expected that the defense is right now playing championship level ball, and have the players and planners to beat any team left in the tournament.

All of this despite the fact that if you were to ask a fan from another team to name three players on the New England defensive unit, chances are they'd have to google it - but what this team lacks in star-power they more than make up for in work ethic, intelligence and effort, and for the last seven years and for twelve of Belichick's seventeen years in dynasty mode, it's been enough to compete for a conference title...

...and for seven of those twelve seasons, it has been good enough to play for a world championship - and if history tells us anything, the Patriots have a better shot than anyone of hoisting another Lombardi Trophy three weeks from now.

Prelude To A Championship, Part I: Patriots' Defensive Transformation A Product Of Rudimentary "Belichickianism"

It has been said that defense wins championships - and if this is true, then the New England Patriots are well on their way to a sixth Lombardi trophy.

Ludicrous? Delusional? Not so fast...

The month of September seems so long ago, it's volatility barely a shade in the deep freeze of late December, the uncertainty of the New England Patriots being able to defend their championship has given way to another division title, another first-round bye and another home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

In reality, the month of September and half of October was a protracted, six-week long panic attack, a waking nightmare that saw the Patriots come out firing with their world-class offense having their way with opposing defenses, while their own defense was giving up just as many yards and almost as many points - leaving them at 2-2 with a quarter of the season gone and little hope on the horizon for a defense that was giving up a whopping 32 points per game.

The defensive line was getting no push in the pass rush, the linebackers were free-lancing in an attempt to mitigate the line's woes and the secondary was moth-eaten blanket that belonged stashed in Matt Patricia's attic - but there were legitimate reasons why Patricia's defense was so bad, and it is a testament to the resiliency of the coaching staff that they enter the 2017 post-season as one of the hottest stoppers in football.

For a moment, let's pretend that the first month of the season was just a bad dream and didn't exist, and the schedule was condensed from 16 games down to twelve - the Patriots would have one of the top defenses in the National Football League.

Since the horrors of the first quarter of the season, the Patriots' defense has surrendered just 12.8 points per game - tops in the NFL during that time span - have given up a miserly 201 passing yards per game (5th in the NFL) and 114 yards per game on the ground (11th) - a far cry from the 32 points per game, 324 passing yards and 132 rushing yards that they yielded in the first four games, all of those numbers dead last in the league.

So pronounced was the improvement in such a short length of time that it was as if someone went into the Patriots defensive meeting room and flipped a switch between games four and five, but in reality the improvement was classically Belichickian, as head ball coach Bill Belichick and Patricia revitalized the defense simply by taking it back to it's default settings.

The turning point came on a Thursday night in early October when the Patriots were forced to go into Tampa to play a Buccaneers' team that many felt was on the cusp of greatness.  Coming off of a demoralizing loss to the Carolina Panthers and in danger of falling below .500 with just three days to prepare for the Bucs, Belichick and Patricia were forced to fall back on preseason mode, when fundamentals were stressed above all else...

...which meant taking inventory of what they had in personnel and grooming the game plan to take advantage of what each player's skill set afforded them.

Every team that plays on a Thursday night is forced into their game with mere hours to prepare, and most every team looks to simply survive and don't put a hell of a lot of critique into their performance when their game plan has to be that vanilla, but the Patriots came into that game hungry to regress to basic fundamentals of the game, and it turned their season around.

Most notable was the transformation of the secondary in that game, whom Patricia put in press-man coverage to feed into the strengths of his cornerbacks and trust that his front seven, who to that point hadn't cause any sort of disruption, would be able to control the line of scrimmage by staying disciplined and remaining in their rush lanes.

Good thing, too, as injury has taken it's toll on the defense since and without a straight rudimentary core, the players that Belichick has signed to fill the void would have been useless until they learned the calls.

New England doesn't use exotic coverage looks, and the only disguising they do comes in the form of window dressing with the big nickel, which has become their "Base" alignment - which is also fortunate because Patricia has been able to mitigate the thin depth at linebacker somewhat because in that alignment, the strong safety drops into the box and becomes, essentially, a weak side linebacker.

And linebacker is where the issue in the defense has lied all season long, what with strong-sider Shea McClellin landing on the IR in preseason, with rookie hybrid Derek Rivers, promising weak-sider Harvey Langi and captain Dont'a Hightower following him to the shelf at various points, leaving a core of do-everything 'backer Kyle Van Noy and one-dimensional run-stuffers David Harris and Elandon Roberts.

Conspicuously missing was anyone who could set the edge or cover a back breaking into the flat, and Belichick eventually addressed that by inserting Marquis Flowers (acquired from Cincinnati for a seventh round pick) on the weak side and then poaching Buffalo's practice squad for Eric Lee, who has quickly become a cult figure on the strong side.

But the edge was still not secure and opposing offenses were running off tackle for huge chunks of yardage, so Belichick went out a got him an experienced edge setter, signing former Steeler James Harrison - and judging from his performance against the New York Jets in Sunday's season finale, it would seem that the second level is now well cared for.

It took the entire season, but the Patriots were able to evolve from a cast of individuals to a cohesive unit that now boasts some of the best numbers in the NFL. Usually, the team is what it is going to be by Thanksgiving, but because of the slow start and in-season retooling, that was extended out until Christmas.

It's still not perfect - in fact, a quick look at the depth chart provides the fact that there are eleven players (out of 25) on the defense that were not with the team last season, and only four of those guys had any significant professional playing time before landing in Foxborough...

...yet they sport a pass rush that finished the season tied for sixth in sacks with 42, ranked fourth in the NFL in red zone defense, and second in rushing touchdowns allowed despite being at or near the bottom of just about every other major statistical category - most of that damage done in the first month of the season, and was so pronounced that, residually, they had no chance of recovery.

That said, all that matters is how a team ends the season, and the Patriots' defense has ended the regular season as one of the top units in the league since that fateful first month - and with axiom "Defense wins championships" true, it looks like the Patriots are in good shape to defend their title.

Publisher's note: This is the first in a multi-part series focused on the evolution of the New England Patriots from training camp to the post-season, with a particular focus on the roster and how the current team got to where they are now. Part II will cover the transformation of the defensive line...