Hightower: 'If you win, the number (expletive) don't matter'

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — When taking stock of the Patriots’ defense, there are basically two camps.

One is panicked. They have seen a leaky unit (to be kind) allow at least 400 total yards and 300-yard passing days in each of the first six games to this point. That includes Sunday’s visit to The Meadowlands, where the Jets entered the game 26th in total offense and 25th in passing offense, and had little problem running up 408 total yards and 354 passing yards with 38-year-old journeyman quarterback Josh McCown. This was the same Jets' passing attack that had failed to pass for over 300 yards in 19 games.

Before the Patriots came to town, that is.

The other side of the Patriots defensive coin has a message for the worrywarts: Shut up. It’s all about points.

After allowing 42 points to the high-powered Chiefs, and 33 each to the Texans and Panthers — not exactly Fun N’ Gun offenses — the Patriots have allowed 14 and 17 points, respectively in victories over the Buccaneers and Jets, including Sunday’s 24-17 escape at MetLife Stadium.

The latter group would include many of the Patriots’ players themselves, including the most important: linebacker and captain Dont’a Hightower.

“Look man, look: Numbers and (expletive) are cool, but if you win, the number (expletive) don’t matter,” Hightower told BostonSportsJournal.com. “I don’t give a damn if ... I don’t want them to run for 600 yards, but if they run for 600 yards and we win, then it is what it is.”

Hightower’s point was echoed throughout the defensive side of the locker room

“How many points did they score?” said safety and captain Duron Harmon. “That’s a lot less than the 30 we were giving up at the beginning of the year, so we’re making progress. Is it where we want it to be? No. But the idea that we’re making progress is really good. We’ve got to keep making that progress so eventually, it will be less points and less yards. So we’ve just got to understand where we’re having these lapses, third down, a couple plays, a couple miscommunications. But other than that, we’re a much better defense than we were when we played the Carolina Panthers and we’re going to continue to get better each and every week.”

Said cornerback Malcolm Butler: “It’s kind of happened every year: we start slow and we pick it up as we go. It’s no surprise.”

That’s sort of what you heard going from locker to locker. They were happy with the performance because they got the win, and they’ll clean up whatever they need to clean up.

There’s certainly something to be said about the difficulty of winning an NFL game, on the road, and against a divisional opponent. But there wasn’t much of the talk you’d expect, like the words we head from Tom Brady about his offense.

“I wish we would have done better, but we won,” said Brady, almost accepting of it.

This is coming from the guy who was screaming at everyone but the ballboy (he might have done that too) because of his level of frustration with everything, including his teammates in the huddle.

On the defense, nobody’s yelling for people to get their stuff together. And after the game, it’s We won first, and We need to be better second.

And is it any surprise, then, that the offense is carrying this team to all four victories, which have come by three, five and seven points in the last three?

The most alarming thing about this Patriots defense is that it’s Week 6, with two 10-day layoffs after games and no catastrophic injuries to speak of, and we’re still hearing about how the Patriots’ worst enemy is the Patriots themselves.

“We literally shoot ourselves in the foot,” Hightower said in a corner of the locker room. “The Jets had gotten … with all due respect … I mean third-and-long letting the quarterback scramble for that much and, again, letting the guy be open.

"It’s just small things, us shooting ourselves in the foot. That second half we came out and did a way better job as far as communication. They had a couple things going on but we were able to rally back together and finish strong.”

Said Harmon: “It was really third down. We just blew it on third down. We’ve got to go back and realize that if we get off the field on those third downs, we'll be a better defense.”

Even Bill Belichick himself talked about the Patriots doing the Patriots in defensively.

“I think a lot of our wounds are self-inflicted,” Belichick said. “I felt like we were kind of our biggest enemy in the first third of the game.”

How long will this continue to go on? Why has it taken this long for a mostly veteran group to clean up mistakes we expect of, well, the Jets? Should we expect more?

Going back to the 2011 and ’09 Patriots — the benchmarks for all defensively challenged New England teams — the ’11 version allowed 255 yards and 158 passing yards to these Jets in Week 5. The ’09 “I just can’t get this team to play the way we need to play” Patriots pitched a 59-0 shutout of the Titans in Week 6, allowing 186 total yards and minus-7 passing yards in the process.

These Patriots are nowhere near that level of execution. Will they ever be?

I’m still not sure what to make of this unit. I continue to see enough talent to become a good defense, but I’m also frustrated by the consistent breakdowns.

One way or the other, we’re going to get a referendum on the Patriots’ defense next weekend. A grumpy Falcons team is coming to Gillette for a Sunday Night Football rematch of the Super Bowl. We know what they’re capable of offensively, and let’s just say it will be more of a challenge than these Jets.

Until then, we’ll let No. 54 have the final word.

“We got a win, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters,” Hightower said. “My last coach once told me, done is better than perfect. We got the W, so … obviously, we have stuff to do, stuff to work on. But I’m going to tell you we’re going to take the 24-hour rule on this one, and enjoy it, and get ready to turn the page when we come in.”