Rodney Harrison: Patriots' defense looks 'unorganized'

Rodney Harrison isn’t impressed with the state of the Patriots defense.

When the former New England safety was asked this week what has stood out to him the most about New England to this point in the season, he said the “unorganized” defense and singled out the secondary in particular.

“They look so unorganized out there,” said Harrison, who will be in town this weekend for the Sunday night game between the Patriots and Falcons. “I’ve said this before: if I’m a coach if the players can’t — if they can’t pick up the system, then you have to simplify (it), especially if it’s one of your key guys.

“Stephon Gilmore, obviously he looks confused out there,” he added. “And I challenge these safeties. Communication is the most important thing, and that’s something that they haven’t been doing. I was a little surprised that (defensive coordinator) Matt Patricia was as patient as he was. … Even on Sunday (against the Jets), you think they got it all figured out? No, guys are still running free in the secondary. So that was something that really surprised me about them; that they are so tolerant with that.”

(For more on the state of the Patriots’ defense, check out the latest breakdown from Greg Bedard here.)

Former Colts coach Tony Dungy, one of Harrison’s broadcast colleagues, echoed some of Harrison’s points, particularly when it comes to yielding big plays.

“I’ve coached against a lot of Bill Belichick defenses and I’ve never seen one give up this many big plays. That’s something they just don’t do historically,” Dungy said. “I know they will get that straightened out, but that has surprised me that we are still seeing a ton of big plays.”