Thoughts, a mega-chart and 3 up/3 down on the Patriots' defense — 32 total quarterback pressures! — from Thursday night's 37-20 victory over the Eagles, leading with more thoughts on a unit that continued to show much more than they usually do during the exhibition season...
We talked about it last week against the Redskins, but the continuing theme of this defense post-Matt Patricia is that there's little doubt it has shown much more — pass and run blitzes, games up front, a variety of pressure packages — through the first two games of the preseason than in other recent years.
The Patriots had six blitzes against the Redskins, and followed that up with 15 vs. the Eagles. There was an across-the-board offering, from 10 five-man pressures to four six-man pressures, and even one all-out blitz, which was kind of a Matty P. special in the red zone. (Which led to Jason McCourty getting roasted for a touchdown.)
In terms of this going forward, is this any indication of what could be to come under Brian Flores? Possibly, but I would doubt it.
We've been here before. Others have referenced it, but it certainly holds true: the Patriots did the same thing seven years ago almost to the day at Tampa in a 31-14 victory. (Here's what I wrote at the Globe off the game, and what I wrote a year later when I reflected on how things went wrong).
Patriots led the Bucs 28-0 at halftime. It was 27-7 vs. Philly.
The Patriots blitzed the Bucs 18 times. They went after the Eagles 15 times.
Patriots had 38 total QB pressures in Tampa — 32 vs. Philly.
Andre Carter and Jerod Mayo brought the heat vs. the Bucs. This time around, it was Adrian Clayborn (who was on that Bucs team, BTW) and Kyle Van Noy (with a cameo by the New No. 51, Ja'Whaun Bentley).
Things did not hold up during the regular season, but it wasn't necessarily because of philosophy:
Two months later, the Patriots defense was taking on water.
We don’t point this out to illustrate how a promising start — and the Patriots have done well defensively this year — can go bad. Or to show that the preseason is not to be used as a measuring stick in any area of the game (though we agree with that).
It should only remind us where the Patriots were before an avalanche of injuries (Mike Wright, Myron Pryor, Ras-I Dowling, Leigh Bodden) and ineffective play (Albert Haynesworth, Darius Butler) made plans for a dominating 4-3 defense shift to a patchwork 3-4 unit that was just hoping the offense would outscore the other team.
And how the Patriots have positioned themselves now, with an injection of promising youth to finish what they started last year.
A year ago, the Patriots were relying on aging veterans such as Shaun Ellis, Haynesworth, Carter, James Ihedigbo, and Bodden to play prominent roles. Not surprisingly, all of those players dealt with injuries at some point.