After another impressive outing, optimism continues to build around Patriots' defense

Sunday’s win over the Bills was another good sign the Patriots’ defense is trending in the right direction.

In a year where they have struggled to slow mobile quarterbacks, the New England run defense was able to turn in an impressive performance, holding Josh Allen to 30 yards on five carries and the Bills to 72 yards on the ground as a whole — their least-productive day in more than a month. The 24-12 win also marked the third consecutive week where the Patriots yielded fewer points than they did the week before.

Looking at the numbers, it has been building to this point the last few weeks with the defense. The low point? Likely the 34-10 loss to the Titans in November, a defeat that capped a five-game stretch where the Patriots allowed 30 or more points in three games. At that point in the season, 10 games in, New England was allowing 23.6 points per game, 14th in the league.

In the five games since, the Patriots have allowed 17.2 points per game. Overall, New England has allowed 86 points in that run, with more than half of them in one contest (34 vs. Miami). The Patriots have allowed one touchdown over the last six quarters — a garbage-time score by the Bills on Sunday.

It hasn’t been perfect, but for a New England team that has struggled in the passing game the last couple of week, it was good enough on Sunday, allowing the Patriots to come away with a 12-point win and clinch the AFC East.

There are plenty of ways to measure defensive success, but defensive lineman Trey Flowers boiled things down to a simple formula for us after Sunday's win.



“One of the things we pride ourselves on is points (allowed),” said Flowers. “Whatever position we get caught in, whether they get down (in the red zone) on a penalty, turnover, long pass or anything. As long as we keep points off the board, we’re that much closer to winning the game. Red area stops are one of the things that we pride on a lot.”

The run defense had been the Achilles’ heel the last two weeks, but things were tightened up against Buffalo on Sunday — good complementary football paved the way for New England to shut down the Bills’ ground game. Unlike the previous week against the Steelers, the offense was able to convert in the early going. And after a few early misfires from the Buffalo offense, the Bills were forced to play from behind.

Not an ideal scenario for a team whose comfort zone is the ground game.

“That’s what it’s all about, as far as being a team — playing good complementary ball,” Flowers told BostonSportsJournal.com. “At this point in the season, that’s what it’s going to come down to. You’re going to face some great teams, so everyone has to be able to be productive on both sides of the ball.”

“Guys just accepted the challenge,” explained defensive back Jason McCourty. “We knew we needed to step up and do a better job. You knew Buffalo was going to come in and try and run the ball. Why wouldn’t they? I’m proud of the guys up front for stepping up and playing better.”