Longo: Bill Belichick's fingerprints on this Patriots defense are leaving a strong mark

Devin McCourty walked to the podium at FedEx Field after yet another stunning New England Patriots defensive performance, smothering the pathetic Washington Redskins and told the brutal, honest truth.

“We had one bad play defensively.” the Patriots defensive captain said.

Seriously, that is where the New England Patriots of 2019 stand.

Who would have ever thought that losing defensive coordinator Brian Flores to Miami would be addition by subtraction? And that, folks, is no knock on Flores.

The key to this Patriots defense is Belichick. Clearly, with no semblance of a coordinator on the staff – his top assistants on that side of the ball are his son Steven and first-year coach Jerod Mayo – the head coach's fingerprints are all over it.

Sacks – six yesterday for 24 on the year.

Turnovers – Two more forced for a dozen on the year.

Third-down success – New England held Washington to 1 of 11 Sunday, making it 8 of 63 or 12.7 percent for the season.

Five games in, regardless of the pathetic state of the opposition, it's time to remove any potential asterisk. Why? The Belichick factor.

We talk about the Patriots being the oldest team in the league. Belichick is one of the elder statesmen in the coaching ranks, days younger than Seattle's Pete Carroll. He's working this defense likes it's the 1980s Giants.

You have to wonder why. Belichick had plenty of time to find a replacement when Greg Schiano, Flores' successor that never was, skipped town.

He chose to take the reins. Some might have thought it was to keep the tracks clean for Steven. Bill, more likely, was doing his boys a solid.

Remember Devin McCourty talking about retirement Super Bowl week? He and his 32-year-old twin brother Jason made the commitment for one more dance.

Dont'a Hightower is 29, but eight seasons at linebacker translates to about 142 in NFL years.

Patrick Chung, Jamie Collins, Duron Harmon and Michael Bennett are all Back 9 (of a career) guys.

Together, though, this group is playing at the highest level.

Devin McCourty had his run of four straight games with a pick end, but Jason picked up the slack with his first pick of the year.

Sunday in Washington, Hightower looked young and more importantly healthy, with eight tackles, four of them for losses including 1.5 sacks.

This was attacking-Hightower, not passive Hightower. His efforts so far had been overshadowed by the likes of Collins and Kyle Van Noy this season, but the Alabama product is playing the game fast again.

Belichick was as impressed publicly as he can possibly be afterward.

"Well we have a lot of good players (who) played hard, we hit the quarterback,” the coach said. “Played pretty well on third down. Still, things we can work on and things we can do better, missed a couple opportunities. It's a really good group that communicates well. Good effort and good awareness. Very fortunate that we have a lot of good players."

They're not just good players. These are good players with purpose.

Of the starters/rotation guys, a point could be made that Stephon Gilmore and Van Noy are big-time players in their primes.

Is anyone else?

Yet, this team is on a record pace, dominating all the top defensive categories.

Sunday, they got some help from the offense, especially in the second half. But when you hold an NFL team to 155 yards on 52 plays, which the Patriots did aside from Steven Sims flukey 65-yard TD run, you're on a special path.

And it has Belichick written all over it.