'Huge step' forward for untested Patriots defense in win

On a football day where few numbers mattered, Bill Belichick can point to his defense and beam about one number:

4.6 … As in 4.6 yards per play allowed.

Needless to say, if New England holds the opposition to under 5 yards a play this season, it will win a bundle of football games.

As expected, Belichick and his defensive brain trust shuttled bodies in and out with regularity. It proved beneficial deep into the second half, where the combination of a rigorous -- albeit it shortened -- preseason and regular subbing had the Patriots running circles around a gassed Miami offense.



Honestly, it was reminiscent of one of those trips to South Beach, with the Florida sun and humidity forcing the visitor to wilt.

Fatigue was certainly a factor, and Belichick knew it.

“I thought the players were in good condition. I thought the conditioning was a big factor for us. That's a credit to their hard work,” Belichick said.

“We played a lot of people on defense, period. You're right, we did have a lot of defensive backs. I think we had 11 active for the game. We were able to match up and also rotate through there so that we could keep everybody fresh. And so I thought defensively it's a lot better than the, whatever, 27 points we gave up last year to them. We played more competitively there.”

It was Week 1, and all was not perfect.

The Pats defense, cloaked on Miami receivers all afternoon, was hit with three long pass interference penalties, two on reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore.

It helped that DeVante Parker left before halftime with a reaggravation of his balky hamstring. Miami’s top gun had 4 catches for 47 yards and looked to be in rhythm with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

But newcomer Adrian Phillips paid dividends in his Patriots debut. The former Charger squelched Miami’s final drive of the opening half with a pick in Patriots’ territory. He led the club with eight solo tackles.

Gilmore and JC Jackson also had interceptions, the latter being the game-clincher as New England held Fitzpatrick to a 44.6 rating for the day -- slightly lower than the 99.6 rating Fitz hung on the Pats in the 2019 season final upset win here at Foxborough.

“Oh (the interceptions are) huge, something we talk about every year - year in, year out,” said the foundation in the back," said Devin McCourty. “If we can take the ball away it will help us get wins. And today, winning the turnover battle is really what led us to victory and is something we got to keep a heightened awareness out each week.

“It's never easy in this league but you have to catch the ones that come to you, and have to just apply pressure whenever someone's carrying anything. We talked about the difference and it was good to see us be able to execute that today.”

Proof positive that Belichick is all-in with this group could also be found in the postgame where he talked about the penalties, and went a little bit on the offensive.

“We had a couple of tough calls there that didn't go our way that we had to overcome, but we did that,” Belichick said. “Had we not given up a couple of tough plays there at the end of the half and then at fourth-and-1, you know, we'd make the play on that and get called for interference. So, we could have had a little better day than we did, but overall holding an explosive team like that to 10 points is – that's a pretty good day's work.”

Clearly, he is behind this band of no-names.

Sunday, Belichick trotted out a starting defensive front six that would test even the staunchest Pats fan to name.

Sure, Lawrence Guy and John Simon were gimmes on the line, and captain Ja’Whaun Bentley wore the green dot at linebacker, so he was automatic. Chase Winovich has the hair, the speed and a year in the system. He took to the edge. Fifth-rounder Byron Cowart and ex-Lion and Jet Brandon Copeland were the starters who separated the men from the boys in this exercise.

From there, it was situational football, and a bit of open tryouts.

Moving safeties Phillips and rookie Kyle Dugger up tight to the line, in a bit of a Patrick Chung role, the Patriots played run-first, and did a prime job, holding Miami’s trio of running backs -- Jordan Howard, Matt Breida and Myles Gaskin -- to 69 yards on 22 rushes, or just 3.1 yards per try.

“Being able to hit again, hit someone who’s not actually your teammate and things like that, is definitely a huge step, as it is every single year,” said Bentley. “Hitting somebody with a different-colored jersey on is always big. So, today was definitely exciting to get football started again, so a huge step for us.”

Yes, it was the Dolphins, a 5-11 group with a quarterback that has embodied feast or famine his calling card for the last 16 NFL seasons.

But this defense lost a ton over the offseason and had serious question marks in the first two levels coming in.

There were plenty of questions answered on Sunday. The Patriots put up a defensive opener worth savoring.