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Gimme Dat Nasty D'....


vike daddy

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The Patriots’ pass defense is dominating opposing quarterbacks like no defense we’ve seen in a long time. Maybe like no defense ever. The most incredible statistic to sum up how the Patriots’ pass defense is playing is this: New England has 18 interceptions this season, while allowing one touchdown pass.

League-wide, there are more than twice as many touchdown passes as interceptions — unless the Patriots’ defense is on the field. So far this season the Patriots’ defense has been responsible for 10.4 percent of all the interceptions in the NFL and has allowed just 0.3 percent of all the touchdown passes in the NFL.

The Patriots’ defense has allowed a cumulative passer rating this season of 35.6. The league average is 91.4

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/10/23/patriots-have-18-interceptions-while-allowing-1-touchdown-pass/

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The defensive dominance starts up front in New England. The Patriots have been aggressive rushing the passer, ranking seventh in the league in blitzes (82) and first in defensive EPA on those plays (30.2). The high EPA total is due in large part to the Patriots’ league-leading five interceptions off the blitz — but it’s not just a few lucky interceptions boosting their numbers. New England has been consistently good when blitzing, gaining positive EPA on 70.7 percent of their blitzes, 17 percentage points over the league average. Overall, New England is second in the league in sacks (26) this season.

Perhaps the Patriots’ Achilles’ heel on defense is that — despite their gaudy sack totals — they’re actually below average at pressuring the opposing quarterback. According to ESPN Analytics’ Pass Rush Win Rate metric, the Patriots are in the bottom third of the league (24th) in generating pressure. And despite their early-season dominance, this could end up being a problem for the Pats as their schedule gets harder in the second half of the season. While hand-wringing about seemingly small defensive flaws in the face of New England’s historic performance might seem misplaced — no dip in performance will likely be large enough to keep them out of the postseason — the lack of pressure is still notable.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-is-the-patriots-defense-so-damn-good/

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6 hours ago, vike daddy said:

The defensive dominance starts up front in New England. The Patriots have been aggressive rushing the passer, ranking seventh in the league in blitzes (82) and first in defensive EPA on those plays (30.2). The high EPA total is due in large part to the Patriots’ league-leading five interceptions off the blitz — but it’s not just a few lucky interceptions boosting their numbers. New England has been consistently good when blitzing, gaining positive EPA on 70.7 percent of their blitzes, 17 percentage points over the league average. Overall, New England is second in the league in sacks (26) this season.

Perhaps the Patriots’ Achilles’ heel on defense is that — despite their gaudy sack totals — they’re actually below average at pressuring the opposing quarterback. According to ESPN Analytics’ Pass Rush Win Rate metric, the Patriots are in the bottom third of the league (24th) in generating pressure. And despite their early-season dominance, this could end up being a problem for the Pats as their schedule gets harder in the second half of the season. While hand-wringing about seemingly small defensive flaws in the face of New England’s historic performance might seem misplaced — no dip in performance will likely be large enough to keep them out of the postseason — the lack of pressure is still notable.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-is-the-patriots-defense-so-damn-good/

They have never been able to replace Chandler Jones. Losing Flowers didn't help either.

So while the pass rush win rate % is poor, the pressure they put on the QB is still very high due to the blitzes.

They will send more guys than the opposing OL can block. So it comes down to how fast a QB can read the coverage and how quickly receivers can separate from the DBs. And that's very difficult because New England's linebackers can all rush and cover and NE has a lockdown secondary.

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3 hours ago, SBLIII said:

They have never been able to replace Chandler Jones. Losing Flowers didn't help either.

So while the pass rush win rate % is poor, the pressure they put on the QB is still very high due to the blitzes.

They will send more guys than the opposing OL can block. So it comes down to how fast a QB can read the coverage and how quickly receivers can separate from the DBs. And that's very difficult because New England's linebackers can all rush and cover and NE has a lockdown secondary.

We have a chink in armour then. If we lose members of the secondary, perhaps obviously, we become an entirely different defense with a pass rush that relies on numbers. 

Probably the same for any elite D. Let's hope these guys remain on the field when we go through the tough patch.

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1 hour ago, Hunter2_1 said:

We have a chink in armour then. If we lose members of the secondary, perhaps obviously, we become an entirely different defense with a pass rush that relies on numbers. 

Probably the same for any elite D. Let's hope these guys remain on the field when we go through the tough patch.

I would say so that it goes for every team. 2015 was derailed by injuries. But it's nothing you can plan for. Luckily it appears that we have up to 9 DBs that can really play though. 

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The Patriots’ defense has been otherworldly this season, and no stat describes that better than this: Halfway through the season, New England’s defense has scored as many touchdowns as it has allowed. New England has four defensive touchdowns this season, with Jamie Collins and Stephon Gilmore each having a pick-six this season, and Dont'a Hightower and Kyle Van Noy each recovering a fumble for a touchdown. And New England has only allowed four touchdowns (two passing, two running) all season.

The 49ers’ defense has allowed seven touchdowns and scored two, for a solid differential of just five more touchdowns allowed than scored. The 49ers are the only defense other than the Patriots that isn’t allowing at least one more touchdown than it scores per game.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/10/28/patriots-defense-has-allowed-four-touchdowns-scored-four-touchdowns/

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When do you think this nasty D was conceived, and why?

Is it a case of the right players at the right time, or did something kick something in BB's head?

 

I think...opening night, 2017, KC lighting us up. Bill knew an creature had arisen in the AFC, and he needed to pour sand on that firework show. Could be wrong. What do you think?

Edited by Hunter2_1
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  • 3 weeks later...

Opposing quarterbacks have a 59.7 passer rating when throwing from a clean pocket–to put this in proper context the NFL average passer rating from a clean pocket is 102.0 and the average when under pressure is 69.0–and their passer rating allowed from a clean pocket would be the ninth-best mark allowed when getting pressure.

 

 

BillB-1024x576.png

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