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No Need to Panic About New England Patriots’ Defense Just Yet

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By @petahrahgas

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Getty Images

The New York Jets had possession of the football for 40 minutes and 54 seconds last night. There are 60 minutes in a football game. Chris Ivory ran the ball for 107 yards on 21 carries and scored a touchdown. The Jets rushed for 218 yards. And the most un-Jet stat of all — the team had zero turnovers. Yet, the Jets lost. What happened?

This game was weird in so many ways. In almost every way, the Jets outcoached — and outplayed — the New England Patriots last night. And that’s not easy for me to say, but it’s the truth and as a sports writer, I must be unbiased — at least, occasionally.

The Patriots’ offense couldn’t decided if it was back to its dominant ways or if they wanted to throw the game away, either scoring touchdowns on long drives or going three-and-out.

But the big takeaway from the game was how much the Patriots’ defense struggled against a New York offense that is arguably one of the worst in the league. Now, I need to give credit where credit is due — the Jets had a very clear offensive plan and executed it perfectly. Rex Ryan finally realized Geno Smith is not a good quarterback, but Ivory is a good running back, so he took the ball out of Smith’s hands and put it into Ivory’s.

The Jets attacked the weakness of this Patriots defense, and that is their ability to stop the run. It’s been no secret the Patriots’ run defense is not the best this season (Knowshon Moreno and Jamaal Charles can tell you that) but the effort put forward last night was arguably their worst performance yet. Instead of fully committing to stopping the run and forcing Smith to beat them, the Patriots kept playing defensive-back-heavy formations on defense, which is every running back’s dream, particularly if you are bigger than most defensive backs. (Chris Ivory weighs 225 pounds. For comparison, Devin McCourty weighs 195 pounds. That’s quite the size difference.)

I could go into a long list of all the problems that we saw from the Patriots’ defense, but I don’t want to do that, mainly because I’d get too depressed and would be unable to finish this article. But, not all hope is lost with this defense.

Yes, this defensive performance was horrible and yes, it would have been great to have seen the Darrelle Revis-led Patriots’ defense take it to Ryan; but recognize this team had three days to prepare for last night’s game, and they lost their leader and captain on defense during that time.

Jerod Mayo not only was a playmaker who helped anchor the middle of the defense, but he also called out the plays and got people in the right positions. It was obvious last night the communication between linebackers and linemen was not on point, as often players would be in the wrong lanes, opening up large holes for backs to run through. The Patriots have admitted as such in postgame interviews, saying the communication was not good.

The reason this is all okay is because now the Patriots have a mini bye. They have 10 days before they play again, plenty of time for players to get healthy (Nate Ebner and Dont’a Hightower), get back into shape (Brandon Browner), maybe bring in some linebacker help (Bill Belichick, seriously, why not Pat Angerer?) and most importantly improve communication and practice a Mayo-less defense.

The Patriots still have a Top 5 defense out there in Foxborough and while it wasn’t on display last night, you can bet that Belichick and Matt Patricia will be working overtime to return this defense to where it was just a week ago — don’t freak out just yet.

Peter Rogers is a New England Patriots writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @petahrahgas, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google

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