Mid-Season Report: Analyzing the Patriot's Defense through 8 games

It is the Bye week—the week us fans twiddle our thumbs and wonder what we will do in the absence of our beloved Patriots. In the meantime, we can sit back and reminisce about the stress (or joy—if you have that sick sense of humor) that these Patriots have caused on their rollercoaster season. Yet, resting at 5-3 and coming off an explosive win against the Rams, they are still prime to put a chokehold on the AFC East—they play 3 of their next 4 games against division rivals. 

Half way through the 2012 season, New England has fixed some lingering problems that cropped up repeatedly during their 2011 campaign. However, other glitches still rear their ugly head. The Patriot’s pass rush has improved because of likely Defensive Rookie of the Year, Chandler Jones (33 tkles, 6 sks, 3 ff) and defensive end Rob Ninkovich (27 tkles, 4 sks, 4 ff, 2 rec), who has picked up steam lately.

However, few others in the front seven have managed to apply consistent pressure, and the reason could be three fold.

1. They rarely blitz. This year, the most the Patriots blitzed was 28% of their defensive snaps in a loss to Seattle.
2. However, their hesitancy to blitz may be caused by their lack of pass-rushing demons behind Chandler Jones and to an extent, Rob Ninkovich. Linebackers Jerod Mayo, Dont'a Hightower and Brandon Spikes are built to stop the run and their pass-rushing simply does not inspire fear in opponents. This season, the core has totaled only 4 sacks.
3. More likely, they rarely blitz because they own one of the league’s worst secondaries. The Patriot’s secondary ranks 30th in passing yards allowed, behind only Tennessee and Washington. They rank 26th in the league in total yards allowed, although this stat is down from their 31st ranked effort a year ago.
4. Or, more like 3b... After all, why else would they release second-year cornerback Sterling Moore, who logged well over 90% of the defensive snaps last week and trade a 4th round pick for Tampa Bay’s talented, but notoriously troubled cornerback Aqib Talib? Their secondary is hurting, literally and figuratively.

Along with some of their emerging and rebounding individual stars, mainly Chandler Jones and Brandon Spikes, New England’s run defense has been one of the team’s most impressive aspects. They rank 9th best in the league in total rushing yards allowed per game, surrendering only 88 total yards per game.

Finally, we can attribute some of New England's on field success to its defense yielding 2 fewer points a game this season (21) opposed to 2011 (23) and cutting down the total yards it surrenders per game from 416 to 369--due partly to their better run defense (ESPN Stats & Information). They also hold a +13 turnover differential, tied with the Giants for best in the league.

New England’s hope to obtain a long desired, coveted SuperBowl ring will likely rest on two key defensive factors: Their ability to put more pressure (not just sacks) on opposing quarterbacks and tightning the strings of an always unraveling secondary.

Here is to a less stressful second half!