Quote:
Originally Posted by Demongod86
Epic fail by the Eagles. One week they beat the vagiants, and next week, after 3 quarters, only put up 13 vs. the league's worst defense while giving up 31?
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They're not the worst defense when it comes to points allowed; currently I believe they are tenth. Other than the 25 points the Patriots gave up to the Steelers in week eight after the bye, they've held opponents to 21 points or less in every game since the loss to Buffalo in week three. The Pats have given up about 20 points per game on average while scoring 30.
They give up a lot of yards but are stingy in the red zone. This game is a good example. Other than the meaningless touchdown at the end, the only other touchdown the Pats allowed was the surprise downfield completion by Young on the third play from scrimmage. Overall the Pats gave up 466 total yards but held the Eagles to just thirteen points until the final minutes of play.
Belichick has always had a "bend-but-don't-break" defensive strategy. It's just been more extreme this season. The secondary in particular was especially weak to start the season, but the NE defense overall has matured substantially over the past few weeks. Their other main weakness, poor tackling, has also been improved.
The Eagles tried the usual strategy of knocking Brady down on every opportunity at the beginning of the game. The Patriots foiled this by going to the no-huddle and relying on short passes with the occasional long play to Welker or Branch. Wingy hates this style of offense, but the results speak for themselves.