Four weeks into the season, the New England Patriots ranked dead last in the NFL in points allowed — 32nd out of 32 teams.
Nine weeks later, after surrendering 17 or fewer points in eight consecutive games, they’ve risen all the way to ninth on that list, a remarkable turnaround for a unit that lost arguably its best player (linebacker Dont’a Hightower) early in that span.
Many factors contributed to the Patriots’ defensive resurgence. Stephon Gilmore started playing like a $65 million cornerback, for one, stabilizing a New England secondary that was a mess early on. The pass rush also has come alive, with seven different players combining to record 11 sacks over the past two games.
Bill Belichick, however, had a simple explanation for why his defense has performed at such a high level after looking like one of the NFL’s worst in September.
“Team defense,” the Patriots coach said Tuesday in a conference call. “Good team defense, or better team defense, tackling, not giving up big plays, playing better in situations, third down, red area. We’re trying to do a lot of things better bit by bit. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’ve made some improvements — tackling.”
Basically, it comes down to fundamentals.
“Yeah, fundamentals have been better,” Belichick said. “Just overall execution and awareness, seeing the plays. Sometimes, that half-step is the difference between making the play and giving it up. We have a lot of little things, a lot of guys working together. That’s been important, too. It’s a different offense every week, different skill players every week, different blocking schemes every week.
“I mean, I can’t say it’s just one thing or one play or one type of play. You talk about the length of time that you talked about there — that’s multiple weeks of multiple different challenges defensively, and it’ll be another one this week.”
The Patriots kept their opponent out of the end zone for the first time this season Sunday in a 23-3 victory over the Buffalo Bills. After allowing 128 points during their 2-2 start to the season, they’ve given up a total of 95 during their current eight-game win streak.
