Often you hear coaches and media types lament that their offense "takes what the defense gives them", but for the past few years, most often the opposing offenses simply took what they wanted from the New England Patriots' defense, which relegated them to the evil and wrong "bend but don't break" philosophy that has resulted in zero NFL titles despite being picked up by the best offensive in the game.
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| Safety Duron Harmon receives instruction from Belichick |
And it's a shame, really, when you have to hope for a stop on third down, hope to force a turnover or force the opposition into settling for a field goal attempt with stalwarts such as Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and Devin McCourty anchoring the core of the unit, but that's what the Patriots have had to deal with as opposing offenses regularly and easily put them back on their heels, completely on the defensive...
...and though it has been an issue that runs through all three levels of the defense, the most obvious of violators have come in the form of defensive backs.
The Patriots went into this past offseason with hope for their secondary for the first time in years as the duo of rookie Alfonzo Dennard and mid-season pickup Aqib Talib solidified the cornerback positions toward the end of last season, allowing McCourty's switch to free safety to be seamless as he teamed with Steve Gregory and rookie Tavon Wilson to try to improve the team's backside coverage...
...and all the team had to do was to resign Talib and bring in some depth through the draft and free agency while working to ensure that their young second year players were poised to take the fabled second year leap to be able to become aggressive and start dictating to offenses...
Bill Belichick has always maintained that the jump from a player's first year to his second should be the best and biggest of their career in terms of development.
And it's true. The player has gone through the emotional roller coaster of being a rookie, making the adjustment from the college game to the pro game and, in some cases, being just out of school and suddenly wealthy.
It's a lot to have to absorb in one year, but once the offseason comes along and they've had a chance to get away for a couple of weeks and let the bumps and bruises heal they get back to work on something that they are familiar with, the learning curve is shifted downward to maintaining instead of cramming, working on technique and strength.
So, much was expected from cornerback Alfonzo Dennard and safety Tavon Wilson as they took this offseason to work on their craft. The team did their part, resigning Talib and slot corner Kyle Arrington, bringing in veteran intimidator Adrian Wilson from the Cardinals through free agency, then drafting Rutgers cornerback Logan Ryan and safety Duron Harmon...
...so all the second year guys had to do is concentrate on their technique and taking care of their bodies. For Tavon Wilson, that meant working on fundamentals such as taking proper angles to the ball and tackling technique - and for the naturally talented Dennard, it meant bulking up to survive the rigors of playing corner and staying away from cops.
And truthfully, the results have been disappointing thus far.
Wilson is making the same errors in coverage that he did multiple times as a rookie and Dennard landed in hot water with the law once again, losing his focus and, perhaps soon, his freedom - add in the fact that Dennard has missed half of camp with health issues, and the team has to be disappointed in their back end sophomores.
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| Cole was the best corner on the field vs Philadelphia |
Journeyman cornerback Marquice Cole was on the Patriots' roster last season, playing mostly special teams and occasionally showing up in the secondary when injuries dictated his presence in a dime or nickle role, so with the influx of new players and the fact that oft-injured Ras-I Dowling finally appeared to be healthy, Cole's spot on the roster appeared to be tenuous at best...
...that is, until Dowling broke again and joined Dennard on the sidelines, leaving Cole, Arrington and a gaggle of rookies to defend the opposition's top receiving threats. Arrington, the nickle corner, has been taking reps at Dennard's right corner spot along with McCourty, while Cole and the rookie Ryan have taken turns manning the slot - and Cole has emerged as the most impressive corner on the field, outside of Talib.
It will interesting to see if his successes in camp and against the Eagles last Friday can translate to tonight's exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - a game that will again find Dennard and Dowling on the sidelines once again.
But, perhaps even more critical to the success of the defense as a whole is the play of the safeties.
While McCourty is a potential Pro Bowl quality free safety, and despite the fact that the team brought in options to play opposite him at the strong position, there are still issues - rather there were issues.
With Tavon Wilson struggling on the back end and not to be trusted in over the top coverages and Adrian Wilson being more a nickle linebacker than a safety, the strong safety position has been a battle between the incumbent Gregory and surprise third round pick Duron Harmon - but it really hasn't been that much of a fight.
Harmon has seized the majority of reps with his polished technique and impressive range. Coming out of Rutgers, what little information there was available regarding the completely unheard of Harmon suggested that he was a swing safety, capable of playing either free or strong, but not excelling at either.
That hasn't been the case thus far, as the rookie shows the instincts of a much more tenured player and arrives at the scene with violent intentions - and hauling a ton of bricks. He's got tremendous size and speed and will probably turn out to prove that he indeed belonged in the second day of the draft, if not better.
His presence also makes it possible for McCourty to flow back and forth between his free safety position and filling in at right corner, as Harmon has gained the confidence of coaches with his intincts, vision and range along with his impressive combination of size and speed.
So even though the second year players in the defensive backfield may not have shown up in making that big jump from their rookie season, it's not as if the Patriots don't have a contingency plan...
...and that plan may not be what the team or it's fans were expecting, but that is what's so magical about this time of year - relative unknowns and completely unheard ofs break through and make a difference, and become known and heard of at the same time.
Hopefully, Tavon Wilson gets his act together, He showed so much promise last year. I think Adrian will contribute a lot more than expected in response to his new lease on life in New England. Is Arrington going to step it up now that he has the security of a contract? A little stability would be nice.
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