last year they allowed a lot of conversions on third and long because they could not get to those underneath receivers quickly enough. today they seemed to make the tackle the instant the underneath receiver touched the ball. 

i could not see it really with the standard tv views, but the above gives me the impression that LBs are playing not as deep as they did last year.  if LBs are indeed not dropping back as deep, to me this is an indication that bb trusts the secondary more now than he did last year. he does not have to tell the LBs to help out in deep cover.

last year they allowed a lot of conversions on third and long because they could not get to those underneath receivers quickly enough. today they seemed to make the tackle the instant the underneath receiver touched the ball. 

i could not see it really with the standard tv views, but the above gives me the impression that LBs are playing not as deep as they did last year.  if LBs are indeed not dropping back as deep, to me this is an indication that bb trusts the secondary more now than he did last year. he does not have to tell the LBs to help out in deep cover.

last year they allowed a lot of conversions on third and long because they could not get to those underneath receivers quickly enough. today they seemed to make the tackle the instant the underneath receiver touched the ball. 

i could not see it really with the standard tv views, but the above gives me the impression that LBs are playing not as deep as they did last year.  if LBs are indeed not dropping back as deep, to me this is an indication that bb trusts the secondary more now than he did last year. he does not have to tell the LBs to help out in deep cover.

I'll tell you, they do look huge up front and Sims kept mentioning it...he's right...Hightower, Spikes and Mayo are three really big linebackers. I wish they had another defensive lineman that had size and could play...Fenene was supposed to be that guy, but maybe Brace or a guy like Pryor will surprise.

It was nice to see Cunningham fire in there from the middle today and Francis and Bequette didn't even dress - so there's some depth at the end spot (it's just the tackles that worry me with depth).

Hey bred you need to be more optimistic man...It was a good game from all three phases...let's not focus on the negatives only....It's the first game, this D needs more time together...they'll improve as the year goes on...

I was thinking maybe they needed to make a move w/respect to the Cornerbacks coach since some cornerbacks seem to regress after arriving here, at least in terms of turning to see the ball when in coverage. According to the Pats Web site, before coming to the Pats in 2006, cornerbacks coach Josh Boyer coached at 5 different colleges in 6 years, the last one being the South Dakota School of Mines. Hmmm....seems a bit excessive.

Of course he might be a great coach and it may be simple a talent issue, but one has to wonder.

Our secondary is still notorious for getting burned on long 3rd downs and to be honest it's because BB uses the prevent, bend but don't break defense, which makes the CB's and Safeties look lost. There were many passes where the receiver was wide open but still had 3 Pats circling him, as if to let him catch the aball, but not go any further than that.

The one thing we need to really work on is turning our heads and looking for the ball, unfortunately that usually requires instinct, something that can't be taught. I do like how physical our back field is, but when you rely on that, especially in today's pass happy NFL, you will draw a lot of flags.

With the increasing effectiness of the front 7, I think that our secondary with some more refinement could get better. But, let's not pretend they aren't a long work in progress. A win is great and all, but when there is a weakness on this team that could make it even hard for our offense to overcome, against the better passing teams, then its a serious problem to be discussed.

One impression I have of McCourty is that he lost a bit of quickness since his rookie year. I wonder if that is the result of bulking up a bit in the weight room. Or favoring raw strength over more agility-focused exercises, something along those lines.

I remember a Pats linebacker named Vincent Brown who at some point spent a lot of time lifting but then seemed to regress in terms of tackling quicker running backs due in part to his added bulk (my conclusion after watching him over several years)

I just checked the 2010 roster vs. the 2012 one and in 2010 McCourty is listed as weighing 193, and in 2012 he's listed at 195. Oh well, so much for the straight-up increased bulk theory. I don't think I'm imagining the loss of quickness though. It's not dramatic, but it's there.

I like McCourty and am rooting for him to get his 2010 mojo back!