Defenses have them covered

By Ron Borges, Globe Staff, 9/9/2003

So where do they go from here? If you asked Bill Belichick that question, he would more than likely reply with something curt, such as, "Philadelphia." That would be accurate. It just wouldn't be the whole story.

Next Sunday in Philadelphia, Belichick's psychologically battered Patriots will play a team that has been in (and lost) the NFC Championship game each of the last two seasons. For many reasons, it is good that the Patriots are facing such an opponent after being embarrassed by the Bills Sunday in Buffalo in a 31-0 loss that exposed their considerable weaknesses.

One might think that playing the Houston Texans or Cincinnati Bengals would be preferable, a soft touch being what heavyweight boxers seek after suffering a stunning knockout. But football is not boxing, and, as the Texans proved to the Dolphins Sunday, no one is really a soft touch in the NFL these days. It is better that New England faces a team it knows is talented and powerful and hungry.

Sure, Belichick created an emotional train wreck by putting his accounting department ahead of his team last week, but that is not the only reason the Bills trampled the Patriots. They did it because they are a vastly improved team on defense and New England is not a vastly improved team on offense.

All the problems that plagued the Patriots when they played superior teams with fast defenses last season resurfaced in Buffalo. The Bills took away the short passes and the screens and insisted that Tom Brady throw it over their heads to beat them. When he tried, there was too often too much air on the ball, and that led to an interception in the end zone on one play and several long throws that floated out of bounds or far off target.

The Patriots fell behind because they couldn't make plays on offense and didn't make plays on defense. They turned the ball over because they began to panic and forced the ball into places it could not go. The Bills' defense had enough speed to smother the short routes and the screen passes New England has made a living off of the past two years.

In the end (and that came early in this game), the Patriots became predictable, which made all their advantages of efficiency and accuracy disappear.

If you are a Dale Carnegie advocate, you might conclude they ran the ball well because they gained 105 yards (5 yards a carry), but that is an illusion. The fact is, they did not run the ball well. They ran it when the game was already lost. They ran it when the Bills' defense said, "Fine, go ahead." That does not mean they won't be able to run it against the Eagles. It just means nothing they did in Buffalo proves they will.

Certainly the Patriots are not in as much disarray as they appear to be. There is no 31-point difference between them and Buffalo, just as there is not that much difference between them and the Eagles. But Philadelphia presents difficulties for their offense that they may not be able to solve. Philadelphia's two cornerbacks, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor, are Pro Bowl-caliber guys who can often be left safely in man coverage. That gives the Eagles time to reach the quarterback with the front four and leaves their linebackers and safeties free to smother the short routes defenses have now watched Charlie Weis's offense run for two years.

As Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes said when asked about one of his two interceptions Sunday, "I knew it was coming. I was supposed to have the tight end, but the tight end went vertical. So studies and tendencies and seeing Kevin Faulk step in to block when he's not a blocking back [told me] he was running the screen then. I was able to just not be a decoy and come in and make the play."

Not every linebacker the Patriots will face this season possesses the speed and the intellect to make that play, but many on the best defenses do. That is the Achilles' heel of the Patriots' offense at the moment: It still lacks a game-breaker every defense has to fear. There is no one who, alone, can take the pressure off Brady the way an Eric Moulds or a Travis Henry can for Drew Bledsoe. So when faced with an opponent with a lot of speed on defense, New England's pitch-and-putt offense struggles.

It struggled last year against the best defenses, and it struggled Sunday against the Bills' revamped one. Has the NFL caught up with Brady and Weis? Have defensive coordinators who get overpaid to devote their lives to solving these kinds of problems succeeded? Difficult to say, but in his last four games (Tennessee, the Jets, Miami, and Buffalo), Brady has thrown two touchdown passes and seven interceptions and has been sacked eight times. Against teams they faced last year whose defenses were ranked among the top 12, the Patriots went 2-5 (beating Pittsburgh and Miami and losing to Miami, Green Bay, Denver, Oakland, and Tennessee). Maybe it's all coincidental. Maybe it's not.

New England now faces another strong defense in Philadelphia, albeit one with undersized linebackers who are not as good as the people they were brought in to replace. The Patriots understand that if they play as lifeless and as lost as they appeared Sunday, the same thing will happen. That alone should push them toward a more poised and professional performance, because pressure of that sort tends to focus the mind.

No one will be thinking about Lawyer Milloy this week in Foxborough except to understand that if things keep going the way they did in Buffalo, more players will end up in the same situation Milloy was in last Tuesday -- unemployed.

It is early, and much can and will happen between now and Christmas. All is not lost because the Patriots were at a loss in Buffalo. But Belichick needs to convince his players not only that they are better than they appeared to be but also that his actions last week were not those of a ruthless and uncaring boss who thinks they are all replaceable parts.

If he doesn't understand that, his players won't be the only ones in trouble. He will be, too, because this is not the time for threats or firings. Now is the time to figure out how to score points against a team with a good defense.

In the three-game Super Bowl playoff run two seasons ago, the Patriots scored just three touchdowns on offense, and one was thrown by the guy who now plays quarterback for the Bills. In those games, New England's horizontal passing game accounted for one touchdown pass and one interception. In other words, Weis's offense has not scored much against teams with solid defenses for several years now. You can play defense all you want, but if you can't put any pressure on good opponents with your own offense, you are going to end up in trouble.

That's where they are this morning. In trouble. Not in desperate trouble, but in trouble. There is plenty of time to get out of it. If they can't because their offense remains stymied and their defense can't get the Eagles off the field the way they couldn't get the Bills off the field, Belichick will have a lot more than next year's salary cap to worry about.

He'll have the present to worry about.