Defense rebounds in a big way
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| AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt |
Last week, the Patriots defense was eviscerated in almost every way possible. This week, however, was a completely different story. It was one of the biggest reasons the Patriots came out with a 30-7 win over the Vikings this afternoon.
Despite the Vikings scoring on their first drive of the game (and looking very good while doing it), the defense forced four turnovers, Chandler Jones blocked a field goal and ran it back 58 yards for a touchdown, and the unit seemed to get decent pressure on former Patriots Matt Cassel.
All of this was an improvement by leaps and bounds compared to last week. After the Vikings first drive, everything just seemed to click for the defense. Additionally, Jones, who was statistically the Patriots worst player last week, came up huge with not only the blocked field goal, but also compiling two sacks, three quarterback hits and eight total tackles, six of them solo.
The defense as a whole was able to accumulate eight quarterback hits and six sacks.
The run defense also saw a major improvement from last week. The Vikings did not have Adrian Peterson, which is a major loss, no doubt, but they were able to hold the Vikings to 54 rushing yards total between Matt Asiata, who assumed the starting role in Peterson's absence, Cassel, Jerick McKinnon and Jarius Wright.
The Vikings only averaged 2.8 yards per carry.
It was also very encouraging to see Darrelle Revis play the way everyone knew he could. The Patriots' star cornerback was responsible for one of the four interceptions on the day (Logan Ryan, Devin McCourty and Dominique Easley got the other three) and was assigned to Greg Jennings for most of the day.
Revis held Jennings to one catch for four yards.
The Vikings other big time threat, Cordarrelle Patterson, was also not much of a factor. Patterson was held to four catches for 56 yards. He did, however, average 14 yards per catch.
The Vikings were held to 217 total yards of offense, which is, again, an incredible improvement from a week ago. This comes against a team that had a great showing in Week 1 against the Rams, arguably the best running back in the league in Peterson, even though he did not play, and a dual threat at the wide receiver position.
Matt Cassel isn't necessarily a great quarterback, but has shown flashes at times. That's enough to scare some people. There were many concerns coming into this afternoon, and some of those concerns may have been quelled thanks to a dominant showing by a defense that has a lot of hype attached to it.
We should expect to see more of this next week, as the Patriots will take on the Raiders next Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
What did you think of the Patriots performance today? Tweet me your thoughts - @JesseGaunce
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