Vince Wilfork vows defense will turn around
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| USATSI |
"I have full confidence in this team," said nose tackle Vince Wilfork in the Patriots' locker room on Thursday. "We have a lot of great guys around this locker room that have played a lot of football games and know what it takes to win. So I don't think [it's] a lack of any type of guys that don't know how to play football. I think it's just making sure we execute, and execute at our highest level, and hopefully we can get back on track this week."
This figures to be a quicker fix than the entire offense. At times, the Patriots defense has looked very good. That being said, that came against lesser competition in the Vikings and Raiders, not to mention both teams were missing star running backs.
The Patriots are first against the pass, allowing only 185.5 yards through the air, but they are 23rd against the run, allowing 129.8 yards on the ground. But issues are greater than just the run defense. No one could break loose from blocks, no one could tackle and the secondary was burned more than once.
So where are these issues coming from? Is it the personnel? Is it coaching?
"That's all play-calling and game planning," said Wilfork. "Different weeks, we have different ways we want to attack people. Some weeks, we're attacking. Some weeks, we're not attacking. So whenever we get that game plan, we go at it from there, because that's what the coaches do. Coaches coach, players play. Whatever they put in front of us, that's what we go out and try to do. Sometimes we do it, sometimes we don't, but that's not saying that it's wrong or right. They're going to always put us in the best situation that they think is best for us, or for this team.
Hopefully the Patriots have had a good week of practice and have been able to work on their issues. It doesn't get any easier this week with a Bengals team coming to Foxborough that features a dynamic offense with one of the best young wide receivers in the league - A.J. Green.
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