FOXBORO -- The Patriots defense put together a forgettable first month, rife with broken coverages and missed assignments. But somewhere along the line, even though they remained among the league's most permissive defenses in terms of yards, they started showing a knack for stopping teams in the red zone.
They finished the season as the No. 5 scoring defense in the NFL, and they were the second-best red-zone defense in the league in terms of points allowed per red-zone trip (3.94).
Though the goal is to never find themselves there in the first place, the Patriots rely on cool heads to help them limit teams to field goals when they end up defending in the shadow of their own end zone.
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"At the end of the day, when you have more points than the other team, you win," Devin McCourty said. "So, defensively, it’s all about not giving up touchdowns. It’s about trying to keep them off the board. We’ve seen in games where we haven’t kind of played the way we want to play throughout the game, but if we were able to play well in the red area, we kept giving ourselves a chance to win the game."
It's hard to pinpoint exactly where the turnaround began. It may have been in Tampa, where, on the final play of a 19-14 victory, Jonathan Jones broke up a potential game-winning pass near the goal line. It may have been the following week in New Jersey, when Malcolm Butler's controversial strip of Austin Seferian-Jenkins helped lock up another victory.
Then came an avalanche of red-zone stops where the Patriots weren't just limiting teams to field goals but were stopping them outright with turnovers. There was a failed fourth-and-goal run by the Falcons in Week 7, a Raiders fumble near the goal line in Week 11, a Stephon Gilmore interception of Matt Moore in Week 12, a jaw-droppingly easy Eric Lee pick of Tyrod Taylor in Week 13, Ben Roethlisberger's meltdown at the goal line in Week 15, and a fourth-down sack of Taylor in Week 16 on a play that began at the Patriots six-yard line.
Call those screw-ups on the part of Patriots opponents, but at some point Matt Patricia's and Bill Belichick's defense has to be highlighted as the common denominator.
