Patriots (0-0) at Dolphins (0-0) 9/12

[Cman]

The defense gave up a lot of yards, but I look at one stat, which was a huge improvement from last year, I believe they were 3/14 on 3rd down.

It seems the coaching staff switches to a very conservative defense when they have a lead late in games, which messes with the stats and sometimes lets a team back into a game. I hate that.

Good point: Dolphins were 2/14 on 3rd down, which speaks highly of the Pats defense. 

OTOH, Dolphins were 4/5 on 4th down, which is pretty bad from the Pats POV. 

Still, that red zone 4th down stop by the Pats at the 1 yard line was pretty nice, especially given what followed (Brady - Welker TD).

[Donoghus]

The defense gave up a lot of yards, but I look at one stat, which was a huge improvement from last year, I believe they were 3/14 on 3rd down.

It seems the coaching staff switches to a very conservative defense when they have a lead late in games, which messes with the stats and sometimes lets a team back into a game. I hate that.

Good point: Dolphins were 2/14 on 3rd down, which speaks highly of the Pats defense. 

OTOH, Dolphins were 4/5 on 4th down, which is pretty bad from the Pats POV. 

Still, that red zone 4th down stop by the Pats at the 1 yard line was pretty nice, especially given what followed (Brady - Welker TD).

They certainly were a little "bend, don't break" after Miami's first possession.  My concern is what an offense like San Diego might do against the defense. 

The 3rd down defense was encouraging but they need to play better overall as a whole.

The good news is that its Week One.  Its expected that there will be kinks to be worked out.

[Roy H.]

Still, that red zone 4th down stop by the Pats at the 1 yard line was pretty nice, especially given what followed (Brady - Welker TD).

For whatever it's worth, I think that particular 4th down was more an example of a bad play call by the Dolphins, rather than good defense by the Pats.

[EJPLAYA]

Coming from the point of view of likely the only Dolphins fan here on Celticsblog (being as die hard a Dolphins fan as I am a Celtics fan), I think the Patriots have very little to worry about. Keep in mind that they had to go against an offense that was completely different than last season with only a shortened offseason to prepare. Their offensive line  did an incredible job against a defense that should get a lot of sacks this season and was supposed to be the strength of the team.

As much as I hate to say it, Tom Brady is unreal and right up there with Dan Marino in the great passers of all time. His throws are dead on and he doesn’t get flustered back in the pocket often. He just picked our secondary apart.

Miami is going to win quite a few games this year but the Patriots will be the one to knock off those nasty Jets. At least there is that...

[nickagneta]

Belichick's defensives get better and better as the year goes along so that by the time the playoffs come, the are in prime form. This was week one in a new format(the 4-3 vs. the 3-4) with new assignments and responsibilities and a revamped safety position. The youngsters in the secondary will have growing pains and be put under a lot of pressure until the line and linebackers get in tune with their responsibilities and new blitz packages.

QB pressure is the key and in a 4-3 you HAVE to get it from line. In the first half, the line got little to no push from the linemen putting all the pressure on the secondary to stop the pass. When they faltered big plays for the dolphins happened and when the didn't the line couldn't contain Henne and he ran. Who was Miami's leading rusher? Any guesses? Henne 7 rushes 59 yards and a TD.

I blame lack of time in the new scheme and think with the quality of personnel this team has, the defense will be just fine by year's end.

[Fan from VT]

I wish it had been a more obvious win, because Brady isn't going to go for 500+ yards every week, and you can't bank on 4th and 1 stops all the time, and i doubt 2-14 is sustainable on 3rd down (though i expect the pats D to be much better on 3rd down than the 47% of last year). 

Some positives that i'm trying to keep in mind include:
-Pats forced ZERO turnovers until the last seconds of garbage time. This is unlikely to continue, as there were at least 3 dropped interceptions I remember, other plays that could have been interceptions, and at least 2 plays in which a slightly different swipe at Henne could have resulted in a QB fumble.

-It should have been at least 17-7 if not 21-7 at the half. Grostkowski is not going to miss many kicks like that. But even before that, the refs blew a ridiculously obvious and egregious pass interference call on an attempted ochocinco catch that even the announcers were confused about why  it wasn't called; this would have been 1st and goal from the 5 with plenty of time.

-New England always plays its relative poorest against Miami

-The Miami D is supposed to be good (and probably is). Pats O just looks good; hope we can get the young RBs going and Price back in as deep threat.

-For our D, coverage looks good and should improve throughout the year with the young guys. I think the rush with get there and D will improve with Cunningham and Spikes returning.

[Fan from VT]

As an aside, I'm glad to see that I wasn't crazy when I heard all the excitement about Reggie Bush to Miami. I mean, he spent 5 seasons in New Orleans, one of the best offenses in that stretch, and was largely average at best, getting worse each year. Why was he suddenly going to be a key cog in Miami's offense??

[Fan from VT]

And last aside, i'm actually relieved that Koppen has a fracture. Hopefully it's a simple fracture, which might actually heal faster than a sever tendon/ligament injury. Obviously you first hope for a sprain or something, but given how bad it looked, i'll take a simple fracture: faster, more complete healing and less likely to be recurrent.

[cman88]

i wonder how much the lockout affected teams defenses...except for maybe Roethlisberger and McNabb, there were ALOT of games where quarterbacks threw for over 300, 400+ yards this past weekend...

im sure the pats defense will tighten up as the year goes on...its encouraging that reggie bush was pretty much shut down(after that first drive by the dolphins)

[Donoghus]

i wonder how much the lockout affected teams defenses...except for maybe Roethlisberger and McNabb, there were ALOT of games where quarterbacks threw for over 300, 400+ yards this past weekend...
im sure the pats defense will tighten up as the year goes on...its encouraging that reggie bush was pretty much shut down(after that first drive by the dolphins)

There certainly could be something to that.  14 QB's threw for 300+ yards this past weekend.  That's crazy.