Defense was expected to be the New England Patriots' strength heading into the 2024 season, but the group hasn't held up its end of the bargain over the last two weeks.
The New York Jets totaled 400 yards in their 24-3 rout of the Patriots in Week 3, and the San Francisco 49ers racked up 431 yards in their 30-13 win on Sunday. In both games, New England's pass rushers failed to put pressure on the quarterback.
If you ask former Pats linebacker Ted Johnson, the defense was exposed during the team's Week 2 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He explained what has gone wrong with the unit during Monday's episode of The Breakdown.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Boston sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
MORE PATRIOTS
"The Seattle Seahawks kind of broke the code a little bit with the Patriots defense," Johnson said. "What Seattle did in Week 2 is they ran a lot of empty and they ran a lot of hurry-up. And so, what that did is force the Patriots defense to become simple and more predictable in what they were doing. They wanna be multiple, they wanna be disguising, they wanna come at you with all these different angles. And so, you see teams going more spread, more empty. So it makes the Patriots more predictable and less with the ability to disguise, and that is hurting their defense.
"But also, just the rotation of the guys, new guys. I mean, Dell Pettus is out there. Jaylinn Hawkins is out there. You've got new guys all over the place playing positions that they're not used to playing. ... That's killing them. And I think Seattle broke the code on them."
Patriots insider Phil Perry noted the defense's glaring inability to pressure the quarterback without Christian Barmore (8.5 sacks in 2023) and linebacker Matthew Judon (15.5 sacks in 2023).
"I think they've got some issues when it comes to their pass rush too," he said. "Not a ton of true get-after-the-quarterback types of talents up front outside of Keion White. I think it's left them a little bit vulnerable in some other areas on their defense."
The Patriots defense will look to get back on track when they welcome the Miami Dolphins to Gillette Stadium next Sunday.
Watch the full episode of The Breakdown below or on YouTube: