Patriot Panic? Not Yet

I was so upset about the Patriots crushing 28-14 loss to the Jets that I couldn’t talk about it for days. After a great first half where I giggled like a little girl after watching Randy Moss make one of the best one-handed grabs I’ve ever seen, I was crying like a little girl by the end.

Why was I so upset by a week 2 loss? I mean, there’s a lot of football left. There are two major reasons.

First, I hate the Jets, especially with Rex Ryan in charge. I don’t really have anything against Mark Sanchez, but I felt pretty good when it looked like the Pats defense was going to force the Jets offense into throwing to beat us. But then the Sanchize drops 220 yards and 3 TDs on the Patriots’ overmatched defensive backfield and actually outplayed Tom Brady in the second half. (Writing that made me sick.)

That brings me to my second point.  The New England defense allowed three drives of 60+ yards in the second half. All three of these ended in scores (two TDs and one FG). So after a decent defensive performance in the first half , the Patriots were lit up by a team that was 22nd in the league in offensive efficiency last year according to Football Outsiders.

But I’m not panicking. It is week 2, and the Patriots are a young team defensively. Here are the top two reasons I think the Patriots are still playoff-bound and a Super Bowl contender:

1. Tom Brady and his boys. The Patriots have an elite top-5 offense, with weapons all over the field. Moss and Welker are the best 1-2 WR punch in the NFL, and Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski may be the best pair of rookie TEs I’ve ever seen on the same team. Yes, the Kevin Faulk injury is a huge blow, but I think the coaching staff adjusts, and the Patriots continue piling up yards and points.
2. The defense will get better. Again referencing the awesome advanced stats at Football Outsiders, New England has the 4th worst defense in the NFL through week 2. That is not good. They are OK against the run, and atrocious against the pass. I do not believe this defense becomes elite or even really an asset this season, but I believe it will cease to be a liability. As I mentioned in my NFL season preview, the young New England defense will improve as the season goes on. Devin McCourty is the real deal, Jerod Mayo is awesome, Brandon Spikes will make more of an impact as the season goes on, and other young players will improve. If this becomes a top 20 defense that can keep from giving up 25+ points to average offenses (like the Jets), then New England will be in good shape.

H-A-T-E. I hate the Jets.
I write that because it’s fun, but I don’t think I gave New York enough credit in my aforementioned NFL preview. As we all know, the Jets play elite defense. And last year the recipe was to keep the offense conservative and not make back-breaking mistakes. If the Jets open up the offense and let Sanchez play a little, this team gets more dangerous (that’s if Sanchez can make the plays on a consistent basis). I’m not ready to call them legitimate Super Bowl contenders, but in 2-3 weeks I might be forced to.