Defense no longer wins championships. At least not in the pass-happy modern NFL driven by superstar franchise quarterbacks and their elite playmaking pass-catchers.
Sorry pigskin purists, defenses are now complementary pieces, only slightly more relevant, sadly, than fullbacks.
But a good defense, even if not a great one, should still be able to win an individual game in any given week.
Especially a matchup against a middling opponent. One with a lackluster, journeyman quarterback. A wounded foe dealing with injuries to key players on both sides of the ball.
As luck and the early season schedule would have it, that’s exactly the position the Patriots’ defense finds itself in this week as it heads to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers.
New England quite clearly isn’t one of the fortunate NFL squads these days with those superstar franchise quarterbacks or elite playmaking pass-catchers, not built the mold of teams like the Chiefs and Chargers who made NFL streaming broadcast history Thursday night on Amazon Prime.
And it doesn’t have a championship defense in the mold of the ’85 Bears or 2000 Ravens, even if that still actually mattered.
But it does have a defense that probably played well enough to win in Week 1’s loss against Mike McDaniel, Tyreek Hill and the new-look Dolphins.
So while much of Patriot Nation spent this week pondering Mac Jones’ mental and physical well-being following the opening day loss in Miami, the reality is that opportunistic victory and the chances for New England to get its first win of the 2022 season likely lies with Matt Judon, Kyle Dugger and the Patriots defense this Sunday at the newly-named Acrisure Stadium.
Sure it’s great that Jones practiced on Wednesday despite the back injury suffered in the Miami that required him to get X-rays at Hard Rock Stadium and skip out on his postgame press conference. That he then missed Thursday’s practice due to illness is obviously both notable and far from ideal.
And, yes, there were signs of life from the Patriots’ offense at various points in the Miami loss, mostly on the opening drives of the first and second halves when Jones appeared as comfortable and efficient as he had maybe at any point previously this summer on either the practice or preseason field.
Baby steps for the new New England offense are both noteworthy and appreciated. Bill Belichick, Matt Patricia, Joe Judge, Jones and the rest of the Patriots collaborative need to find a way to score more points and not be happy with drives crossing midfield.
But it was a defense led by the pass rush of Judon and Deatrich Wise Jr. combined with the mostly solid coverage and tackling in the back end buoyed by Dugger and the rest that was the far more capable, consistent unit in Miami.
That shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. It’s a New England defense that won the day almost every day this summer in training camp practice. One that showed flashes of dominance in August joint practice work against the Panthers, even if it wilted a bit a week later in the face to Davante Adams and the heat of Las Vegas.
Is the Patriots defense dominant? Nope. Could it be, at least by modern NFL standards? Not likely. It may not even be as good as the 2021 season statistics that Belichick was trumpeting recently in cringe-worthy comments defending his players and defensive player caller, son Steve Belichick.
But it’s a defense that is good enough to get the job done against Pittsburgh passer Mitchell Trubisky, who threw for just 194 yards in an opening day win over the Bengals that included a full overtime.
Good enough coming off holding the Dolphins to 2.8 yards per carry to keep the Steelers and gimpy lead back Najee Harris (foot) from running away with things, especially after he averaged just 2.3 yards per carry on opening day.
Good enough to put some pressure on Pittsburgh’s lackluster offensive line.
Good enough in this game at this time to carry its share of the New England load while Jones tries to get healthy and get on track facing a Steelers’ defense that even without T.J. Watt is going to make his life less than easy.
Over the long haul of the 2022 season and beyond, the Patriots will only go where Jones and the fledgling offense go. Because offense wins championships.
But this week in Pittsburgh -- in a game that New England essentially must win to have a chance to be playing relatively meaningful football in the coming months – its New England’s veteran-led defense with more coaching experience and continuity that should be leaned on against a Steelers’ offense that had fewer first downs (13) than total possessions (15) to open the season.
Defense no longer wins championships, but it probably needs to do its job and go win this game for Belichick, Jones and the Patriots on Sunday.
