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December 4, 2007

Defensive Woes

BALTIMORE _ So now, Pats fans, do you believe the New England defense has problems?
A week after being carved up by a backup quarterback, the Patriots gave up 24 points to a Baltimore team that hadn't scored more than 14 in six of last eight games.
Some of the New England faithful thought it was a fluke when Philly's A.J. Feeley threw for 345 yards and three touchdowns, completing 27 of 42 attempts -- that it was an aberration, just one bad game.
Now the Patriots 'D' has had two bad games in a row.
"We got bullied," veteran strong safety Rodney Harrison said after Baltimore's Willis McGahee bulled for 138 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries as the offensively-challenged Ravens outgained the Patriots' prolific offense, 376 yards to 326.
"We can't allow teams to run the ball and pound it like that," Harrison said. "There are times this is a 'mano-a-mano' battle, and they were winning it. Tonight's game showed we have a lot of problems."
And they don't have much time to work on them, with AFC North division-leading Pittsburgh coming to Foxboro on Sunday afternoon.
"There's a lot of things we didn't do as well as we needed to do as a football team," Pats coach Bill Belichick said. "You name it, it was a problem.
"Defensively, we didn't play well. Offensively we didn't play well. The coaching plan, certainly, needed a lot of improvement
"McGahee ran well, as he always does," Belichick continued. "They didn't do anything magic. They did a good job blocking. They had a good scheme, and the challenges were in the off-tackle and cut-back areas. Some of them we played well, and some of them we didn't."

Posted by Jim Donaldson  at 12:50 AM to Rodney Harrison | Permalink