{"id":156105,"date":"2025-09-20T07:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T07:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/156105\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T07:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T07:13:07","slug":"nfl-writer-explains-whats-concerning-about-patriots-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/156105\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Writer Explains What&#8217;s Concerning About Patriots Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots gave up 747 total yards in their first two games, raising concerns that their defense might consistently struggle to stop big plays.<\/p>\n<p>Bleacher Report\u2019s Brad Gagnon has <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25249876-every-nfl-teams-biggest-problem-heading-week-3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">concerns about the Patriots defense<\/a> since it has allowed several plays of 20 yards or more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Patriots have a lot of problems, including issues with penalties, missed tackles, and placekicking,\u201d Gagnon wrote Friday. \u201cBut what stands out is the fact they\u2019ve surrendered a league-high 13\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stathead.com\/tiny\/P7JKQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">20-plus-yard plays<\/a>\u00a0in two games. The defense has allowed an AFC-high 6.6 yards per play, thanks in part to all of those home runs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One reason New England may be giving up big plays is its inability to tackle effectively. The Patriots have missed a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patspulpit.com\/new-england-patriots-media-transcripts-statements-interviews\/109309\/patriots-tackling-issues-nfl-week-2-dolphins\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">league-high 25<\/a> tackles this season, according to Pats Pulpit\u2019s Bernd Buchmasser.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots may soon welcome back star cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who has missed the last two games due to a hamstring injury. His return could help stabilize the secondary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>However, if New England doesn\u2019t improve its tackling, it won\u2019t matter who is playing defense, as it won\u2019t be able to stop big plays from happening.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots gave up 747 total yards in their first two games, raising concerns that their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-156105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}