FOXBORO — There has been — and will continue to be — plenty of praise heaped on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ aggressive, confident and dominant defense leading up to the AFC Championship on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
And that figures to serve as motivation for a Patriots’ D that hasn’t gotten the credit it deserves after overcoming a dreadful September to become the league’s stingiest unit over the final 12 games.
Asked if the defense feels slighted, linebacker Marquis Flowers provided a response rather than an answer.
“Um, it don’t matter,” Flowers said Wednesday. “Like I said, outside this room, it really doesn’t matter. I don’t listen to it. Coach (Bill) Belichick, Coach (Matt) Patricia, Coach (Brian) Flores and all the defensive coaches, that’s the only opinion that matters.”
Translation: You can bet your TB12 jersey we feel disrespected.
The way the defense started the season has been well documented.
How the Patriots gave up an average of 32 points and 456.8 yards during a 2-2 start. How they ranked 31st in the league in points allowed and last in yards allowed despite returning most of the key players from last year’s Super Bowl championship team.
How patience and progress rather than panic was the approach of the besieged and belittled would-be defenders entering October.
“That’s what this team has always done, honestly,” said Flowers, who spent his first three seasons in Cincinnati before being traded to the Patriots on Aug. 29. “I’m new here, but you could see even when you’re somewhere else this is why they’ve been so good for so long.
“There is no pointing fingers; we don’t play the blame game over here. We knew what we had to do. Like I said, it’s a long time from Week 1, but we remember because we had to go to work. We got out of it with hard work, and that’s what we continue to do every week.”
The Patriots allowed an average of 335.8 yards and 14 points over the final 12 games, 11 of which were victories. They held 10 opponents to 17 points or less during that stretch.
The Patriots kicked off the postseason by holding the Tennessee Titans to 14 points in the divisional round, seven coming with the outcome well decided.
By comparison, the Jaguars ranked second in the league in yards allowed (286.1) and first in scoring defense (16.8) before giving up three points to the Buffalo Bills and 42 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs.
“I think for us it was all about just progressing and getting better,” safety Devin McCourty said. “I thought guys locked in on that, and I think the key part of our season is not getting away from that. We’ve continued to have that mentality and mindset week after week, fixing whatever we didn’t do well the game before or the games before and try to get those things better.”
Making it all the more impressive was how the defense trended up as players went down.
The Patriots got it done without defensive signal-caller Dont’a Hightower, who played five games before landing on injured reserve, and missing cornerbacks Eric Rowe (8 games) and Stephon Gilmore (3), defensive tackles Malcom Brown (3) and Alan Branch (4), and linebacker Kyle Van Noy (3) for significant amounts of time.
Stepping in and getting coached up were the unheralded likes of Flowers, cornerback Johnson Bademosi, and defensive linemen Eric Lee and Ricky Jean Francois.
“Matty P has done a great job with them, putting them in the right spot and just playing so well together,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said. “When you watch them schematically, it’s such a challenge for us from the offensive side of the ball of, ‘Hey, listen. What are they playing? Where are the weaknesses?’ You’re constantly going through it.
“They’re 11 guys who play extremely hard, they play extremely well, and they’re really just above the charts on knowledge of what you’re doing. Shoot, you can line up, and they can call out the plays you’re running.”
Now the Patriots are one win away from returning to the Super Bowl, bolstered by an improved and efficient defense that is overshadowed — and, assuredly, motivated — by the Jaguars’ lockdown unit.
—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichGarvenTG.