Patriots defense looks for confidence booster vs. Packers

FOXBORO – The Patriots defense is coming off one of their best efforts of the year in the team’s 25-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

The game marked the 30th time under Bill Belichick that the defense held an opponent without a touchdown. The 99 yards allowed in the first half was the least amount the first time the Patriots held an opponent under the century mark in a first half since 2015. To top it off, the Patriots have also record an interception in all eight [...]

FOXBORO – The Patriots defense is coming off one of their best efforts of the year in the team’s 25-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

The game marked the 30th time under Bill Belichick that the defense held an opponent without a touchdown. The 99 yards allowed in the first half was the least amount the first time the Patriots held an opponent under the century mark in a first half since 2015. To top it off, the Patriots have also record an interception in all eight games this season. The team record is 11 in 1985.

Of course, there’s one caveat – the opponent. The Bills started backup Derek Anderson at quarterback. Buffalo is ranked 30th in the NFL in total offense and last in points per game (10.9). So perhaps, it’s tough to learn anything about the Patriots defensive unit in that win. That’s certainly not the case this weekend.

With Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers coming to Gillette Stadium, the Patriots defense has a chance to gain confidence, momentum and learn something about themselves against a future Hall-of-Famer.

“I think it’s defiantly a challenge for us going against a high-powered offense,” Trey Flowers said. “A guy, one of the greats at the quarterback position. Just being able to go out there and execute against a high-powered team, a high-powered offense, I think it would definitely give us, we’re confident in ourselves, but it would definitely kind of let us measure up and see how far we’ve come.”

The Patriots defense has been here before. They had a similar matchup with a dynamic offense in the Kansas Chiefs in Week 6.

They almost passed the test, too. At halftime, the unit intercepted Patrick Mahomes twice and held the Chiefs to nine points. That's an accomplishment in itself. But then, everything fell apart. Before you knew it, the game was tied, 40-40, and the Patriots needed Tom Brady to bail them out - again. Mahomes finished with 352 passing yards and four touchdowns in that game.

Mahomes is talented, but Rodgers is legendary.

The Packers quarterback has been banged up with a knee injury, but is still among the NFL’s best. Rodgers is seventh in the NFL in passing yards, tenth in passer rating and his 0.4 percent pass-to-interception ratio is tied for the league lead.

“Where do I start? He has a quick release, accurate, short, deep, can extend plays, can scramble,” said Patriots defensive play caller Brian Flores. “He’s really a duel threat. You see him with a knee brace on and he’s still scrambling for first downs. Great command of the offense. This is as big of a challenge that we’ve had since I’ve been here, which is a long time now. He’s an incredible leader, tough.

“You see him get carted off in the Chicago game, come back and bring them back from 20 points downs. They’re never out of the game with him leading the charge. It’s an incredible challenge for us. We’re going to have our hands full for sure.”

The thing about Rodgers is that he challenges an entire defense. The front seven has to be diligent, but if they over commit or miss, this quarterback will scramble for a first down. Of course, if you don’t get any pressure on him, Rodgers can beat any seconds with his incredible throwing power.

This game, against Green Bay, represents one of the biggest challenges for the Patriots defense left in 2018. After this week, they'll also face a good Minnesota Vikings team (Week 13) and Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers (Week 15). A good showing against Rodgers, however, could be a big momentum builder.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Devin McCourty said. “It’s the next biggest game on the schedule. Like when we played Kansas City, that was the talk. They were undefeated, what will we learn? Now, we’re playing a really good Green Bay team. It will be that same thing. It’s a game where we have to show up and play really well to have a chance. I’m excited. I think everyone is excited to have this matchup on a Sunday night game. We’ve got to really come to play.”