Lawrence Guy likes how the Patriots’ defense responded this summer

The Patriots defense was dominant in 2019. The unit finished the season allowing an NFL low 14.1 points per game and 275.9 total yards per game. Even when the team’s offense faltered, the defense was there to pick everyone up.

This year, the Patriots head into their Week 1 matchup with more questions than answers on defense. After losing starters Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, Danny Shelton and Patrick Chung, no one knows if this defensive unit will be [...]

The Patriots defense was dominant in 2019. The unit finished the season allowing an NFL low 14.1 points per game and 275.9 total yards per game. Even when the team’s offense faltered, the defense was there to pick everyone up.

This year, the Patriots head into their Week 1 matchup with more questions than answers on defense. After losing starters Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, Danny Shelton and Patrick Chung, no one knows if this defensive unit will be up to par. You would think that might give this team some extra motivation heading into their first game, but defensive tackle Lawrence Guy said that wasn’t the case.

"We have the same motivation we have every single year. You're going to lose players. You're going to gain players in the offseason," Guy said. "That's just how it is in this league, you know? You're going to lose them due to going to different teams. You're going to lose them through cuts. You're going to lose them in different types of ways, but we all have the same challenge. We have the challenge to get better every day in practice. We have challenges to go out there and do our jobs and to dominate. If we don't do that, it's going to show up on film. So, we had the same differences every single year in training camp. We got it going into the season opener to do what we got to do to win the game. If we don't, you know the outcome already."

With no preseason, it’s hard to predict what this defensive unit will even look like come Sunday. At linebacker, the Patriots lost three of their best defensive players and pass rushers. It’s very possible that the team relies on rookies Josh Uche and Anfernee Jennings. At strong safety, we could see anyone from Kyle Dugger to Terrence Brooks or Adrian Phillips step up in Chung’s role.

Guy, a defensive captain, will be one of the keys to the Patriots 2020 defense. We know he’ll start at defensive tackle, but who replaces Shelton? Everyone thought the plan was Beau Allen, but he’s starting the season on injured reserve.

Without a preseason, there’s a lot of unanswered questions, but Guy said he’s happy with how the defensive players looked this summer.

"I felt like we sharpened our iron on this one, you know?" Guy said. "We came in there without the preseason, with the virtual meetings and stuff. I felt like we got in there. We put in the work, you know? We took the training days how it is and we competed in practice. I felt like we were getting better every single day. We got better pushing the offense and the offense got better as we were pushing them. Well, we can't give you a crystal ball on what's going to happen in game one. All we can truly say is that we're out here trying to get prepared every single day, but we go out there and compete to our full limits."

mdaniels@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @MarkDanielsPJ