Dave D'Onofrio's Patriots Notebook Defense has become name of the game

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Looking only at the league rankings through all but the Monday night game of Week 9, one would reach the conclusion that the Patriots team sitting atop the AFC has assumed its position in the conference penthouse by re-creating the recipe thats helped them to top-two seeds, and first-round byes, in each of the last four postseasons.

Pending the results of the Giants-Colts game, the Patriots ranked second in the NFL in terms of points per game; since 2010, theyve on average ranked second in scoring at the end of the year. On the other side of scrimmage, the Pats were 12th-best league-wide in terms of points allowed per game; on average, theyve finished the past four seasons at No. 10.5.

But when looking at how the Pats have steamed into their bye week on a run of five straight wins, what those macro numbers dont reflect is that for as good as New Englands offense has been of late, the most impressive aspect of New Englands 7-2 start has been the growth of the defense, both individually and collectively, in comparison to where they were at various stages dating back to the end of last season.

Offense is sexier, so it gets the attention. And deservedly so. Tom Brady has played MVP-caliber football for the past month, Rob Gronkowski has been beastly, and New England is accordingly averaging a tick better than 40 points a game. That type of production leads to blowout wins. Blowouts open eyes and build perceptions.

However, in Sundays league-tilting trouncing of the Broncos, the most encouraging facet for the Patriots wasnt that the offense scored 36 points (with seven more coming from special teams). It was that their defense held Peyton Manning and his mates to just 21.

And, more specifically, it was the way they held Denvers fearsome attack to just three scores.

Thats an important distinction because in terms of the bottom line, 21 points is only five fewer than the Patriots allowed the Broncos in what felt like a lopsided loss in last years AFC championship game. That doesnt make it seem like all that much of an improvement until we dig a bit deeper.

In that title game, New England simply couldnt get off the field. Denvers shortest drive of the day was seven plays and 37 yards, which was on an opening series that would be its only punt of the afternoon. The Broncos scored on their next six possessions, converting eight of 14 attempts on either third or fourth down. Thats a 57 percent success rate, and enabled them to hold the ball for 35 minutes and 44 seconds.

Sunday was another story. Denver went three-and-out on each of its first two offensive series and (discounting a kneel-down to end the first half) it got to the seventh play in only five of 14 drives. The Broncos never scored on successive possessions, and thats in no small part because they were 3-for-11 on third down (27 percent) and 0-for-4 on fourth down. Three-for-15 combined equates to a 20 percent success rate, and so although the Broncos had seven more possessions on Sunday than they did in the AFC title tilt, they held the ball for five fewer minutes (30:33).

Its a hard team to stop and they have a great offensive team, great quarterback, theyre well coached, said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. You have to give our players a lot of credit for the way they competed out there tonight; just hung in there series after series after series and went toe to toe with that group.

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Dave D'Onofrio's Patriots Notebook Defense has become name of the game