FOXBOROUGH — If life were fair, the Patriots defense would have been celebrating Sunday afternoon.
They allowed seven drives of six plays or less and just two drives that extended over 24 yards. They stopped a good Chargers offense on eight of 13 third-down plays. They forced eight punts and allowed six points.
Six points.
It marked the third straight week that they allowed 10 or few points and somehow lost all three games, including Sunday’s 6-0 shutout. They’re among the top 10 defenses in the NFL in both yards allowed and points allowed and somehow they’re 2-10.
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According to Front Office NFL, “The Patriots are the first team to lose three straight games despite allowing 10 or fewer points since the Chicago Cardinals, who lost an NFL record 4 straight such games in 1938.”
Those are leather-helmet days.
The New England Patriots defense has done its job. It’s weathered the losses of Matthew Judon, Christian Gonzalez, Marcus Jones and Jack Jones and still been successful.
“I think we’ve got the best defense in the league. We can compete and shut down anybody,” Davon Godchaux said. “I was very proud of our defense for giving up only six points against one of the top offenses, with a top five, top six quarterback in the league. We held our ground. We’ll compete against any offense in the NFL and we’re looking forward to it.”
Ja’Whaun Bentley agreed.
“We pride ourselves in having high character and being able to compete. I’m really proud of the defense and how we’ve been able to slug out some games. We have to keep that going,” Ja’Whaun Bentley said.
They’re good enough to be a playoff defense. But the offense isn’t close and its players have admitted as much.
“We haven’t held up our end of the bargain, for sure,” Hunter Henry said. “They’re playing really well right now. I mean, that was a really good offense and holding them to six points — I mean, the conditions were the conditions, but we’ve got to find a way to execute better.”
Agreeing with Henry had to be tempting for the defensive players.
But Godchaux said with the playoffs out of reach, the key was supporting each other. The Patriots defense wants to shut down opponents to prove that they can and say that they did.
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“It would be easy to shut down and say I’m going to let these young guys get some reps. We’ll see where I’m at next year. But that’s not who we have on our defense,” he said. “Our character is high. We just want to compete, have fun and talk (trash) on the field and shut down your favorite offense.”
Jalen Mills said they’re supportive of the offense not resentful.
“When (we) say ‘I’m playing for my brother’, ‘I’m playing for the guy next to us’, those words aren’t just words,” he said. “Those are actions. You guys are seeing it. We are playing for each other right now.”
That’s an admirable attitude for guys who’ve wasted a year of their too-short careers because the offense couldn’t score.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
