Patriots: Patriots defense dominant in 29-0 shutout

Posted By on October 9, 2022

AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

The New England Patriots defense was flat out dominate today. It is the only way you can put it. They held the league’s number one offense to 312 total yards in a 29-0 win.

Shutouts in every level of football are hard to come by so when your defense gets one, it should be celebrated.

The Lions had their chances in this game but whenever the defense needed to step up and make a stop, especially in the red zone, they did it. New England sacked Lions quarterback Jared Goff twice and picked him off once. Belichick praised the defense for rising to the occasion in key moments.

“Again, team defense. Pass rush, disrupting the quarterback, covering the receivers. Again, Hockenson, St. Brown, Reynolds, they’re all tough. Then you still have to play the running game. There’s a reason why they’re the highest scoring offense in the league and most yards and all the accolades that they’ve had, but I think, again, really the majority of the credit needs to go to our players. They’re the ones that went out there and defeated blocks, tackled them, covered, and all that. There’s no one guy. It’s just a good team effort.”

The front seven did a terrific job against Detroit’s bruising running game. Coming into the game, the Lions averaged 164 per game on the ground. The Patriots held them to 101 yards on the day. It is important to note that DeAndre Swift did not play in this game so that helped but you to give credit where credits is due. The Patriots controlled the line of scrimmage and shut down a potent rushing attack.

The Patriots are going to need the defense to play at this level the rest of the season especially in the next few weeks. If the defense continues to play this way, they could become a problem in the AFC. Defense travels and it wins championships.

The defense rose to the challenge today like they have countless times in the Belichick era. They played at a championship level at a time when this team needed it.