FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – When Kyle Van Noy arrived in New England three years ago, an unheralded in-season acquisition, the Patriots’ defense was the perpetual recipient of negative attention.
“This place has been known mostly for their offensive players for a while,” Van Noy said Wednesday in the Patriots locker room. “The last three years the media said the sky was falling for the defense.”
The sky (which is always falling somewhere) is now in a secure position for the defense. The Patriots have allowed a Super Bowl-era record 13 points on defense through four games. According to Football Outsiders, they have been the second-most-efficient defense of all time through four games with a DVOA of minus-47.2%.
The players aren’t eager to evaluate themselves in historic terms, but Van Noy did acknowledge that it’s nice for a unit that was routinely cited as the weak link to demonstrate what it’s capable of.
“Mondays have been feeling a little bit better,” Van Noy said hours after he was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week.
In a run that dates back to Super Bowl LIII, opposing offenses have scored just 16 points in five games against the Patriots. It’s the culmination of a number factors with core personnel having time to jell over the last few years and a handful of offseason acquisitions who have plugged in seamlessly.
“You’ve got ballers at every spot,” Van Noy said.
In Van Noy’s first season with New England, the Patriots tied a franchise record with a turnover drought of 16 quarters. Even though they allowed the fewest points in the league that season, critics pointed at the defense as the team’s Achilles’ heel, because they were 25th in yards allowed.
This year, the Pats have left no room for doubt, allowing the fewest points and the fewest yards. They are also tied for the league lead in sacks (18) and have the most turnovers with 10 (all interceptions). Safety Devin McCourty has had an interception in each of the first four games. Linebacker Jamie Collins has three.
Collins, who returned to New England on a bargain deal after an unceremonious trade to Cleveland in 2016, has played like a bona fide superstar. With 3½ sacks, Collins has seemingly been everywhere and has demonstrated a committed discipline he failed to show in his first stint with the Pats and has emerged as an early candidate for Defensive Player of the Year. The best part for the Patriots is that he’s doing it on a cap-friendly $3 million deal.
“He’s been awesome,” McCourty said last week. “He came in here in the spring, and I think for him, from a mentality standpoint, he didn’t really come back as Jamie Collins, the guy that was here. He came back almost as a new guy, like, ‘Let me prove to these guys that I can, for one, play in this defense, and I can do what the team asks me to do.’
“He’s one of those guys you’re happy he’s on your team because he makes everybody else better with just some of the things he can do out there on the field.”
(Dave Brown is a freelance correspondent who covers the Patriots for the Monitor. You can follow him on Twitter @ThatDaveBrown.)