Patriots’ defense is still not good, but showed signs of mental toughness in yesterday’s win

John Munson | NJ.com

It wasn’t the prettiest, but the New England Patriots got the job done in yesterday’s 24-17 victory over the New York Jets.

Messy play and breakdowns in coverage seem to be the recurring theme of the Patriots’ defensive squad this season. In fact, it seems as though the team is beating themselves at times, due to the untimely mistakes they keep committing over and over.

The Patriots’ defense has shown, in many cases, that they can get the opponent in third-and-long and fourth-and-long situations, but it is here that they can’t seem to finish the job.

Yes, it’s frustrating. But in yesterday’s game, there were glimpses of mental toughness that shows they can have what it takes to fight through adversity.

“You never want to give up big plays, so we have to go back and assess the situation and come up with a plan of how we can limit those – whether it’s the call, the technique or blowing a coverage, but I don’t think we had any of those today,” safety Duron Harmon said. “We have to fix that, but for us when we gave up those big plays and still be able to hang in the red area a couple times, make them kick a field goal, force the ball out in the end zone on the touchback, it shows what kind of players we have. Guys that won’t quit that will fight to the end. That’s what kind of team we are.”

So sit tight Patriots fans, this defense is determined to get better. It might take a while, but they’re not going to give up.

Like tight end Rob Gronkowski said, “Every win is not pretty. You just have to keep on grinding.”

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