Patriots Defense Steps Up Again On Another Off Day For Offense, Special Teams

BOSTON (CBS) -- The 2015 New England Patriots resemble the ill-fated 2013 team more by the week.

Tom Brady is playing about as well as he can as the rest of the offense crumbles around him. The offensive line keeps struggling with consistency against talented pass rushers. Brady's weapons keep getting hurt. The healthy ones keep dropping passes. Meanwhile, the defense plays at a very high, perhaps championship level, and keeps the team in games while the rest of the team struggles by comparison.

Sunday's 33-16 win over the Tennessee Titans certainly wasn't a bad game for the Patriots. They simply went up against a vastly inferior opponent and didn't face a whole lot of resistance. It resulted in a no-doubt, we're-just-better-than-you win, despite an uneven effort. It was how the Eagles game was supposed to go.

While the offense and special teams continue to battle through injuries and inconsistency, the Patriots defense continues to round into form and play like the most dangerous aspect of the team, which sounds crazy considering that Brady and Rob Gronkowski are still around. Even with cornerstone Dont'a Hightower battling a knee injury and Chandler Jones cooling off in recent weeks, the defense has not let up and has performed at a high level - even despite facing weak competition.

It doesn't matter that the Houston Texans don't have a quarterback or an offensive line. It doesn't matter that the Titans are young and inexperienced and have no dynamic weapons beyond tight end Delanie Walker, who was largely shut down before scratching out a touchdown and breaking off another big play. The Patriots defense is doing their job to eliminate opponents' strengths, dominating offenses on third down (Tennessee was 3-for-12 Sunday), and making plays when opportunities present themselves.

With Jones getting extra attention up front, Jabaal Sheard is wreaking havoc on almost every snap and just might be the Patriots' best edge defender. Akiem Hicks looks more like a steal for Bill Belichick every week. Alan Branch is having one of the best seasons of his career. And Jamie Collins continues to do Jamie Collins things.

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On the backend, the Patriots didn't seem to miss Devin McCourty all that much, which speaks to their newfound depth in the secondary and particularly at the safety position. Logan Ryan got beat for a few plays but had another solid day keeping the Titans receivers in check, while Malcolm Butler continued his relentless play and caught an interception that made him look like the intended target.

And when you have Jones bouncing back to make more game-changing plays like yesterday's strip-sack-to-defensive-touchdown, the defense is hard to beat.

Unfortunately, much like the offense is getting severely banged up, the defense is starting to pile up injuries that have resulted in a team that isn't playing at the unstoppable level it was at when it was healthy. Hightower apparently re-aggravated his knee injury and Patrick Chung had to leave the game with a hip injury.

But despite the attrition of the Patriots roster, the defense has consistently played well - even without key weapons like Hightower and Collins. The supposed depth they had on the front seven entering the season is paying off in a major way, and the secondary is exceeding expectations after a dubious offseason overhaul.

On offense, the Patriots struggled to move the ball in the second half and Brady once again faced frequent pressure from the Titans' pass rushers. But he and the rest of the offense made just enough plays to keep the Patriots ahead, even as the Titans attempted to mount a comeback - which was nearly sparked by yet another Patriots special teams blunder.

It's unclear what has gotten into the Patriots' usually impeccable special teams unit in the past month. It feels like the Curse of Chris Harper; ever since the receiver muffed a punt in Denver that swung momentum in the Broncos' favor, seemingly nobody can hold onto the ball in those situations. Both Danny Amendola and Keshawn Martin have had opportunities and even made a few good returns, but have also fumbled far too many punts to maintain control of games like the Patriots usually do so well. It almost makes you want them to activate Julian Edelman just so he can get back there and catch the damn ball. It's even creeping into Stephen Gostkowski's game after the typically ultra-reliable kicker had a rare missed field goal.

It's hard to complain about a 17-point win for the Patriots, but when it felt like it should have been a 30-point win you can't help but feel disappointed. It sounds ridiculous to anyone outside of New England, but it's all relative: the Patriots beat a team they were supposed to beat, but it didn't feel like they earned it. And that feeling stems mainly from the offense and special teams, not the defense.

I wrote last week that the Patriots may need to win the Super Bowl this season on the strength of the defense. Edelman still needs to return and could give Brady and the offense the spark they need, but ultimately the Patriots will need to play strong defense to make it to Santa Clara. And fortunately for them, that's what they're doing right now.

Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read more from Matt here. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.

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