New England Patriots Changing Their Defensive Style in a Dramatic Way

It's amazing to see a defensive philosophy change drastically in just a year's time.

Throughout training camp, many speculated that the New England Patriots were making a complete change in style of play on the defensive side of the ball—and they did.

Bill Belichick's defense is no longer lining up in a 3-4 alignment, but now in a 4-3. But, change doesn't end at the alignment, there's more to come.

After the 2011 NFL draft, New England fans were shocked as the majority were praying and hoping for a pass rusher. However, in a draft filled with so many talented 3-4 pass rushers, Belichick and the draft team passed and elected not to select one with their plethora of picks.

However, it all makes sense now—New England is becoming a 4-3 defensive team.

The Patriots jumped into free agent with a splash, as the team was able to land defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and defensive ends Shaun Ellis, Mark Anderson and Andre Carter—all notably have had experience in 4-3 defenses.

Instead of drafting inexperienced pass rushers, Belichick decided to go the way of bringing in veterans with experience in the 4-3, so he could expect much more out of them in 2011—as he probably understands that Tom Brady doesn't have too much time left, and the time to win is now.

Entering the first game of the preseason, the Patriots took on the Jacksonville Jaguars without many of their regular starters such as Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and Devin McCourty, but still found a way to shut down Jacksonville with their new look.

Belichick had his defense come out flying against the Jags, as the team allowed only 193 total yards of offense. More notably, New England was able to get off of the field on third downs and found ways of getting pressure on the quarterback, as the team tallied four sacks.

After a rather interesting showing against Jacksonville, as Belichick showed many exotic defenses and saw middle linebacker Dane Fletcher flourish, the team entered Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with an even more aggressive mentality. 

In the team's second exhibition, Belichick essentially let the dogs out and let stud middle linebacker Jerod Mayo, play—and he was a force to be reckoned with.

One numerous accusations, Mayo was sent on a blitz to get in the quarterback's face, and he even recorded two sacks. 

Mayo, combined with newly acquired Andre Carter, were the front runners in holding Tampa Bay's offense in check as they made it a nightmare for Josh Freeman and Josh Johnson to find the open receivers.

Watching the Patriots defense play the past few games has almost been comparable to a 4-3 version of the New York Jets—a team of players with their hair on fire who don't sit back and wait for the ball to come to them.

Following the team's two dominating performances against the Bucs and Jags, the leader and the quarterback of the team, Tom Brady, addressed his liking of the defense's style of play on WEEI:

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"When you put pressure on the quarterback, that's No. 1.

Any time you talk to a defensive coach at the beginning of the week, they say 'We have to get after the quarterback.' It was really fun to see from our sideline. Those guys are really teeing off on the quarterback. I love to see that.

"From another quarterback's perspective, to stand there on the sidelines and watch them attack the quarterback—force them into quick decisions, force them into throws that you don't want to make but have to make because you don't have time to see the coverages—that's good for any defensive football team."

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Brady nailed it right on the head: it's always good a thing to force the quarterback to make a quick decision—which looks to be one of New England's top priorities this year.

If the linebackers, Mayo, Dane Fletcher, Brandon Spikes and Gary Guyton along with Vince Wilfork, Shaun Ellis, Albert Haynesworth, Andre Carter and Mark Anderson, can force the quarterback to make a quick decision, then defensive backs Devin McCourty, Leigh Bodden and Patrick Chung could have a field day in 2011.

After last season, New England's biggest defensive strength was their secondary—now it looks like their once weakness, the defensive line, will be a strength this season.

New England had a real issue with getting off of the field on third downs in 2010, as they gave teams a 47 percent chance of completing third-down conversions, a league worst.

Now with Haynesworth and Wilfork as the two tackles, both are massive objects that demand double teams and will open the doors for Ellis, Carter, Anderson and the linebackers to make the play faster than ever.

It appears that with all the veteran signings New England has made this offseason, 2011 could be the year for the Patriots. I'm not talking 16-0 or anything, but I'm just saying this team could ultimately make a Super Bowl run. 

There's no doubt that Brady will be on his game this season due to his weapons galore, but if the team is going to win a Super Bowl, it's going to have to have its defense play like it's been playing so far this preseason.  

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