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New England Patriots: 4 Takeaways from victory over Indianapolis Colts

By Michael Perry

FOXBOROUGH, MA - OCTOBER 04: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots celebrates during the second half against the Indianapolis Colts at Gillette Stadium on October 4, 2018 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, MA - OCTOBER 04: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots celebrates during the second half against the Indianapolis Colts at Gillette Stadium on October 4, 2018 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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FOXBOROUGH, MA – OCTOBER 04: Ryan Grant #11 of the Indianapolis Colts attempts to make a reception during the second half against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on October 4, 2018 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, MA – OCTOBER 04: Ryan Grant #11 of the Indianapolis Colts attempts to make a reception during the second half against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on October 4, 2018 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /

3.  Defense drops off

Last week against the Miami Dolphins, the New England Patriots defense dominated from start to finish. Even though they gave up a late touchdown and did not finish the day with a shutout, they still played strong all game. The Patriots’ defense applied consistent pressure and had good coverage from their secondary which resulted in a 38-7 win.

On Thursday night, the defense played just the opposite, at least in the second half. During the first half, the New England Patriots defense played like they did last season with the bend but don’t break mentality. By only giving up 3 points in the first half, it seemed as though the defense was set to dominate again. However, in the second half was when trouble started. They gave up 3 touchdowns to the Colts offense and eventually finished up the game by giving up a total of 439 yards. 355 of those yards were through the air and all 3 touchdowns were passing touchdowns from Andrew Luck. The New England defense only gave up 84 yards on the ground which was a good thing too.

One issue that the New England Patriots defense faced was 3rd and 4th conversions. The Colts converted 7 of 15 3rd downs and 2 out of 3 on 4th down. The Colts threw the ball all over the Patriots defense which was certainly night and day from a week ago. Indianapolis also held the ball for over 30 minutes with 26 1st downs. This was very disappointing for the defense because they had all players available including Patrick Chung and Trey Flowers who have shown up on the injury report a few weeks ago.

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