FOXBORO -- Like a billowy dress on a 300-pound woman, a good defense can make up for some unsightly realities.
Like, say, an offense that's scored three touchdowns in three games. Or one that goes 4 for 14 on third down. Or even one that tends to throw it into reverse once it gets inside their opponents' 20 yard line. Like the Patriots' offense.
Right now, the Patriots' defense is covering up a multitude of the team's offensive sins. It is -- despite all its rotating players -- the one constant upon which this team can count.
Some days, the Patriots' offense scores four touchdowns against good defenses, like Tennessee's four games ago. Others days -- like yesterday -- it scores none.
But this defense is always there. Nasty. Intense. Opportunistic. Steady. With yesterday's 9-3 win over Cleveland, this defense has helped carry the Patriots to a record of 6-2. And with the quarterback-less Denver Broncos (Danny Kannell?) and Dallas Cowboys (blanked by the Buccaneers yesterday) in the Patriots' immediate future, there's a better than decent chance this team will be 8-2 in a few weeks.
Amazing.
Yesterday, the Pats held the Broncos to 13 first downs, 204 yards of offense and let them cross midfield once. Linebacker Mike Vrabel -- fully deployed for the first time since he broke his arm against the Jets -- had three sacks. Safety Rodney Harrison had 10 tackle. Linebackers Roman Phifer and Tedy Bruschi were outstanding in both coverage and against the run and cornerback Ty Law made a game-clinching interception with less than a minute left.
Sixty minutes, 160 minutes, a couple of days. The Browns' offense could have run plays against the Patriots as long as it wanted to. It probably wasn't going to score.
Since beating Tennessee, 38-30, the Pats have allowed one touchdown. That, a 6-yard TD pass last week in Miami, came at the end of a 16-yard drive. It was just the third touchdown pass they've allowed all season.
But they won't fall into the trap of thinking they're bulletproof.
"You never know how it's going to go," said Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. "You are not going to shut everybody out in this league. So you just try to hold them to less points than you get."
In four straight games and six of seven, this defense has done that.
The offense has been another matter. And it knows it.
"Some of these weeks, we're going to have to score a lot more points than we did," said Pats quarterback Tom Brady. "We had some opportunities today but we just didn't take advantage. At some point, that's going to bite you in the butt. We are going to have to be better in the red zone. I think we moved the ball pretty well today. I just don't think we took advantage of those scoring opportunities."
No, they didn't.
In the first half, the Pats got to the Browns' 6, 48, 38, and 19 yard lines. Yet all they managed was a 27-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri, his first of three on the day.
In the second half, they got to the Browns' 38, 9 and 20 yard lines. They ended up with 28- and 38-yard field goals.
The encouraging thing is that the Patriots are moving the ball. Brady threw for 259 yards (20 of 33) yesterday. Finally, tight end Daniel Graham emerged (7 catches for 110 yards). And Kevin Faulk had 96 yards on 23 carries. He continues to quiet those who don't think he can be a team's lead back.
The offense is also treating possessions with care. Brady hasn't thrown a pick in his last 132 attempts (since the Washington game). The Pats moved to plus-8 in the turnover category yesterday. But, as Brady said, the Pats can't continue to win if the red-zone execution doesn't improve.
"People are going to game plan more and take more shots at us and try to get the big play," predicted Law. "Teams will feel they can't move the ball consistently throughout the game so we're gonna be more susceptible to big plays because more people will go downfield and take shots at us. Like with Tennessee. They were sending a guy deep every time and they connected on a few. We're going to have to watch out. We're making a name for ourselves, but we're not getting overconfident. We're confident we can play with anybody but we're not taking anything for granted. We'll play hard week to week and respect our opponents. "You can't say Denver won't score points. For the most part, we just play tough football. If we continue to do that we should be fine. Defensively, we can't say what we can do because the tide can turn any time. You're only as good as your last game."
