FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- If there was a knock on the New England Patriots' defense last season, it was that it feasted on lesser quarterbacks and skill-position talent but wasn’t always as stingy against the elite.
The unit took a decisive step toward sacking that narrative in Sunday's 25-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and now can make a statement as one of the NFL’s best with Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and the high-flying Miami Dolphins coming to town on Sunday (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).
It’s a collision course after the Dolphins rang up 536 yards in their season-opening 36-34 win over the Los Angeles Chargers and the Patriots bottled up quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Eagles by holding them to just one offensive touchdown drive -- tied for the fewest in any Hurts start.
“That’s a great defense,” Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith marveled. “They hold their coverage and disguise it until the last second. They are a very athletic, fast, physical defense.”
There are no moral victories in New England, but the play of the D was an obvious silver lining in Sunday’s loss. The Eagles scored on a pick-six, settled for four field goals, and their lone touchdown drive on offense was a short one, coming after they recovered running back Ezekiel Elliott’s fumble at the New England 26-yard line.
Hurts, who was held to just 170 passing yards and lost just the third fumble of his career when safety Jabrill Peppers delivered a bruising hit late in the fourth quarter, noted how effectively New England disguised its intentions.
Said veteran Patriots safety Adrian Phillips: “Ultimately our defense is very multiple, and we do a lot of different things. What you see on film might not be what we do, and I think that’s hard for a quarterback."
The Eagles went three-and-out on four straight possessions during one stretch Sunday, which has been a rarity since Hurts became the starter. Last season, the Eagles had only one game with four three-and-outs.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick often says that the most effective defenses sync their rush with coverage and tackle well. He said the tackling was sound Sunday, which is always a wild card in Week 1 with limited full-pads practices to prepare.
“There’s a lot of good players on that Patriot defense, starting with [Matthew] Judon,” noted Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.
Meanwhile, the ability to pressure Hurts was critical, as he finished 1-of-9 for 9 yards and three sacks under duress, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Hurts was 21-of-24 for 161 yards and a touchdown when not pressured.
How, then, might they create the same type of disruption against the speedy Dolphins?
Coaches will begin putting a game plan together Tuesday, but even before that happens, players have already highlighted one area of note: more urgency at the start of the game and second half. Phillips didn’t like how the Eagles held the ball for 7 minutes, 18 seconds on their opening drive Sunday, which culminated in a field goal, and then strung together a 10-play march early in the third quarter that also ended with a field goal.
“Those are tone-setting drives,” Phillips said. “We have to be able to win those.”
The Patriots returned every player but safety Devin McCourty from their 2022 defense; no other team retained as many players on that side of the ball.
Then they used their top three draft picks on defensive players -- starting cornerback Christian Gonzalez (all 66 snaps, 7 tackles, 1 sack, 1 pass defended in Week 1), reserve defensive end/outside linebacker Keion White (multiple pressures), and versatile linebacker/safety Marte Mapu.
The combination of retention and having versatile players that Judon refers to as “unicorns" helped contribute to the strong start.
“We know what our defense can do, how we can move pieces,” Judon said. “Everybody’s interchangeable.”
Few pieces move as fast as Dolphins wide receiver Hill, who had 11 catches for 215 yards and two touchdowns in the season opener against the Chargers.
This will be the eighth time the Patriots face him, and veteran cornerback Jonathan Jones is likely a key cog in the plan to try to slow Hill down -- something he did well in a signature performance in the AFC Championship Game that preceded the Patriots’ Super Bowl LIII win (helping to hold Hill to one catch for 42 yards).
And then there’s Tagovailoa, who is 4-0 all time against New England.
“We all know the standard,” Peppers said. “I think we played pretty close to it [Sunday], but it wasn’t good enough to win. So you have to do better.”