New England Patriots: 5 observations from romping of the Redskins

3. More sacks, more sacks, more sacks

The New England Patriots defense certainly bounced back nicely after surrendering a 65-yard touchdown run to Washington Redskins rookie wide receiver Steven Sims Jr. on the second drive of the game.

Mostly a result of some miss tackling, the defensive unit got itself together limiting both the running and passing game the rest of the way.  In fact, the Redskins didn’t spend much time in Patriots territory the rest of the way as the team forced a fumble, had an interception and had Colt McCoy scrambling and on his back much of the game.

Jamie Collins, Chase Winovich, Donta’ Hightower, Michael Bennett and a revived Danny Shelton were all in on the action as the team continues to lead the league in sacks.

It is also nice to see the pressure getting to opposing quarterbacks without much blitzing.  That can be attributed to both scheme and the way the New England Patriots secondary causes quarterbacks to hold the ball a bit longer.

As a whole, Bill Belichick is still preaching that the defense needs to improve on some things, but that may be his strategy for keeping them motivated.

"“Well we have a lot of good players played hard, we hit the quarterback,” Belichick said, via Patriots.com “Played pretty well on third down. Still things we can work on and things we can do better, missed a couple opportunities. It’s a really good group that communicates well. Good effort and good awareness. Very fortunate that we have a lot of good players.”"

In all, it is that third-down pressure that has been really impressive thus far for the New England Patriots front seven.  In past seasons, that has been the team’s Achilles heel.