Football
Associated Press 15y

Pats young secondary facing another solid young QB

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots young secondary couldn't make key plays against a quarterback having an impressive rookie season.

Now it must face another who already has completed one.

On Sunday, the Patriots will try to stop Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons one week after losing to Mark Sanchez and the New York Jets 16-9.

In two games, both wins, Ryan has thrown for five touchdowns -- two to star tight end Tony Gonzalez -- and just one interception after being named the NFL offensive rookie of the year.

"The kid looks like a polished NFL quarterback," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said in a conference call Tuesday.

If only the Patriots could say that about many of their defensive backs. Of the 10 on their roster, three are rookies and two are second-year players. Only four of those 10 were on the team last year. Just two are older than 25.

That group did well against Sanchez in the first half when he threw for just 15 yards. But on the first possession of the third quarter, he hit a 45-yard completion to Jerricho Cotchery and tossed a 9-yard touchdown to tight end Dustin Keller.

The Patriots' defense against tight ends this season has been "probably average," defensive coordinator Dean Pees said . "Just the last game Keller scored on us, so we didn't do a good enough job on him."

Up next is a much bigger challenge -- Gonzalez.

After 12 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, he wanted out and was traded to Atlanta where Ryan already has talented receivers Roddy White and Michael Jenkins.

The Patriots drafted cornerbacks Terrence Wheatley in the second round and Jonathan Wilhite in the fourth last season. Wheatley has been hobbled by a knee injury and Wilhite was beaten on the passes to Cotchery and Keller.

Trailing 13-9 with 1:59 left in the third quarter, the Patriots had the Jets backed up at their 12-yard line, facing third-and-13. Stop them and New England might have good field position after a punt. But Sanchez dropped back and hit Leon Washington over the middle for a 14-yard gain and a first down.

"We had what we had thought would be a decent call against it, but it turned out not to be," Pees said. "We got out of our zones a little bit, getting a little antsy, and (Sanchez), give him credit, he stuck one in there on us. That was certainly a third down that we should have got off the field and we didn't."

With the offseason retirement of Rodney Harrison, safety James Sanders has emerged as the leader of the secondary.

Belichick said communication on defense has improved this season -- "that wouldn't take much" -- but Sanders saw some problems against the Jets after an opening 25-24 win over the Buffalo Bills.

"It was pretty bad," Sanders said. "We just have to do a better job of it all around, guys communicating and getting on the same page. For the most part during camp and early in the Buffalo game we did pretty well communication-wise. But last game we had some plays where we didn't do a great job as a team."

The Patriots also can do a better job pressuring the quarterback than they did against Sanchez.

"Some of it was designed by game plan to play some coverage and some of it was designed to try to put some pressure on them and we didn't always get there like we wanted to," Pees said. "But, really, we've just got to improve in both the coverage part of it and the rush part of it."

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