Rookie Justin Francis had a career-high three sacks in the Patriots’ first shutout in over three seasons. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)

FOXBORO — In light of the team’s first shutout in over three years, Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was pleased with the 28-0 result Sunday over the Dolphins. But, on Monday, he was even happier for the players.

“I think absolutely you’re always looking for improvement,” Patricia said. “Obviously you’re happy with the effort and excited for the players. They’re the ones who did all the work on the field to achieve certain goals, but certainly when you go back and look at the film, there’s a lot of things we need to do better, improve on and work on and that’s really what we’ll focus on, obviously more so than just the scoreboard there. But, you know, it was a good effort by everybody out there.

“I think guys really tried hard and did things we asked them to do and we’re pleased with that, but there are certainly some areas of improvement that you can really take a look at and say, ‘We really have to do some things better here because they just weren’t good enough.’”

The last time the Patriots blanked an opponent was Oct. 18, 2009 – the 59-0 thrashing of the Titans at Gillette. A lot has been said and written about the lack of defense in the three seasons since. But the team has turned over most of the defensive roster since then, with the notable exception of Vince Wilfork. Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower have become household names.

But Sunday was also a coming out party for rookie defensive lineman Justin Francis, who had a career-best three sacks.

“Coach [Bill Belichick] hit it right on the head as far as the great thing about what we do is obviously a team effort,” Patricia said. “When you look at the bottom line stats and you see one particular player with high numbers, I don’t really think that tells the whole story. If you take a good look at the game and what actually happened during a particular play, you’ll see that there’s a lot of other factors that contribute to maybe a player making a play on that particular situation. You can single out anybody with stat numbers yesterday but if you take a look at the group effort, it was really what we were looking for.

“You can certainly see situations where the guys in coverage in those situations did a really excellent job to allow the pass rush time to get to the quarterback and then you can see situations where the pass rush was able to get to the quarterback, which allowed the cover guys to not have to cover as long. So, I really think it was a good, collaborative effort, along with the same thing for the run game, where one guy may be making a particular tackle or a particular play, but what you don’t see is the other guy that has three guys on him at one time [and is] eating up a bunch of blockers [which] frees up another player. That’s the beauty of the sport and that’s really what we strive for in a team effort so I think that’s what we’re talking about when we have successful plays like that, where we get a good particular play but really there’s a lot of other factors that go into it.” Read the rest of this entry »

Matt Patricia

Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia has been doing his part when it comes to getting new cornerback Aqib Talib up to speed in the New England defense. Patricia, speaking on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, said he had a chance to meet with Talib on Monday, and they’re taking it day-to-day at this point.

“Obviously, we’re evaluating as the week goes, but we’re excited to get going with this week and get ready for Indianapolis. We’ll certainly see how that goes,” Patricia said. “But as far as getting a chance to get to know him, it was great. Professional, the guy’s been in the league, so no problems there.

“I think we’re just going to have to wait and see and evaluate it as the week goes on. Obviously, like all our players that come in, we expect them to work hard and get on board with what we’re doing as soon as they can and get out there and contribute in any way we feel is positive for the team.”

Getting Talib acclimated to the New England defense is one of Patricia’s big challenges this week. The other is preparing the Patriots for Colts rookie quarterback Andrew Luck, who has impressed over the first nine games of his professional career.

“Indianapolis offensively is doing a phenomenal job,” Patricia said. “You can really tell Andrew Luck is grasping what they’re trying to do, and obviously, coach [Bruce] Arians is doing a great job of getting them in the right situations and they have some excellent players around him. Obviously you know Reggie Wayne, who is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He has progressed throughout the year and is obviously playing a very high level right now from an offensive standpoint.

“Certainly we understand that [Luck] has the title of a rookie, but we’re well into the season here and he has played quite a few games in the NFL, and he’s really doing a good job of handling that offense and running the offense and putting them in situations to win football games — that’s what you want out of your quarterback. It will certainly be a big challenge for us this week.”

Aqib Talib is the newest member of the Patriots. (AP)

In his first public comments since the Patriots acquired cornerback Aqib Talib from Tampa Bay last week, Bill Belichick was willing to concede he thought Talib was “a good player,” but that was pretty much it.

On a conference call with the media on Monday afternoon, the Patriots coach — as well as defensive coordinator Matt Patricia — said their focus was more about the Bills and less about Talib, who won’t return from a four-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy until after this week’s game against Buffalo.

“Right now, really, our focus is on the Bills, and the players that will be preparing for the game, and the players that are here at this time,” Belichick said when asked about Talib. “So we’ll take that as it comes. When he gets here, we’ll deal with it.”

“I think he’s a good player,” Belichick later said, adding that they were able to use the intel they gathered on him as part of the pre-draft process in 2008, as well as what they saw with their own eyes when the Patriots and Bucs held joint practices this summer.

Patricia was asked about his thoughts on Talib, and what sort of role he could have with the team once he returns from suspension.

“I think we’re obviously going to focus on Buffalo and who’s on the team right now, but he’s a good player and when we do get a chance to work with him, we’ll address those issues at the time,” he said.

Expect Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels to dive into the self-scouting process over the next few days. (AP)

With the bye week, the Patriots’ coaching staff will get a few extra days to do some self-scouting and examine what sort of things they’re doing right, as well as some things they might need some work on. According to Bill Belichick, the self-scouting process involves “a combination of things,” including some statistical analysis, film study, meetings with positional coaches and looking at how other teams have played them.

“We take a look at our statistical information, what we’ve done, how productive it has or hasn’t been in all aspects, see what tendencies we have created and whether we’re happy with those tendencies or whether we want to change them,” Belichick said on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “Then we go back and look at each of the individual plays and groups of plays and see if there’s something that jumps out or maybe we go into it looking for something and see what we can find.

“Sometimes we just look at it, and you see a group of 15 or 20 plays in a certain situation – red area, two minute, third down, outside runs, inside runs, whatever it happens to be. Sometimes something just jumps out at you,” he added. “It’s probably something you’re aware of, but maybe it’s a little bit more prevalent than what you expected — the self-scouting process, the film evaluation, kind of taking a look at how other teams have played us, if there’s a common thread there, if we’re kind of seeing the same coverages or the same front or the same plays or the same formations are repeating.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Josh McDaniels said the self-scouting process is all about being able to “identify areas that you can make some progress and/or make some improvements — or at least make your players aware of some things we need to try to do better.” But you also have to be mindful of the time you do have.

“You can’t hit everything in a bye week. It’s too short in terms of time that you have with the payers,” the Patriots offensive coordinator said Tuesday. “But if we find a few things that we feel like can make a difference for us in some area of our games, that’s definitely something you try to get done. I think if you try to tackle 100 things you probably don’t get anything accomplished.

“We’re in the process now of just trying to look back over the first half of the season and maybe more specifically the last so many games here and try to focus on some things that we think can make us better heading into the last eight games.”

According to defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, the key is to pinpoint a few areas of emphasis — not give players a series of “mass pieces.”

“Obviously that’s a big part of this week for us certainly — to take a look at everything that we’re doing and see some areas where we can improve and hopefully find some areas where we are doing some things that are also OK and good, and things that we can build off of,’ Patricia said. “So we’ll certainly take a look at that as well.

“Hopefully [you] try to find a couple areas once you take a look at it and show the players a couple avenues where we can really do some things better and improve that would really make a difference in our team. I think you’ve got to try to narrow that down — after you take a good look at all of it — and give them a smaller scope so that you’re not just looking at everything and try to get something done instead of just giving them mass pieces.”

Matt Patricia

When it came to Sunday’s game-winning touchdown pass from Seattle rookie quarterback Russell Wilson to wide receiver Sidney Rice, Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia blamed a lack of execution across the board that led to the defensive breakdown.

“I think the particular play that you’re talking about, obviously we’ve got to execute better and coach better the call that we were in,” Patricia said on a conference call with the media on Monday afternoon. “[The] defense is called to try to stop any particular play that they can throw at us or run at us, and we’ve just got to go out and execute and perform it at a higher level.

“I can’t really say that an extra defender or an extra player here or there would have helped us, but we’ve got to obviously do a better job overall from coaching and playing to just handling the situation and the play better.”

The Patriots have up a bunch of big plays Sunday: Seattle had six pass plays of 20 yards or more and four pass plays of 40-plus yards. There were three completions, including the 46-yard touchdown pass to Rice, as well as a 40-yard pass interference penalty in the fourth quarter on safety Patrick Chung.

Asked about the big plays being the result of technique or mental issues, Patricia said it was a little bit of both.

“I think you’re probably going to look at both when you go back and take a look at it,” he said. “‘What could we have done from an awareness standpoint that was better?’ and ‘What could we have done from a technique standpoint that was better?’ So you need to improve on both because it just wasn’t good enough.”

Here are a few more highlights from Patricia’s Q&A with the media:
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Thanks to the Patriots’ PR staff, here are a few highlights from Tuesday’s conference calls with coach Bill Belichick, defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

Bill Belichick

How long before Visanthe Shiancoe will be able to be an active participant?
“We’re just taking it day to day.”

Do you have any plans of making a move with the IR exemption rule kicking in today?
“Whenever we make any roster moves, we’ll make sure that you get that release as quickly as we make them, like we always do.”

What kind of challenges does Chris Johnson present for your defense and what skills does he bring to the table?
“It’s a huge challenge. His production speaks for itself. He’s really an outstanding player with the ball in his hands – in the passing game, in the running game, inside runs, outside runs, draws, screens. Everybody is at the point of attack because he has the speed to start one way and go the other to get back to the cutback backside of the defense or bounce out in either direction. Really everybody is at the point of attack when he has the ball. It’s a big challenge for our defense. He’s very dangerous. He’s had like four touchdowns over 75 yards, something like that. Whenever he gets the ball anywhere on the field, he’s just one play away from the end zone. Everybody has to be ready and do their job and make sure that no matter where he hits it, we have to defend it because he can attack anywhere on the field.”

Does Greg Salas have any experience on special teams outside of returning punts?
“It’s been limited but he’s got good size. Physically he’s got a good makeup to be able to compete in the kicking game from a size, speed, athletic standpoint. As you mentioned, he’s had some experience in the return game. We’ll see how it goes there.”

Is that something you look for when you’re getting into third, fourth or fifth receivers – someone who gives you value on special teams units as well?
“Of course it’s always a plus. The more versatility the player has, the more things he can do, the more value he has to our football team and to himself in terms of roster spot, playing time and so forth. That’s always good to have it. Some players don’t have it and they’re good at the position that they play or the things that they do and that’s great because we need that too. Players that have versatility and can do multiple things and particularly do them at a good level add a lot of value to our team and to themselves.”
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The Patriots announced Thursday position responsibilities for six members on the current coaching staff. Matt Patricia has been named defensive coordinator, Josh Boyer will coach cornerbacks, Brian Flores will coach safeties, Patrick Graham will coach the defensive line and Pepper Johnson will coach the linebackers. On offense, George Godsey will coach the tight ends. In addition, Joe Judge has been named special teams assistant and Steve Belichick, son of the head coach, has been named a coaching assistant.

Here’s a bit more from the team on each move, directly from the press release:
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