FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Imagine how many points the New England Patriots would score if they faced their own defense.

They are 2-1 and lead the AFC with 90 points but have given up 82, third-most in the conference. The young secondary has been the major problem, but there’s plenty of room for improvement as they prepare for Monday night’s game at the Miami Dolphins.

“It isn’t anything where we’re going to panic or anything. We’re not playing complete team defense,” linebacker Tully Banta-Cain said Monday. “The line sometimes plays well, linebackers play well, the secondary, but it’s not consistently doing it at the same time. I think once we put together a complementary game in all those departments you’ll see a good defense.”

The Patriots have allowed more points in each game as the season has gone on. They beat the Cincinnati Bengals 38-24, lost to the New York Jets 28-14 and beat the Buffalo Bills 38-30 on Sunday.

The Bills entered that game with the least productive offense in the NFL but gained 374 yards, 22 more than their combined total in the first two games. One of their touchdowns came on a kickoff return, but the other two were on passes by Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was making his first start of the season after the benching of Trent Edwards, who was released Monday.

Seven of the nine touchdowns allowed by the Patriots this season have been on passes.

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“It’s just based on us doing what we’re supposed to do and not trying to do too much, being in the spots we’re supposed to be in,” safety Jarrad Page said. “The talent’s definitely there.”

Second-year pro Darius Butler and rookie Devin McCourty started the first two games at cornerback.

Butler had a rough game against the Jets and was replaced in the starting lineup against the Bills by Kyle Arrington, a rookie free agent last year making his first NFL start.

“I thought Kyle made a number of good plays,” Coach Bill Belichick said. “He had a couple of good tackles, had a nice play on the fade there to (Lee) Evans in the end zone.”

The Patriots lost two key defensive players, cornerback Leigh Bodden and end Ty Warren, to season-ending injuries before the season.

Six of their 11 starters against the Bills were rookies or second-year players.

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“When you start off, you kind of don’t know what you’ve got,” Banta-Cain said. “You’ve got to get guys in certain situations, see how they react, and as the season goes on coaches can see what positions guys are best in to do their best.

“Right now, we’ve only played three games so it’s still early in the season, but we’ve got a lot of improvement to work on and I think we’ll see it.”

So far, the Patriots have needed to score a lot to offset the defense’s problems.

“I don’t think it’s pressure” on the offense, tight end Alge Crumpler said. “We’ll support each other any way we can. The biggest thing for us is, we’ve got to stay on the field. As long as we stay on the field and give our defense some rest, time to make adjustments, things work out just fine.”

 


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