Vince Wilfork nose his defense

Vince Wilfork [stats] batted it away with the same big paws he has used to deflect two passes. Pain is not an obstacle for the Pro Bowl nose tackle.

“You play with pain,” Wilfork said yesterday. “If I can play, I’m going to play. I’d rather have (pain) than be injured. I have willed myself to play through pain.”

The sturdy 6-foot-2, 325-pounder out of the University of Miami has backed up those assertions. In his previous five, star-studded seasons with the Patriots [team stats], he has played in all 16 regular-season games four times.

That’s an astounding track record for a defensive lineman that faces constant double teams. He still ranks seventh in the NFL among interior lineman with 15 tackles, along with a forced fumble.

So when he suffered an ankle injury that knocked him out against Atlanta on Sept. 27, it was no surprise that he returned to help shut down the Ravens the following week.

“Luckily, it hasn’t happened too often that I have missed games,” Wilfork said.

The linchpin means more to the Pats than his statistics. In a contract year, with a potential uncapped season looming, Wilfork said he isn’t concerned about his financial plight.

“That’s not in my mind, contract talk and all that,” he said. “That’s what I pay my agent for. If he has a problem, he has my number.”

Otherwise, the second-year captain has no problem speaking his mind. During a 20-minute, impassioned session with the media yesterday, Wilfork sent message after message to his teammates.

He wasn’t critical of a defense that is tied for 11th in the league with 314.8 yards allowed per game.

“It’s not like everything’s bad,” he said. “But when we’ve needed a play, we haven’t gotten it.

“It’s time to start playing Patriot football, which we haven’t been doing this whole season. If we don’t step up, it’s going to be a long season. I know it’s a long season already. Don’t make it extra long, unless it’s good extra long. We’ve seen little sparks, here and there, but we’re just so inconsistent. We have to be more consistent.”

He’s not alone.

Defensive coordinator Dean Pees said as much Tuesday after the team allowed drives of 90 and 98 yards against the Broncos last Sunday. And safety Brandon Meriweather echoed Wilfork’s call.

“We need to start running to the ball and having fun on defense,” Meriweather said. “The rest of the things will come.”

What frustrated Wilfork the most was the lengthy drives. Though he turned in one of his better games (five tackles, one for a loss), Wilfork helped allow the Broncos to convert on 4-of-9 third downs in the second half and overtime.

“I don’t care if it’s by turnovers or third downs or whatever it may be, we have to get off the field,” he said. “We can’t have teams going 90 yards, 95 yards on us every week. We can’t have that. We can start by getting them third-and-long and getting off the field or stopping the run, and creating turnovers. If we do that, we’ll be in good shape.”

The increased emphasis began this week, because, as he said, “We just have to start playing some good football around here on a consistent basis.”

Like an elder statesmen, Wilfork cautioned that an 0-5 Titans team can be dangerous. He used the metaphor of a wounded dog ready to strike to protect itself.

Consider the players warned.

“They’re going to come out firing,” Wilfork said of Sunday’s opponent. “They’re going to be ready to play. We have to match it. If we don’t match that, we’ll be 3-3. We understand we need to play better football around here, start stringing some games together, which we haven’t been.

“Hopefully, we can get back on track.”



(bostonherald.com)