Year in and year out the Patriots have one of the league's top fantasy defenses. A large part of it is what they do better than any other team: Take the ball away.
New England has ranked 12th or better in takeaways in each of the last five seasons: 10th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd and 12th from 2009-2013. Over those five seasons, their 170 takeaways is better than any other team. Just once in those five years have they finished lower than 11th in fantasy defense (in a scoring system awarding 1 point for sacks, 2 points for takeaways, and 6 points for touchdowns).
Part of it comes from playing in an offensively challenged division (sorry, Mark Sanchez). But the Patriots are just really good at forcing mistakes.
Takeaways over the last five seasons, sorted by totals, are presented below.
NFL TAKEAWAYS, 2009-2013 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | '09 | '10 | '11 | '12 | '13 | Total |
New England | 28 | 38 | 34 | 41 | 29 | 170 |
Chicago | 28 | 35 | 31 | 44 | 28 | 166 |
NY Giants | 24 | 39 | 31 | 35 | 29 | 158 |
Green Bay | 40 | 32 | 38 | 23 | 22 | 155 |
San Francisco | 33 | 22 | 38 | 25 | 30 | 148 |
Seattle | 23 | 22 | 31 | 31 | 39 | 146 |
Carolina | 37 | 29 | 24 | 23 | 30 | 143 |
Arizona | 29 | 30 | 19 | 33 | 30 | 141 |
Atlanta | 28 | 31 | 29 | 31 | 21 | 140 |
Philadelphia | 38 | 34 | 24 | 13 | 31 | 140 |
Tampa Bay | 29 | 28 | 24 | 26 | 31 | 138 |
Buffalo | 33 | 22 | 31 | 21 | 30 | 137 |
Cincinnati | 25 | 26 | 22 | 30 | 31 | 134 |
Baltimore | 32 | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 134 |
NY Jets | 31 | 30 | 31 | 23 | 15 | 130 |
Kansas City | 28 | 23 | 26 | 13 | 36 | 126 |
New Orleans | 39 | 25 | 16 | 26 | 19 | 125 |
Detroit | 22 | 29 | 34 | 17 | 22 | 124 |
Tennessee | 27 | 25 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 124 |
Washington | 17 | 27 | 21 | 31 | 26 | 122 |
Dallas | 21 | 30 | 24 | 16 | 28 | 119 |
Cleveland | 19 | 28 | 20 | 29 | 21 | 117 |
Denver | 30 | 18 | 18 | 24 | 26 | 116 |
Jacksonville | 25 | 18 | 28 | 23 | 21 | 115 |
St. Louis | 20 | 26 | 18 | 21 | 29 | 114 |
Minnesota | 24 | 25 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 114 |
San Diego | 25 | 22 | 21 | 28 | 17 | 113 |
Houston | 27 | 18 | 27 | 29 | 11 | 112 |
Pittsburgh | 22 | 35 | 15 | 20 | 20 | 112 |
Oakland | 20 | 24 | 26 | 19 | 22 | 111 |
Indianapolis | 26 | 21 | 17 | 15 | 27 | 106 |
Miami | 21 | 19 | 19 | 16 | 24 | 99 |
--Andy Richardson