The Patriots defense is on the cusp of completing a historic playoff run that has propelled them to Super Bowl LX against the Seahawks at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on Sunday.

In their first three playoff games, the Patriots defense has allowed just 26 points, the fewest in a three-game span in the postseason since the 2000 Ravens, which was revered as one of the most dominant defenses in NFL history. New England has held their three playoff opponents to 209.7 total yards per game, 3.3 yards per play, nine explosive plays, -0.42 EPA per play, and has accumulated 12 sacks – all NFL-playoff bests.

Despite that, the chatter heading into each playoff game the Patriots have played this season is either about the opposing defense or what the opposing offense lacks. It's a backup quarterback, a banged-up offense, or a vaunted defense on the other side that's getting all the love (Texans, Broncos, and now Seahawks). Although those defenses are all deserving of praise, the Patriots players are starting to take notice and using it to fuel their Super Bowl run.

"If we win, they ain't gonna have no choice. But they'll probably still find an excuse or make up something – somebody played badly, or I don't know," said standout DT Milton Williams. "Going into the game, you always hear about this offense, what they're going to do and all this and that. Then, when we play them, it's an excuse for why they didn't do what they said they would do instead of just giving us credit and we thrive on that."

Many of Williams' teammates echoed the same sentiment as Williams, with linebackers Christian Elliss and K'Lavon Chaisson saying they've heard the outside noise as well.

"I feel like reporters are the ones who have been giving us bulletin board material. Most of the time, you can look at other teams and say look at what this player said. Most of the time it's been reporters this year, and for us, we are going to use it as fuel for the fire," Elliss added.

"It's definitely added [fuel], for sure. I think everybody tends to play with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder and they've been overlooked. In some cases, it may be disrespectful. So, we hear the noise," Chaisson said.

Even the Patriots assistant coaches admit that the outside noise will inevitably reach the players, even if they don't openly discuss it in front of the coaches often.

"They may talk to each other about it, but there's no way they don't hear it. I think they hear it, but they process it well and they just go to work. The only thing we can do is our jobs and they have really approached it that way," said cornerbacks coach Justin Hamilton.

For the AFC Champions, the most important opinions are those inside the building and the results on the field speak for themselves. After an MVP-caliber season for second-year QB Drake Maye led to a 14-3 regular season, the Patriots are set to play for their seventh Lombardi Trophy on the back of the defense's dominant playoff run, where that side of the ball has peaked at the exact right time to lead New England to Super Bowl LX.

"Well, they've been continuing to improve. I think most of the people on our team, our coaching staff, have continued to improve. And that's what you have to do for the teams that want to be here. Talked about the ones that are playing the best football late are the ones that are usually in the playoffs. And that continues to happen. So, I give them a lot of credit, defensively, for what they've done. We'll need our best effort on Sunday," said head coach Mike Vrabel.

After some early-season trials and tribulations, the Patriots defense has found its stride. With another winning performance on Sunday, the NFL world will have no choice but to acknowledge it.

Installing a New Defense as LBs Coach Zak Kuhr Takes Over Play-Calling

The Patriots defense faced serious hurdles to overcome at the start of the season, both on and off the field, as they learned a new defensive system under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel.

Defensively, Vrabel put together a staff that was mostly filled with the same lieutenants that he had in Tennessee. He tabbed longtime defensive line coach Terrell Williams as defensive coordinator, while reuniting with linebackers coach Zak Kuhr, safeties coach Scott Booker, corners coach Justin Hamilton, and defensive line coach Clint McMillan. The only position coach without direct ties to Vrabel was outside linebackers coach Mike Smith.

New England's new-look coaching staff then went to work installing the scheme that Vrabel and Williams ran in Tennessee, while integrating several new faces, including key free-agent additions Milton Williams, Robert Spillane, and Carlton Davis, along with fourth-round rookie Craig Woodson, who has started 18 of 20 games this season. At first, there were some struggles, including allowing a season-high 362 passing yards in the season-opening loss to the Raiders.

"Whenever a new defense is put in, whenever new coaches come in, some new players within our group. Just those types of things. So, everybody is just sticking to the plan. It's been great to see, but to say that there was a flipped switch or something happened this certain week, it's just been a continuous improvement from the Raiders game," Booker said during Super Bowl week.

After losing to the Raiders in Week 1, Williams had to step away from coaching when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, his second major health scare of the calendar year. According to Vrabel, Williams is now cancer-free and he made the trip with the team to Santa Clara to continue giving his input into the defense. But Kuhr had to step in for Williams early in the season as the primary play-caller, a major shakeup that could've derailed the Patriots season before it started in year one under Vrabel. Now, Kuhr has found his stride as a playcaller and has the Patriots defense playing a "violent" brand of football.

"I think we have a good flow right now with the guys: the staff, myself, Vrabes, very collaborative. We have a good rhythm, good flow going," said Kuhr. "I would say that the unit has gotten better each week as far as technique and fundamentals. You watch the film, you see a lot of these guys, like Cory Durden, [Christian] Barmore, Milton [Williams], the DBs, just the techniques are showing up better game to game. Everybody's been healthy and there's been cohesion. Credit to those guys, man. They've played their asses off these past few games."

One situation where Kuhr flexed his play-calling chops was getting the best of Broncos head coach Sean Payton on a key 4th-and-1 in the AFC Championship Game. With Denver leading 7-0 in the first half, Payton elected to go for it in field goal range rather than taking the points. The Broncos ran QB Jarrett Stidham on a bootleg with the running back releasing fast into the flat on a pick play, but the Patriots were ready for it.

"I wish I'd stayed with the initial play call," Payton said after scrapping a run call to get into the pass play. "The look they showed on film and the look we saw wasn't the look we got."

New England played red-two, a zone coverage with six defenders on the line of scrimmage and two deep defenders splitting the field. The Pats then slanted the line right into Stidham's bootleg, with Durden and Williams blowing up the play. In the flat, Woodson recognized his receiver, WR Lil'Jordan Humphrey, coming down the line like he was about to pick him, so Woodson wisely switched off Humphrey to take the back – the play had no chance.

"I had a good feeling of what they might do. We worked a call that we had been working all week for that look and it worked out, Kuhr said.

The Patriots turned the Broncos over on downs, scored the game's lone touchdown off a takeaway produced by a well-timed third-down blitz, and the rest is now etched in Patriots history.

Patriots 'Cat Coverage' Plan Coming to Life in the Postseason

When the Patriots built their defense, the plan was to have Williams and DT Christian Barmore wrecking the line of scrimmage while their cornerback trio locked it down in the secondary.

A huge reason why the Patriots are in the Super Bowl is that they've dominated the line of scrimmage defensively in these playoffs. ​Led by Barmore, Chaisson, and Williams, New England is generating pressure at an impressive 36.1% clip in the postseason, while also holding opponents to a 31.6% rushing success rate.

Along with dominating the trenches, the Pats vision at cornerback has come to life down the stretch. During the free-agent signings introductory press conference, Vrabel outlined a plan for Davis and Pro Bowl CB Christian Gonzalez to play 'cat coverage,' which Vrabel described as, "you got this cat, I got that cat," speaking to the possibilities of playing heavy amounts of man coverage.

In the regular season, New England was only 12th in man coverage rate at 29.8%, which was lower than expected. However, the Patriots have increased their man coverage rate to 36.8% in the postseason and have also blitzed 40.6% of the time, a 13% increase from the regular season. By trusting the backend to cover with fewer defenders, the Pats have been able to turn up the heat on opposing quarterbacks.

In the playoffs, the Patriots defense has allowed 2.7 yards per play across 49 man coverage snaps, nearly two full yards fewer than the Chargers league-low mark in the regular season (4.0), per NextGen Stats. Furthermore, New England's cornerback trio of Davis, Gonzalez, and NCB Marcus Jones has allowed a passer rating of 48.2 and just a 39.3% catch rate when they play man coverage.

"I saw no ceiling for us when I came over here. Just watching those guys practice, watching their competitive edge, watching them play in the games; I knew we had something special," Davis said of the Patriots cornerback trio. "You don't always get a chance to play with two other corners who are just as great and are playmakers. A lot of people don't get a chance to play in a Super Bowl on a team like this, so I'm just blessed."

On paper, the Patriots had the makings of a shutdown cornerback room when they added Davis into the mix with Gonzalez and Jones. Still, coaches admit that it wasn't until the second half of the season that they started to see the vision the personnel department had come to fruition.

"You envision that, but it's just ahead of schedule from what I even envisioned. Baltimore, when we came back in prime time up there with everything they had to play for, that's when I started to think this could be something special. Before that, I love this team, but I didn't foresee this probably until that night," said Hamilton.

Earlier in the postseason, Vrabel also acknowledged that he has seen Gonzalez turn up the intensity in the later part of the season, pointing to the same Baltimore comeback as a turning point for the talented corner.

"I get why [Vrabel] would say that. I saw a guy who understood how to continue peaking to where he would be at his peak at the right time of the season," Hamilton said. "He's maybe the most intelligent player I've ever been around and his process is excellent. He understood that there's more at stake each time we play or each time we win.

"He's got a photographic memory where he can see a picture and it's locked in. Whether that's a formation, a motion, a split, how somebody breaks the huddle, how he aligns in his stance, the quarterback's mannerisms with the receiver, or with his eye progression, pre-snap, like just things that are hard to coach. You have to be on point with how you coach him because he's going to remember it," Hamilton continued.

Although the Patriots third-year corner laughed off his position coach saying he has a photographic memory, Gonzalez offered some insight into how he's able to process information at a high level. The Pro Bowl corner also spoke about playing with Davis and Jones this season.

"Being around ball my whole life, I played offense growing up, so I'm able to see pictures pretty well and I'm able to remember it," Gonzalez said. "CD coming in, he's kind of that veteran presence we needed in the room. I lean on him and talk to him about a lot of things. He's played a lot of ball, won the Super Bowl, so I'm able to talk to him about things like that.

"We mesh really well. Marcus is definitely the loud, outgoing, musically talented one. I have no musical talent. CD and I are more chill," Gonzalez continued. "I've been playing with Marcus the past two years. I know what he brings to the table. Being in the slot, that's not an easy job at all. He does a very good job at it. He has very good spatial awareness, knows where his help is, knows the ins and outs of the defense – he's very smart."

Continuing to Win on First Down to Set Up G.B.O.T. Plays a Key to Super Bowl LX

The other situational statistic that stands out for the Patriots playoff defense is how dominant they've been on first down, getting opposing offenses out of rhythm, which favors the defense.

This postseason, the Patriots are holding opponents to a league-best -0.29 EPA per play and a 35.1% success rate on first down. By winning first downs, the Patriots are getting offenses into second- and third-and-long situations, where New England can start running its exotic defensive schemes and put pressure on quarterbacks in obvious passing situations.

"We've come together defensively as a group of 11 on the field. Playing as one heartbeat has been the key to our recent defensive success. Being dominant, stopping the run early and often, forcing them into must-pass situations and then getting after the quarterback with our great D-Line," said captain Robert Spillane.

During the regular season, the Seahawks ranked fifth in EPA per play on first down (+0.08). Seattle runs a West Coast offense under Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak, the son of longtime coach Gary Kubiak, who has ties to the Shanahan coaching tree. Along with being one of the top first-down offenses, Seahawks QB Sam Darnold also led the league in play-action EPA per play, which isn't surprising given that play-action success is a calling card of the Shanahan coaching tree.

"[Klint] has some blends of San Francisco, what he did in New Orleans, and then back to his dad and some of the Minnesota stuff. You can tell there's a good flow they have going on as far as the run game, mirroring the play-action game and boot game. When they do need to drop back, Darnold's playing lights out," said Kuhr. "Shoot, a lot of challenges. Run game, pass game, explosive, efficient. The run game is so efficient that it gains that extra step on second- and third-level players. Now here comes the overs and crossers."

With the Patriots defense hoping to continue its historic playoff run, the key to winning Super Bowl LX will be who wins the run+play-action battle – a strength-on-strength matchup. Darnold's efficiency is off the charts on early-down, play-action passes. However, the Seahawks QB is just 24th out of 29 qualified quarterbacks in EPA per drop-back while under pressure. If the Pats can get Seattle off-schedule, that's when pressure rates climb and they can pressure Darnold into mistakes in long down-and-distances.

New England is entering another game where the opposing defense will likely get most of the pre-game hype, but that seems to be exactly how the Patriots defense wants it.

DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer