Bell: Patriots' defense has championship timing

They say defense wins championships. Sometimes, it's just making the big play at the right time.

This really rings true about now for the New England Patriots, whose trip to another AFC title game wasn't secured until they survived a couple of serious hold-your-breath moments Saturday night.

"That was huge," Patriots safety Devin McCourty told Paste BN Sports, mindful of the alternative.

Rather than preparing to face the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake, New England's season might be over if not for safety Duron Harmon's goal-line interception in the waning moments of the divisional playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Why Joe Flacco threw that deep, underthrown heave is a bit of a mystery – especially considering how the Ravens were gashing New England on the ground – but that's an opportunity the Patriots needed as much as they rolled with Tom Brady's magic and Bill Belichick's bag of tricks.

"We have to be able to close it out," McCourty said.

McCourty had an interception in the second half and got a hand to bat down the Hail Mary pass by Flacco as time expired that ultimately sealed the game. But the Patriots know. Their defense is an X factor. It can be clutch … or rather ordinary.

Here's how Belichick put it Saturday: "Defensively, we got some big plays. Overall, I don't think this was one of our all-time best games. We gave up a lot of yardage, a lot of points. We have to coach better. We have to play better."

No doubt, Belichick has a better defense than he took to last season's AFC title game. After having problems matching up against Peyton Manning's receivers in Denver last January, Belichick retooled his secondary with the additions of physical cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner.

Meanwhile, there's growth in other areas. Third-year linebacker Jamie Collins keeps getting better and has stepped up as part of a front seven that for the second year in a row lost Pro Bowl linebacker Jerod Mayo to a season-ending knee injury.

Vince Wilfork, the leader of the unit and only current Patriots player besides Brady to have won a Super Bowl with the team, said that for as much as he hates to compare, he sees a lot more versatility with individuals able to adapt to different schemes – flipping from, say, a 3-4 look to a 4-3 scheme in a heartbeat – than in recent years.

Belichick has always aimed to develop defenses with the flexibility to switch up its schemes on any given week, but he hasn't always had the personnel to do that.

"In the past, we probably had a couple guys we could move around, but now we've got more than a couple of guys," Wilfork told Paste BN Sports. "That helps you game-plan the way you want to. That gives our opponents a harder time to try to figure us out."

This is now one of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck's challenges this week, with his encore act after beating Manning in Denver. Luck has a chance to demonstrate that he's ready to take a step from star quarterback of the future to star quarterback of the present.

Pushing his offense to put up enough points to beat Brady is one thing.

Handling the complexities of a Belichick defense is another thing. Belichick typically gets the best of young quarterbacks with the X's-and-O's chess game. And the three times Luck has played the Patriots – including a Week 11 matchup this season and a divisional playoff game last season – it has been tough sledding.

Each of the three games was a lopsided Patriots victory: 42-20, 43-22 and 59-24.

But it's a new week. Luck is hot, and you'd think he has learned something from the experiences against the Patriots. Hey, he threw eight interceptions in those games, but only one in the last encounter.

"This guy is not only mobile, he has a very strong arm (and) can move out of the pocket and keep his vision and concentration downfield and really see the entire field," Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said of Luck on Monday. "That's a huge challenge for us."

I asked Patricia whether there's a red flag to consider with his run defense. Baltimore, with its zone-stretch scheme, created huge lanes that allowed Justin Forsett to rush for 129 yards.

That's one of the questions about the Patriots defense, especially without Mayo. Although New England allowed less than 4 yards a carry during the month of December, the run defense was a liability in all four of New England's losses this season and twice gave up more than 200 yards on the ground.

Indianapolis' rushing game is not its ticket. Luck carries the offense with a passing attack that has enough weapons and versatility that it can attack deep or move consistently with the quarterback spraying the ball around.

Yet the Colts running game, with Dan Herron emerging, is better than it was in November when they managed 19 yards on 16 carries vs. New England. Of course, those were the best numbers the Patriots run defense has produced this season.

But Patricia is wary nonetheless, with added concern being a Colts scheme with some of the same zone runs Baltimore employs, and Luck's ability to scramble for big runs.

"It'll be a big challenge for us," Patricia said. "They can get the ball to their running backs in a variety of ways – both inside and outside with the different schemes they run. Certainly, then add to that their quarterback will give us another layer of difficulty to defend."

Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.