He's in the top 3 for sure. An excellent QB who is definitely top tier. No one is questioning his ability. However, he's not unstoppable. A good game plan + talented defensive personnel can limit his output. The best defense he has played this year has been Seattle and they kept GB to 16 points. He hasn't faced a secondary that talented since then.
You claim Minnesota's D is better than NE's. That couldn't be further from the truth. Minnesota has played two good offenses this year and gave up 30 points one game (to a NE team that was struggling at the time) and 42 in the other to GB. Other than that they haven't faced any good competition. And they're only 2 spots better than NE in yards allowed per game but they give up more points than we do.
As far as the passing D, Minnesota's QB rating allowed is 94.7 and NE's is 82. This is after NE has played the likes of Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck.
You can't simply look at the stats without context. You also can't ignore the game planning. We play a lot of bend-but-don't break defense. We always have - even during the SB years. We may give up yards between the 20s but we're strong in the red zone and we create a ton of turnovers. Plus, we can actually cover this year. Reggie Wayne said a couple of weeks ago that this is the best and most complete Pats secondary he has ever seen. And he was there during the Pats/Colts rivalry back when NE won their championships. I completely agree with him.
Don't underestimate Belichick's ability to game plan for your best players and to limit them substantially. If you win, it'll have to be someone other than Cobb or Nelson who beats us.
