As Patriots get defensive, Falcons have tall order

The prism through which the New England Patriots' defense is viewed has so much more to do with what it hasn't done than what it has, for whatever reason. So for the next 10 days we will hear and read about how Russell Wilson shredded them and how Le'Veon Bell got hurt against them and how Matt Ryan will hang 40 on them.

But let's examine what turned out to be the critical juncture of the Patriots' 36-17 dismantling of the Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday night's AFC championship game: Pittsburgh's first and goal from six inches out, second quarter, trailing by 17-6. By now, days later, we're supposed to be in look-ahead mode, focused on Super Bowl LI and Ryan vs. Tom Brady and Roger Goodell vs. Robert Kraft and blah blah blah.

But what happened at that crux Sunday night provides the best indication of what the Patriots will need to do to win Feb. 5 in Houston. To some degree, a Patriots defense that has been told - and will be told again - that it hasn't faced a quarterback of Ryan's caliber all season will have to stop a quarterback of Ryan's caliber, not to mention the arsenal around him, inarguably the best offense in the sport.

So in that moment when the AFC championship game could have swung, here is how the Patriots responded: linebacker Dont'a Hightower and safety Patrick Chung blew through left guard and dropped Pittsburgh back DeAngelo Williams for a loss on first down; rookie defensive tackle Vincent Valentine exploded into the backfield to crush Williams for a three-yard loss on second down; and on third down, the flummoxed Steelers tried an ineffectual pass into the flat that fell harmlessly to the turf.

Field goal instead of touchdown, Steelers. Ballgame, Patriots.

The Patriots allowed fewer points than any other team in the NFL this season. They were better than the next-best team, the New York Giants, by more than two points per game.

And what they heard entering the game against the Steelers is that they hadn't faced a team with a quarterback the caliber of Ben Roethlisberger and a running back the caliber of Bell and a receiver as dynamic as Antonio Brown. Put those together, New England was told, and watch out.

"We all took it personally," defensive back Duron Harmon said.

Harmon is not a character viewers flip on the TV to see, and he's not alone. Here are the 11 players who started on New England's defense against Pittsburgh and could well start against Atlanta: Alan Branch, Jabaal Sheard and Trey Flowers along the defensive line; Hightower, Rob Ninkovich and Elandon Roberts (another rookie) at linebacker; and Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan, Chung, Devin McCourty and Harmon at defensive back. (Wait. Where's Jamie Collins, the playmaking, in-his-prime linebacker? Oh, right. The Patriots traded him to the Browns in midseason.)

If you don't live between Darien, Connecticut, and Damariscotta, Maine, and yet are intimately familiar with four of those New England starters, you are an astute and enthusiastic football fan. We know Butler from his Super Bowl-saving pick against Seattle, maybe McCourty and Ninkovich because they have started more than 100 games for the Pats, Hightower because he was a first-round pick out of Alabama, which is on national television every week, and maybe - maybe - Chung?