Defensive tackle Malcom Brown is in the midst of a strong season, and was one of the bright spots up front against the Bills on Sunday, with two run stuffs and a sack, even with fellow gap-stuffer Alan Branch sidelined.
Asked about Brown’s season, coach Bill Belichick brought up the fact that the 23-year-old wasn’t derailed by a midseason ankle injury he suffered against the Falcons in Week 7.
“He, unfortunately, missed a couple of weeks there in the middle of the season as he was, I think, really kind of getting into a good weekly groove, and then had to take a little break before he was able to get back to that,” Belichick said. “I’d say it happened relatively quickly but, still, there’s a process of playing after having not played which he had to work out and go through. He’s done a good job of that.
“He’s stayed very involved with the team, with the game plan, knowing what we’re doing even in the games that he didn’t play, so he’s really showed a lot of leadership and continued to work on the things he could work on even though there were some things he couldn’t work on.”
After the Falcons game, Brown didn’t play until Week 12. He’s had 1.5 sacks and 12 tackles since then and has 2.5 total sacks and 29 tackles this season.
Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said that Brown’s focus during the stretch when he wasn’t playing developed trust, and told the Patriots coaches they could put more on Brown’s plate when he did return.
“In particular for him, when a guy demonstrates that ability to really try to take ownership for what you’re doing and understand that even when you’re not even in the situation where he can play, that’s when you really trust a guy to go out there and execute it when he does have the opportunity to play,” Patricia said.
For several franchises that means head coaching searches are underway, or about to be underway. Both coordinators from New England, Josh McDaniels and Patricia, were included on the annual list of head coaching candidates distributed by the NFL’s Career Advisory Panel last week.
“We’ll just see what happens, like always,” McDaniels said on a conference call Tuesday.
McDaniels has gotten used to the process. With the Patriots having secured a first-round bye, he and Patricia would be allowed to interview during that week. Should a team want a second interview with either of them, that team would have to wait until the Patriots season is over or, if they make the Super Bowl, the extra week between the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl.
“That’s something that will take care of itself once the season is over,” McDaniels said.
Patricia said he wasn’t giving the process any thought.
“Yeah there’s nothing really there to even discuss,” Patricia said. “Right now it’s all about the Jets . . . Right now my full focus is always our opponent and who we’re playing and trying to do everything I can to help this team win and this defense prepare to win week in week out. That’s my 100 percent commitment to these guys. I think anything else is not justified, thoughts or conversation, because I think that we really need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to get ready to beat the Jets this weekend.”
Third-down issues
The Patriots defense is in pretty poor company when it comes to third-down defense.
New England currently ranks 27th in the NFL in opponents third-down conversion percentage, allowing offenses to get a first down 41.8 percent of the time in those situations.
That’s a statistic that separates the Patriots — and not in a good way — from most playoff teams. In the AFC, Kansas City currently ranks No. 22, but Pittsburgh is No. 6 (35.3 percent), Jacksonville is No. 5 (34.8) and wild-card leaders Baltimore and Tennessee are also inside the top 10.
In the NFC, the Vikings are No. 1 and the Eagles are No. 3. There isn’t a potential playoff matchup from the divisional round to the Super Bowl where the Patriots’ third-down defense wouldn’t be worse, as of now, than that of its opponent.
The Patriots make up for this somewhat by stiffening up in the red zone, but before fans begin to cry that the statistic is irrelevant, New England’s Super Bowl-winning 2016 team was No. 7.
Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.