PHILADELPHIA -- For all Bill Belichick's well-documented defensive contrivances, somehow getting the application of his clever and exotic schemes on the field to match up with the doodled X's on the grease board, the New England Patriots have hardly been a statistical success during his three-year stewardship.

Sure, the team captured a Super Bowl championship just two years ago, when the defense performed brilliantly down the stretch and into the postseason. And to any coach, the only number over which he frets is the one in the left-hand side of the wins-losses ledger book, for sure. But in a sport where entire forests are weekly sacrificed, so press releases and statistical analyses can be pored over, statistics count for something.

And, when it comes to raw numbers, the Patriots defense hasn't always stood up well to scrutiny in some areas. Indeed, there have been times when the Pats have been more like, well, the Patsies.

	Belichick's Pats have yet to crack the top 10 in overall defense.

New England ranked next-to-last, for instance, in defense versus the rush last season. In Belichick's three seasons as head coach of the Patriots, in fact, the defense never rated higher than No. 13 against the run. The Patriots typically are about the middle of the pack in takeaways. And only eight teams have fewer sacks over the last three seasons than do the Patriots, whose inconsistency in dumping the opposing passer is overshadowed by their glaring inadequacies against the rush.

So a change, in 2003, would seem in order. And a change, indeed, has been enacted.

Through free agency, the draft, and an underrated but timely trade earlier this week, New England has undergone an offseason facelift on the defensive side. The result: Only five of the starters in the team's 2002 regular-season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers are projected to be in the lineup when the Pats begin the '03 season at Buffalo on Sept. 7. Not only has the personnel changed, but so has the scheme, as Belichick has adopted the 3-4 look as the Patriots' new "base" front.

With less than two weeks remaining until the opener, the alteration seems to be working well, and the players certainly have embraced it.

"It's going to allow us to be a lot more aggressive in every (facet) of the game," insisted Richard Seymour, who moves from tackle in the former 4-3 front to end in the new even-man alignment. "I don't know that we were really an attacking defense the way we played before. That won't be the case now. This defense really lets (Belichick) take advantage of all those tricks up his sleeve. We're a lot more flexible than we had been."

That upgrade in versatility, which will permit Belichick and coordinator Romeo Crennel to even better disguise fronts (if possible), is primarily attributable to the acquisition of linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, the former Chicago Bears star and one of the most coveted of the players in this spring's unrestricted free-agent market.

Yeah, the trade this week for mammoth nose tackle Ted Washington finally ended the team's pursuit of an interior space-eater, and should dramatically enhance the running game defense. Getting a pair of veterans, safety Rodney Harrison and cornerback Tyrone Poole, bolsters the secondary. The draft brought no fewer than four young defenders who should be getting meaningful playing time quickly. That includes first-round lineman Ty Warren, who has three sacks in three preseason outings, and who should eventually be the bookend to Seymour in the 3-4 alignment.

But in luring Colvin, who signed a six-year, $26 million contract, the Patriots got one of the few legitimate difference makers in free agency. And they expect him to, well, make a difference. New England flew well below the radar screen in its courtship of the four-year veteran, most franchises in the league unaware the Pats were a viable suitor, right up until the time owner Bob Kraft autographed a $6 million signing bonus check.

It is the acquisition of Colvin, who registered 21 sacks over the past two seasons, that on paper completed the metamorphosis to the 3-4 front. Colvin is the classic 3-4 outside defender, a hybrid-type player, one who combines linebacker movement skills with the kind of pass quickness that typically accompanies a weak-side end.

He will play the strong-side linebacker spot in the "base" defense and then will line up at end in most "sub" situations. And given Belichick's fertile imagination, there may be no end to the uses he conjures up for his newest defensive catalyst.

Which is one of the reasons Colvin rebuffed overtures from other teams and quietly set his sights on New England as his new home.

	“	I don't know that we were really an attacking defense the way we played before. That won't be the case now. This defense really lets (Bill Belichick) take advantage of all those tricks up his sleeve. We're a lot more flexible than we had been. ”
		—DE Richard Seymour, on New England switching to a 3-4 defensive alignment

"If you've been around the league long enough, you know how creative (Belichick) really is, OK?" said Colvin. "Why wouldn't you want to perform for a coach who has a track record for coming up with ways to make his players better? Whatever he's got planned for me, hey, I'm ready to try it. Cover a little. Rush a little. It's fine with me."

For the most part, Colvin will be moving forward and toward the quarterback, even from a two-point stance. The beauty of his presence is that the rush-challenged Patriots should now be able to pressure the quarterback without having to make substitutions and bringing on a spate of third-down specialists. The "sub" packages will be reduced and, thus, the confusion. And with fellow hybrid player Willie McGinest rushing from the opposite side, the result should be a kind of pincer movement aimed at the pocket.

New England has registered just 104 sacks in three seasons under Belichick, and showed a nearly 20 percent dropoff in sacks last season. Not since McGinest had 11 sacks back in 1995 has the franchise featured an individual with double-digit sacks. Since 1988, the club's leader in the key category has averaged just 7.9 sacks, and McGinest led the team in 2002, with only 5½ sacks.

Colvin notched 10½ sacks in each of the last two seasons, figures to top that number in 2003, and his presence should create rush opportunities for the other players as well. It is never wise to ascribe too much significance to the preseason schedule but, in their three exhibition outings, the Patriots have collected 15 sacks.

"And pressure usually translates into turnovers, too, and we're seeing that," said strong safety Lawyer Milloy. "You can see that offenses are a little confused already. That's a good sign because we haven't even game-planned very much yet."

Imagine how addled some offenses figure to be once Belichick, with more options now at his disposal, begins digging deeper into his seemingly endless bag of surprises. Look for Colvin to line up all over the place; for emerging star Seymour to move down inside in some fronts to take advantage of his quickness advantage over most guards; and for Washington to occupy two blockers every snap he's on the field, keeping bodies off the inside linebackers, providing them freedom to run to the ball.

"We've got more weapons now," Seymour said, "and you just know that Bill will find ways to use them."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.