You just always ignore the great defenses put together for that Brady era.
In the first half of the dynasty, yes the defenses were absolutely a key part of the Patriots success with Bill and Brady. It should also be noted that the core of players for the defense on those teams
were not picked by Bill Belichick. Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinnest, Ty Law, Ted Johnson, Lawyer Malloy, and to a far lesser extent Tebucky Jones were all here
before Bill was the head coach and were a solid defensive unit to boot. Did Bill build upon the foundation that was there and improve it? Absolutely. Free agents like Roman Phifer, Bryan Cox, Ted Washington, Mike Vrabel, Roosevelt Colvin, Rodney Harrison, and Otis Smith alongside draftees like Vince Wilfork, Richard Seymour, and Asante Samuel absolutely played a part in making the Patriots a defensive force. But the core players were already there.
Furthermore, in between the championship runs the team had, there was a stretch where the Patriots defense was put together with bubblegum, sticks, and twine. Outside of Wilfork, McCourtey, Mayo, and Chung the team had a patchwork front seven that could get zero pressure on the quarterback and demanded a lot of their defensive backs to do the heavy lifting to make stops. And all those defensive units were the achilles heel of the Patriots while the team leaned on Brady to pull out a victory from the jaws of defeat.
