FOXBORO -- While Albert Haynesworth was the most notable offseason acquisition for the Patriots, through the first six games of the season, defensive end Andre Carter has been the most consistent new face for New England on the defensive side of the ball.

“I think he’s performed well all year. I really do,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of the 32-year-old Carter, in his first season with the Patriots. “I think he’s had a really solid year for us. I think he’s performed well pretty much since the first training camp practice. He’s a very consistent, high-effort player, strong, experienced, knows what he’s doing, very professional. He’s been really consistent.”

On Sunday against the Cowboys, Carter was the best defensive player on the field for the Patriots, playing a season-high 68 of the 74 defensive snaps (92 percent, up from his previous high of 74 percent the week before against the Jets). And from the first play of the game (when he drew a holding penalty on Dallas tight end John Phillips) to the second half (when he came through with New England’s biggest sack of the season in the third quarter), Carter was dominant all afternoon, finishing with five tackles (four solo), two sacks, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits.

“He’s one of the guys, you watch him on film [and] he’ll tell you, he’d probably be leading the league in sacks with the ones he missed,” said teammate Vince Wilfork of Carter, who leads the team in defensive stops (15) and quarterback pressures (nine) and is second on the team with 2.5 sacks and four quarterback hits. “He has a great motor. He’s a very smart, smart player.”

It was all Carter all the time on Sunday: After he drew a holding penalty on the Cowboys’ first play from scrimmage, five plays later, on Tony Romo’s first-quarter interception, he came flying in off the left side and was in Romo’s face as he let go of the ball, forcing the quarterback to throw off his back foot.

And on his first sack of the game, he used his speed and strength to get around Dallas left tackle Doug Free. On that play, Carter went to the outside, beating Free around the edge, before looping back around and corralling Romo while he was in the pocket. (He also picked up some help on the play when linebacker Brandon Spikes came on a delayed blitz, confusing the Dallas offensive line and leaving Carter single-blocked by Free.)

Back at right end with the Cowboys in the red zone midway through the third quarter, Carter collected the biggest sack of the game. With Dallas in a second-and-goal at the New England 7-yard line, he came flying off the edge again, beating right tackle Tyron Smith. Smith was the only guy responsible for blocking Carter, as three Dallas offensive linemen -- Free, left guard Bill Nagy and center Phil Costa -- were all occupied with Haynesworth. The 11-yard sack (which looked an awful lot like a key sack former Patriots outside linebacker Willie McGinest had in the 2004 opener on Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning) drove the Cowboys back far enough that they ended up settling for a field goal.

In truth, while the sacks haven’t been there in the games leading up to last Sunday, Carter has shown up on film an awful lot throughout much of the five previous games, almost all of it in a positive manner. It’s been a great sight for a team that has struggled to get consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks since the start of the 2009 season.

“I think it’s really inaccurate to think that all of a sudden it’s been something great because he had two sacks (Sunday), because that’s the stat that it really seems all defensive linemen get measured by,” Belichick said. “I think it’s very inaccurate. I think he’s played consistently week in and week out. He had a couple big plays (Sunday), but he’s had good plays for us every week.”

Maybe that’s why the overall percentage of his snaps has increased over the first six games of the season. In the opener against Miami, he was on the field for 45 percent of the defensive snaps, a number that has grown fairly steadily since then -- he was on the field for 60 percent of the plays in Week Three, 70 percent in Week Four, 74 percent the following week against the Jets and 92 percent last week against the Cowboys.

Regardless of his playing time, our friends at Pro Football Focus corroborate Belichick’s claims of consistency. With the exception of New England’s win over San Diego in Week Two, Carter has consistently provided pressure, made plays and been surprisingly stout against the run over his first six games with the Patriots. Against the Cowboys and Raiders, Carter got four quarterback pressures in each game, and had an impressive six defensive stops (classified by PFF as a tackle that “constitutes an offensive failure”) last week against the Jets.

“He had a poor game against the Chargers where he was very ineffective, and against the Bills he was a little better than average. But otherwise, he’s been an excellent player for the Patriots in the other games, it’s just this week it earned him a pair of sacks (and four more pressures),” writes PFF analyst Sam Monson in an email to WEEI.com.

“What is interesting is how well he’s playing against the run, not something he was usually known for,” Monson adds. ”He has 15 defensive stops so far this year, which is an impressive percentage of his tackles, meaning he’s not just making tackles, but making them in the right place.”