Enough talk about our CB situation, because...

[Broncobiv]

...everyone knows the way to beat Brady's Patriots is to pressure him with the big uglies. Force him into quick throws. Knock him down. Make him improvise. Collapse the pocket.

If we can disrupt Tommy's timing, it won't matter who is back there at the CB position. How do we replicate what we did in the first half against the Chargers? Why couldn't we continue the pocket pressure in the 4th quarter?

Our front 7 must get Brady on the ground, and that will be the key to success!

[RedskinBronco]

Yep, it's all about the front 4 really.

Obviously, they will have to disguise blitzes but yeah key is to get to Brady and preferably with a 4 man rush.

[yerner]

agreed. essentially this game is going to be determined by the line play.

[TripleTilde]

I'm interested in seeing if New England comes out throwing or if they really run. Brady alluded to keeping the ball out of Denver's hands, which seems to imply a lot of running. But this could be a deception.

I'm also wondering if Denver will run because if they can, all this talk about confusing coverage looks becomes less important. But on the other hand, if Denver can score fast and get up a couple of scores early, it might lessen New England's dedication to the run.

I just worry about fumbles. It seems like every time Denver plays New England there's some a combination of backbreaking fumbles.

[bpc]

True. We need to get to Tom. Penetration needs to disrupt the timing of the Pats offense because they are running a lot of pulls, counters, and traps. Best way to stop a big back like Blount is to not let him get going with a full head of steam.

[GreasyWrenches]

I wouldn't mind taking a pair of roughing the quarterback plays, one each half, when they are between the end zone behind them and the 30. That way they still have to get a couple of first downs before they are even in field goal range.

Just give Tommy a couple of gut checks that we are gunning for him. Fluster him a little git.

[GreasyWrenches]

I wonder how much both team practice going after a fumble. You know, have a plan of purposely dropping it in practice to make the defense always, always be on the look out for it.

Points off turnovers will change a game real quick.

Anyone got an opinion on that?

[SoCalBronco]

Problem is they are running the ball so well, you really have to start there with your defensive plan. Denver needs to put together something really creative this week. If you go eight in the box, that leaves you with one safety high coverages, mainly Cover 1 and Cover 3. With Harris out, they'll exploit the Cover 1 with the favorable matchup with who isn't being covered by Champ or DRC. Cover 3 takes away your man to man matchup problem but its susceptible to alot of stuff, four verticals, a strong side flood, curl/flat combos, quick game and underneath routes in general. There are alot of holes in the 3 deep zone, even if you play it the way Saban does, which helps to reduce the traditional weaknesses of the coverage a little bit.

Another idea is to try and stop the run with a 7 man front by two gapping some more, which will focus more on containment, but then your DL won't be as good in the pass rush department because they aren't attacking a gap, they have to hesitate for a second and read and react to their key.

This is a tough defensive situation. Another idea is an adjustable under front, where you got 4 guys on strong side and 3 on weakside, instead of the usual 3.5 each, which will help vs. the runs to the formation strength, and maybe you can put the better run defending DL on the weakside so when they run weak, you are not in terrible shape.

Staff needs to come up with something good this week. Will be tough to hold them in check.

[whoeey]

tommy gonna throw,throw,throw. I honestly hope they try to run it, they won't. throw 1st,2nd,3rd,4th, just wait

[Doggcow]

agreed. essentially this game is going to be determined by the line play.

Like every game?

[LongDongJohnson]

We need to focus more on stuffing the run. We do that I like our chances.

[fontaine]

The last time we beat NE at home in the playoffs we didn't have any real pass rush.

Lynch and Al Wilson took turns blitzing up the A/B gaps and buried Brady into the Mile High turf. I would rather do that than just rush 3 and drop everyone else into coverage.

[v2micca]

...everyone knows the way to beat Brady's Patriots is to pressure him with the big uglies. Force him into quick throws. Knock him down. Make him improvise. Collapse the pocket.

If we can disrupt Tommy's timing, it won't matter who is back there at the CB position. How do we replicate what we did in the first half against the Chargers? Why couldn't we continue the pocket pressure in the 4th quarter?

Our front 7 must get Brady on the ground, and that will be the key to success!

While I agree getting pressure on Brady is paramount, forcing him to at least go to his second read is necessary to generate that pressure. If he is able to identify a glaring hole in our secondary, he can just target that as his first read every time he drops back. If he is getting the ball out of his hands in 2.5 seconds or less every drop, no pass rush in the world is going to consistently get to him.

The front four need to win at the line, but the secondary needs to buy them at least 3 seconds to get home.

[Broncobiv]

tommy gonna throw,throw,throw. I honestly hope they try to run it, they won't. throw 1st,2nd,3rd,4th, just wait

Yeah, I agree to an extent. While stopping the run will be important (when isn't it?), this just feels like a classic Brady air attack waiting to happen. It's like they've been setting it up for weeks. So many of their recent games have been centered around the run, it's possible they flip the switch and air it out 45-50 times to try and catch us off guard (and attack the weakest part of our defense).