The week before the Patriots-Jets playoff game injured Jets guard Damien Woody tweeted that the Packers had the model to shut down the Pats seemingly unstoppable offense. Of course I was annoyed so I tweeted to Woody in reply, “the model is a game that the Pats scored 31 points in?”. He said it was, and I secretly worried that he might be right.
The truth was that without Kyle Arrington’s pick six and Dan Connolly’s miracle return the Pats very well would’ve lost to the Matt Flynn-led Packers. The offense sputtered all game, and Tom Brady saw more pressure than he had seen all season.
In looking back at the game it’s clear that the Packers mixed things up a lot on defense. They often rushed only three, dropping six into short zone coverages to take away the horizontal passing game, and only leaving two deep.
They ran the gamut of pressures and had success at times with everything. Delayed safety blitzes and crossing blitzes by the linebackers both resulted in sacks of Brady.
The difference between the Packers game and the Jets game for the Patriots was that they were far more effective in spurts against Green Bay, especially in the run game early on. Both Danny Woodhead and Law Firm busted long runs on the Pack. Neither had a carry longer than 10 yards against the Jets.
The Pats also got zero big plays from special teams or the defense in the Jets game that they got in the Packers game.
As Rex Ryan said afterwards, the Jets stopped worrying about the deep ball and just focused on taking away the short stuff. The Packers clearly had a similar focus, and even when Brady had time he was unable to hit Brandon Tate deep.
The thing that the Jets added on to the Packers defensive game plan was the use of faking injuries to stem the tide when the Pats offense was gaining momentum. One thing you notice with the Patriots is that when they dictate the tempo they will pound it down your throat. See Law Firm’s long touchdown scamper on the first drive for an example.
Once (or should I say IF) Brady is able to establish a connection with Tate in a way that forces defenses to respect them the Patriots offense should be even tougher to defend. But even without a true deep threat I believe the Patriots offense will continue to be effective, especially when their running game is clicking. Their tight ends and backs are far too versatile and dangerous to be consistently shut down.
