We can all admit that at heart, we're all worried about if NE can come out on top in this one. But it shouldn't be that hard with our high powered offense.
1) Contain the Outside on the Run
You hear people talk about it ALL the time. Contain the run. Contain the outside. Talking about who has containment. But what you'll notice is that normally it's about players NOT keeping contain. It's a very simple concept. Force the runner back to the inside where you have other defenders there to help you bring him down. But instead you'll see the man with contain on the play move inside and go after the ball carrier. Normally he misses his tackle, and now who has contain? Nobody because the runner is already outside. Therefore allowing a big gain. Against Denver, NE needs to keep contain well. Because of the way they run their option, they want to try to get the ball outside. But New England has good DTs and MLBs. So if they can force the runner back inside, well, chances are that he won't get too far.
2) Score Early and Often
Last year, New England was exceptional at ending games in the first half. Scoring TDs or FGs on their first drive of the day, and then doing the same on the second. Even just going up 6 on Denver early in the game could be a big factor. But going up 14 by the end of the first quarter? That could be monumental for New England this week. We all know Denver is great at winning games when down 10 or fewer in the fourth quarter. But what if they're down 14? Or 21? Big gaps? We haven't seen them do that yet, and I personally don't think they have an explosive enough offense to do that. Just giving them a wide spread of points to cover in the fourth could be big.
3) Get Turnovers on D and Don't Turn it Over on O
Tim Tebow has only thrown 2 picks in almost 200 pass attempts. New England has to change that. Because of how much Denver eats up the clock with their running, we need to get turnovers in order to get the ball back and allow Brady to get on the field and score on them. Because New England can't easily stop teams on third down, as they've shown, So in order to get Denver off the field, it's going to take taking the ball from them. Getting it back anyway possible. Denver is going to own the Time Of Posession in this one. We know that much. So Brady and Company need to make sure to score when they can, and not miss opprotunities because of Interceptions or Fumbles. Good thing Brady has trimmed down on his surprisingly high number of picks this year. And the Denver D has only gotten 2 INTs in the past 7 games I believe. So protecting the ball could be big in this game.
4) Protect Brady
Sure Brady is great and hanging in the pocket and taking a hit while completing a pass, but he isn't superman. His elbow is already hurt, so allowing any backside pressure that can smack at his right arm isn't good. It would definitely wear down on him I think. We saw last week that his accuracy is off since his elbow injury. So allowing that right elbow to take unnecessary contact could be big. And the line can't let the Broncos good defensive linemen to get in on the play and make a difference early. Early on we should make the defensive lineman second guess their blitzing by running few screens. After you run a couple screens, the D Lineman will rush the QB at a slower speed because they don't wanna get fooled like they had been early on. So throwing a quick RB screen out there or a screen to Welker could make a big difference even if it only gets us a couple yards. Just make sure Brady's Jersey stays clean.
I think if New England can accomplish these 4 things, we should walk out of Denver with a nice point margin and the W.
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