How The Colts Will Beat The Patriots
Jan 11, 2014; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) shakes hands with Andrew Luck (12) after the 2013 AFC divisional playoff football game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
The best NFL matchup of Week 11 is on Sunday night, and dang will it be a good one.
For the first time in the Andrew Luck era, the Indianapolis Colts will play host to Tom Brady and the Patriots on Sunday Night Football. Luck and Brady have clashed twice before in Foxborough with both matchups being drubbings from New England. Brady was flawless in both games, LeGarrette Blount and Jamie Collins came out of no where to hurt the Colts and the Colts’ defense has fallen victim to Brady’s trap.
But not this year. The Colts can win this one.
Let’s get something straight before looking at specific reasons for a Colts’ victory: this is an entirely different Colts team on offense and defense. In last year’s playoff matchup, Da’Rick Rogers, LaVon Brazill and Griff Whalen were featured receivers, Dwayne Allen was still on the sideline and Donald Brown was a significant cog in the offense. Defensively, Robert Mathis logged a sack and Antoine Bethea was able to make some plays on the ball. Things will be dramatically different this year.
Here’s a few things that Indy needs to do to win this football game:
Cover…double..triple cover Rob Gronkowski
In case you haven’t heard, Rob Gronkowski is good. He’s really good. But what scares me more than anything about Gronkowski against the Colts? He plays tight end. The Colts’ history at covering tight ends is not good. Looking in just the last three games alone, Larry Donnell and Heath Miller had great games against the Colts. Even Jermaine Gresham got some headway against the Colts when the rest of his offense could do nothing against Indy. Bottom line: This man is THE priority on Sunday. He commands the middle of the field and the Colts have been terrible at covering the middle of the field. To fix this, middle linebackers D’Qwell Jackson and Jerrell Freeman will have to play strong mechanical football against Gronk along with a little help from either Mike Adams or Sergio Brown at safety. Even then, Gronk will still torch Indy for at least 100 yards. The biggest key is quieting Gronk down in the end zone. He’s a touchdown scoring monster; limit his red zone touches and it’ll limit New England’s offense.
Don’t force the ball downfield
Ready for the weirdest stat of your day? This season, New England has allowed just one play of +40 yards downfield. Interestingly enough, Andrew Luck found success in New England last year by chucking long-distance bombs to T.Y. Hilton and LaVon Brazill. If Indy wants to try and get T.Y. open downfield again this year, it could come up with adverse results. This year’s successful Colts offense has been run through Andrew Luck’s sound mechanics in the short and intermediate passing game. Instead of attempting to go after what worked last year, Luck needs to do what has worked thus far. Work the middle of the field, find Reggie Wayne on intermediate third downs and get Hilton involved in the short pass game. Then, late in the third quarter when the defense has gotten into a groove, pop a ball over Darrelle Revis to T.Y. downfield. But don’t get too opportunistic early in the game hoping for a break.
Lean on defensive studs
This Colts defense may have a different type of scheme than last year but things have improved dramatically in many areas for this Colts unit. The emergence of Vontae Davis has been a welcome development. Davis, in the midst of his All-Pro season, will likely be tasked with covering outside playmaker Julian Edelman. He’ll have to adjust his game a bit to cover the shifty Edelman but Vontae has yet to let down Colts fans. Cory Redding has been having a great season leading an overall solid pass-rushing unit. He, Bjoern Werner, Erik Walden and Ricky Jean-Francois will all have their crack at Tom Brady on Sunday (Patriots are averaging just under two sacks per game). Finally, Mike Adams has quietly been extremely efficient for the Colts this year, solidifying a spot that was a bit of an enigma at the season’s inception. Adams will likely be doing some deep coverage in Manusky’s Cover 2 or be put as a safety man for Gronkowski. Out of anyone on defense, he’ll need to step up the most if this team wants to slow down Brady’s Patriots.