Here we are at week 12, a game which was likely circled on everyone's calendar at the beginning of the season. Round whatever of Manning/Brady. Now it's here and things are much changed. Barring some really strange occurrence, Peyton will be relegated to helping his team from the sideline. While usually, that's all you would need to know to pencil in a Patriots' victory, things have changed a lot for the high powered Patriots' offense the past few weeks.
Besides the season long random combination of offensive lineman, the offense has seen Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola leave the lineup in consecutive weeks. As you can see in the chart below, this is a significant part of the offense. Obviously not having these three playmakers on the field gives Brady less trustworthy options to go with. Additionally, it allows defenses to focus more on Gronkowski. And as we've seen in recent weeks, a greater focus on Gronkowski seems to mean defenses are free to contact him after 5 yards without any whistle. Hopefully, this week's officials are aware of this recent trend and throw some early flags.
With the usual offensive weapons on the shelf, we will need to see a lot more from guys like Chris Harper, Brandon LaFell, Aaron Dobson and Scott Chandler. Hopefully, Brady has trust in the artillery which he will be using today. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to make the offensive play calling really simple. I think this is a game where keeping things vanilla will give us the best chance at moving the ball and the best chance for keeping Brady upright.
Defensively the Patriots need to keep on doing what their doing. Well, except for that thing where they have the quarterback sacked on third down, yet he manages to escape and hit someone 30 yards down the field. That, I've seen enough of to last me a season. In other words Matt Patricia needs to keep doing what he's doing and the players all need to execute on every play. Today would also be a good day for the defense to put some points on the board.
While our special teams had been perfect going into last week, it wasn't that great against Buffalo. A nice bounce back week for the unit is just what the doctor ordered.
In case you didn't check the weather forecast for Denver, I'll let you know that there is supposed to be some snow before, during and after the game. I'll also remind you that Brady is 12-1 in games where it is cold and there is some form of precipitation. I say, let it snow, let it snow. let it snow. Hell, we won't need to shovel it.
Defensively the Patriots need to keep on doing what their doing. Well, except for that thing where they have the quarterback sacked on third down, yet he manages to escape and hit someone 30 yards down the field. That, I've seen enough of to last me a season. In other words Matt Patricia needs to keep doing what he's doing and the players all need to execute on every play. Today would also be a good day for the defense to put some points on the board.
While our special teams had been perfect going into last week, it wasn't that great against Buffalo. A nice bounce back week for the unit is just what the doctor ordered.
In case you didn't check the weather forecast for Denver, I'll let you know that there is supposed to be some snow before, during and after the game. I'll also remind you that Brady is 12-1 in games where it is cold and there is some form of precipitation. I say, let it snow, let it snow. let it snow. Hell, we won't need to shovel it.
Follow @BOSsportschick on twitter
https://twitter.com/BOSsportschick
https://twitter.com/BOSsportschick
RSS Feed
