maverick4

What is your gameplan, on both sides of the ball, to defeat the Colts?

My 2cents:

Defense - We will need to stop Addai with our DL and minimal help, so we can play more nickel and dime packages. Play deep, and force Manning to be patient and take short passes. Once in our red zone, bring on the blitz and hope he can't find a receiver in 2 seconds.

Offense - Go with the Dillon & Maroney & Faulk show. Take advantage of Indy's weak run defense as well as over-aggressive pass rushers through various runs, screens, and draws, and use play-action at the goal line since they'll have to respect it with their pathetic run D.

BelichickFan

I would try a Nickel on D and see how it goes. Replace TBC with Chad Scott. Vrabel goes back outside. The Front Six would have to try to stop the run. Then I have Scott to take Dallas Clark and I can double both Harrison and Wayne.

Offensively I wold run. A lot. I don't think we will but I would. I have extrme confidence we'd get 180 yards running if we ran 40 times. The passing game is still intermittent.

hwc

Nope. Not if the Colts play the overloaded run defense they've played so far in the tournament.

Start the game with a play action fake to Dillon and a deep pass down the middle to a tight end.

Then, spread the field, go hurry up, and throw the ball until you force them out of the eight-man in the box defense. When they adjust, start hitting them with draws and misdirection run plays.

It's stupid to run against eight men in the box when there are only two corners and a lone safety in coverage. Force them into cover 2 early and then go to the run.

bakes781

Well offensively I would be a lot more creative with my play calling than the previous 2 opponents for Indy were. I would look to pass early, especially on 1st down when they're most likely to expect run. Continue to utilize the screen pass to negate the pass rush of Freeney. If we can get ahead early the running game will take care of itself.

Defensively we do what we've always done & avoid the big play. I know this may sound odd against a Peyton Manning lead offense, but I would put a greater focus on stopping the run. If the Colts are able to play action us later in the game we don't stand a chance. With that said Wilfork & Co. up front should be able to handle that without the help of a safety cheating up.

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maverick4

I would love to see a few early screen passes to start the game, right behind where Dwight Freeney sprinted away from.

PlattsFan

Defense: go nickel all the time (except when you go dime). Mix up Vrabel's assignments, sometimes he's a ILB with Chad Scott taking over the area outside the hashes, sometimes he's an OLB with Sanders helping Bruschi on the inside. Mix up Scott and Hawkins assignment in the backfield, one as a safety and the other as a third corner, with assignments changing all the time. All to make it hard for Manning to get a good presnap read on the defense. Rush four, get the two on the edge up the field quickly to set edges on Addai. Bump the receivers.

Offense: Spread offense, but run out of that alignment. Force Sanders to move laterally so he needs to focus on more than just run support. Put TEs in motion to help with that. Use Maroney a lot on quick hits off guard out of the spread formation. Isolate the bigs on bigs because our bigs are better than their bigs. Use Gaffney to grind out first downs against the Cover 2.

PatsFaninAZ

Ultimately, it's hard to gameplan for turnovers, and at the end of the day, I think turnovers will decide the game.

I think it's important for the patriots to find a way to play with the lead, because I thnk the colts are far more susceptible to turnovers when they are playing from behind. They are simply not a team accustomed to punting when they are behind by 4 points, and that may lead to Manning trying force one in there on a difficult third down on his side of the field.

If I could imagine a blueprint of how we win this game, it would be to get up 7-0 or 7-3 and hope for some points defensively that puts us in position to hang on through the 4th quarter by making just enough plays. So I think we need to look at or think about some sort of high flying offensive push at the begining of the game, particularly when the colts are expecting us to try to "estblish" the run (whatever the heck that cliche means).

slam

On offense, misdirection, misdirection, misdirection. Runs that look like passes, passes that look like runs. Screens. Fake the screen and go deep. Flea Flickers, maybe more than one. An end around. Fake the end around and give it up the middle. And if they aren't paying attention early in the play clock, quick snaps to run it right up their gut like vs. the Jets. Everything designed to take the aggression from the defense that keys on speed. Speed won't matter if they don't know which way to go.

On defense, coach the line to sacrifice the pass rush in order to try to knock down passes at the LOS. Bump Addai whenever possible coming out of the backfield. Play in the nickel all game. Hit the receivers whenever possible.

ELOrocks17

It seems to me that whenever Manning faces the Pats...he gets that "Deer in the headlights " look. He is afraid of us. All we have to do is exploit that.

maverick4

I hear what you're saying about misdirection. I agree in spirit, but the above suggestion would get Brady killed!