mgcolby

The question of the week has been “how will the Pats O-Line protect Brady against the Giants D-Line”….”the greatest front four evah” (Ok I exaggerated a bit, but you get the point). But IMO, the real question should be “how will the Giants O-Line protect Eli against the Pats rush”?


In the past two playoff games Eli has been sacked seven times and has been hit nineteen times. Six sacks and twelve hits allowed against SF and one sack and seven hits allowed against GB. San Francisco has a good pass rush, 7th in the league in sacks. But GB was terrible this season getting after the QB tied for 27th in the league with just twenty-nine sacks. San Francisco averaged 2.6 sacks per game during the regular season and they more than doubled that against the Giants O-Line.


The Giants O-line has done a poor job of protecting Eli this postseason and really most of the regular season. Injuries have certainly played a part, but overall the talent level is simply not there for the Giants O-line. With Eli taking a lot of 5 and 7 step drops in the Giants vertical passing attack, it puts a lot of pressure on an already mediocre O-line. If Eli wasn’t as mobile as he is, the numbers would be a lot worse.

In addition, the Giants O-line has not helped themselves out in the run game either, the Giants rushing numbers look impressive for the postseason as a whole. But when you break the numbers down, suddenly things don’t look so good, they have not been able to run the ball effectively outside of the Falcons game. In two games against opponents that were allowing an average of 94.5 YPG at 4.1 YPC, the Giants managed 90 YPG at 3.4 YPC. 85 yards at 3.3 YPC against San Francisco and 95 yards at 3.5 YPC against Green Bay’s, average at best, run defense is not getting it done.


The Pats defense on the other hand has eight sacks and fifteen QB hits in its two playoff games. How will the Giants O-line handle Wilfork shifting all over the line? Can McKenzie handle Big Vince and Deaderick on an every down basis? Can Baas handle a combination of Vince and Love one-on-one? All questions that the media should be asking.


The Pats O-Line has allowed 1 sack and 5 QB hits in two playoff games against two of the top ten teams in sacks. Baltimore was 3rd in the league in sacks with 48 (tied with the Giants) and Denver was 10th with 41. Denver did not sack Brady and only managed to hit him twice. Baltimore sacked Brady once and managed to hit him three times. The Giants defense has seven sacks and 13 hits in the past two games. Not exactly outperforming the Patriots pass rush. If the Ravens couldn’t get to him with four how are the Giants?


One other thing a lot of people and the media alike are overlooking is the fact that the Giants rush defense has been absolutely gashed the past two games to the tune of 148.5 YPG at 5.9 YPC. The Giants defense won’t be able to let the front four pin their ears back and go after Brady, while simultaneously stopping the run. The coverage the Pats receivers dictate, combined with the lack of overall talent for the Giants at Linebacker simply will not give them the ability to do so.

If the Giants drop seven and the Pats hit them with the draw its going to be a big gain, we saw how effective it was against the Ravens. The Ravens back seven is significantly better than the Giants back seven and both the run game and the passing game was there for the Pats. If the RB’s hold on to the ball there is no reason why we can’t neutralize the Giants pass rush and pick up big chunks of yards in both the running game and the passing game.

Edit: Incorrectly stated that GB hit Eli 5 times when the correct number was 7.

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Hey, Bill you're wasting Brady's prime years......oh wait....
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Jangles

I'm sorry, the Patriots what?

Ice_Ice_Brady

Are you serious?

The Patriots do not have Justin Tuck, Chris Canty, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Osi Uminiyora (or something). Their defensive schemes do not involve bull-rushing the quarterback on every down.

How can you even ask such a stupid question? It has been declared by every analyst that Tom Brady will die from injuries while Eli Manning will stand on a 15-foot platform and throw to his magnificently magnificent receivers all game.

mgcolby

Did I not spell it correctly?

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Holy Diver

This is the real key I am watching for on sunday, and what I think will be the most important thing to watch.

The thing I find to be the most astonishing in this whole leadup to "The Ship" is how much disrespect the Patriots D is getting, as they have been making strides each week to get better....and are currently playing the best they have all season
If thats the case....

look the F out for #75



My guess is that Love, Deaderick, Ellis, Wilfork, Anderson, and Ninko are p!$$ed....and wanna show the world who is boss.

Oh...and don't sleep on #55

Jangles

lol I'm just being a smart ass

I hope the Pats Defense from the playoffs shows up. If it regresses to regular season form, ugh

strongside

For what its worth, I heard Phill Simms on w/ Felger. Made a point to say that he loved Ninkovich's matchup and thinks he could make some big plays.

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“We'll do the injury report on Wednesday.”

Sciz

Anderson, Wilfork, and Ninkovich are all going to have big games. The Giants OL is not that good.

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meyerbudNYG

while I agree with you, those stats are pretty weak. 49ers front 7 is ridiculously good and underrated. They didn't get the press the Steelers and Ravens got, but they should have.

Take away the stats from that game and the numbers vs the Packers really was ordinary

But I do think a big part of this games success on how we can handle Wilfork

mgcolby

SF is good and I am not underrating them, however I find them and the Ravens to be a wash, when comparing how each O-line has done against good pass rushing teams. The Ravens and Giants although, different fronts, had the same pass rush numbers. And yes the Giants didn't give up a lot of sacks to the Packers, but they did allow Eli to get hit 7 times. That is not good considering GB was among the bottom five in terms of pressuring the QB.

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