This is a great topic. Kudos to sup for going back into the history book to show the inspiration for the scheme that we saw on Sunday. Kudos to Andy for taking the next step and breaking down the scheme even further.
However like most things, they are not just black and white. BB did what BB does in every game. He tries to eliminate a teams strength and direct their offense into a predictable path of HIS choosing. It doesn't always work because of he might not have the talent to produce the scheme or poor execution might make the defense break down.
Now that I've had a few days to think about it, BB simply did what he had to do, in order to attempt to control the best high powered short to intermediate passing offense in the league this year. One that was producing at historic levels for most of the year..
Now I'm sure the plan wasn't to have the Bronco's run for over 260 yds. I'm sure BB would have been much happier with 160. This isn't a bad run defense. They showed it vs an excellent Panther running attack, holding the RB's to under 50 yds for the game. So we know that the Pats CAN defend the run when its a priority. And I'm sure he will work this week to improve the execution.
But that being said, it is clear that the goal of the defense was to stop a passing game that hadn't been stopped this season....and they accomplished it in spades. They did it by squeezing the mid and underneath areas of the field with often 5 defender, either playing combination zones or man to man. They did it by daring Manning to throw it deep, but also letting him know he'd be throwing deep into 2 deep safety coverage. Not generally a wise thing to do.
So Manning was left with one of 3 options. Throw into those 2 deep safeties. Try to squeeze the ball into the 5 across underneath coverage, or run into what often amounted to a 6 man box. The wind certainly helped the Pats plan when the Bronco's had to play into it. But it wasn't the main reason the defense was so effective.
Even in Manning's best drive of the night (the game tying drive) he had to make 3 literally PERFECT throws and had 2 great catches. plus 2 penalties in order to score. Execution had to be perfect, and that puts a lot of pressure on an offense. Pressure that this offense hadn't seen this year.
BTW- this defense was very similar to what Rex Ryan did to the Pats in that AFC playoff game in the 2010 season (also known as the 2nd biggest win in Jets franchise history.
) It can be very effective if you aren't ready for it.....and that's a problem.
The Pats have shown the rest of the league a solid blueprint in attacking the prolific Denver offense. Teams with more talented front 7's will control the run better (in the 130-160 range). But the bad part is that Denver is going to be much more prepared for this scheme after they have seen it a few times. Don't forget that in the 4 games AFTER that playoff loss, the Pats never failed to score at least 30 points against Rex, and that streak continued until this year when we had those obvious offensive problems of no Gronk, Amendola, and new rookie WR's
So should we meet again, I'm sure the Pats will do something similar to try and stifle that great short, move the chains passing game the Broncos have. I'm sure the Pats will have a few tricks up their sleeves to do better with the run game. However I expect the Broncos will do better as well now that they know what to expect and should see it a few more times the rest of the season.
What the Pats will do the "next time vs Denver" is going to be a great football discussion in January. I look forward to it. I'm already game planning.