From Pete Prisco (yes, I know how much we all love him):
"You have Drew Brees breaking Dan Marino's single-season record for yards passing. You have Tom Brady just 190 yards behind him and you have Aaron Rodgers with 45 touchdown passes.
How do you stop these guys? Or at least slow them down?
"You have to beat up their receivers," one NFC personnel director said. "These quarterbacks are too good now. They will eat you alive if you play zone against them and let their receivers find the open spots. They are too smart. You have to mug their outside players, not let them get into their routes as easy as they can against zone."....
"Kansas City is a team with two good, physical corners who can play man-press coverage and knock your receivers off their routes. They did that to the Packers and to the Patriots in Week 11."
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Now, I'm not saying this *isn't* the way to play them. But let's see how KC did against New England in week 11.
Brady didn't throw for many yards (234), so maybe that's why Prisco thinks they did a great job against NE. But Brady threw only 27 times for an 8.7 y/a average. And he had 2 td and 0 int, for a 109.2 rating, which is *higher* than his season rating of 105.1. And the Patriots put up 34 points on KC (I know one TD was on a punt return).
Patriots last 7 drives:
6 plays, 85 yds, TD
8 plays, 51 yds, FG
9 plays, 85 yds, TD
1 play, 72 yds, TD (the punt return...doesn't really count as a "drive")
9 plays, 50 yds, FG
3 plays, 4 yds, punt
14 plays, 62 yds, TD
So not counting the punt return, over their last 6 drives, the Pats had 3 TD, 2 FG, and a punt. That's 27 points scored over 6 drives, for an average of 4.5 points per drive. In other words, pretty clearly, they had figured things out and were moving the ball at will against KC, even if KC was roughing up NE's receivers.
"You have Drew Brees breaking Dan Marino's single-season record for yards passing. You have Tom Brady just 190 yards behind him and you have Aaron Rodgers with 45 touchdown passes.
How do you stop these guys? Or at least slow them down?
"You have to beat up their receivers," one NFC personnel director said. "These quarterbacks are too good now. They will eat you alive if you play zone against them and let their receivers find the open spots. They are too smart. You have to mug their outside players, not let them get into their routes as easy as they can against zone."....
"Kansas City is a team with two good, physical corners who can play man-press coverage and knock your receivers off their routes. They did that to the Packers and to the Patriots in Week 11."
- - - - -
Now, I'm not saying this *isn't* the way to play them. But let's see how KC did against New England in week 11.
Brady didn't throw for many yards (234), so maybe that's why Prisco thinks they did a great job against NE. But Brady threw only 27 times for an 8.7 y/a average. And he had 2 td and 0 int, for a 109.2 rating, which is *higher* than his season rating of 105.1. And the Patriots put up 34 points on KC (I know one TD was on a punt return).
Patriots last 7 drives:
6 plays, 85 yds, TD
8 plays, 51 yds, FG
9 plays, 85 yds, TD
1 play, 72 yds, TD (the punt return...doesn't really count as a "drive")
9 plays, 50 yds, FG
3 plays, 4 yds, punt
14 plays, 62 yds, TD
So not counting the punt return, over their last 6 drives, the Pats had 3 TD, 2 FG, and a punt. That's 27 points scored over 6 drives, for an average of 4.5 points per drive. In other words, pretty clearly, they had figured things out and were moving the ball at will against KC, even if KC was roughing up NE's receivers.