This is cursory at best because I was just enjoying the game, and frankly I can't see enough at gamespeed on TV cast to call out coverages, ect. What I can say is that the win was really 01-04. Clutch play when it counted despite a few drops and sloppy play early. A few mental mistakes but they got the ship righted in the late 3rd/4th.
Defensively, Cunningham was a monster and Oher was having a nightmare with the guy. So much so he was drawn offsides by it the presence. He looked really, really good against both the run and the pass. Spikes had likely his best game of the season and seemed to be taking real pride in his run defense. He was engaging and driving blockers back, enabling Mayo to come swinging in on the flow-to plays. On his flow-away plays he was keeping his backside contain until it was time to make a play. Then he would kick into a high gear and go make it. Great inside backer play all day long. McCourty continues to look like a stud, Chung was his normal playmaking self. Meriweather was ok in general but made some pretty stupid plays out there. It's pretty clear to me by now that he's a knucklehead.
Very generally speaking there was a lot of 34, Wilfork and Warren switched between 0 and 5 for a bit. They ran some pretty vanilla sub stuff when they were in obvious passing situations. It seemed like pretty generic defenses augmented with some nice blitzing and coverage calls. It was nice to watch. They had five consecutive stops and a few 3 and outs as well, FWIW.
Offensively they struggled to hit their rhythm for a while. They continued to do the same ole nonsense for a little bit, and got put into some really bad situations through mental and physical errors. They generally seemed out of synch as they continued to work the short game without utilizing the numbers of the field. As the game progressed, they mixed in some more stuff like reverses and began to work the numbers and seams. The tight ends began to become more used as the game progressed. Then, in championship Patriot fashion they kicked into high gear with Branch coming up huge when needed mixed in with doses of Welker. Woodhead looked phenominal as well.
Gostkowski was great all day and Mesko drilled a 65 yard punt that setup a 3 and out and the ensuing game winning drive. It was a great win that showed mental toughness, physicality, and grit.