I've been thinking about the bend but don't break defense employed in the last half of games by BB for however many years. It's an interesting dilemma to me, as a coach. Do you continue to play aggressive knowing that all teams are extremely talented and it's generally only a matter of time before one of those extremely talented and athletic players makes a freak of nature move and breaks the game open? (see GB game 2 years ago when Jordy Nelson put a knife in our hearts at the end of the first half). Or do you play the clock and the odds. Knowing that you generally have the better coached team, the smarter team, and that your opponent will more than likely make more mistakes?
I think BB has decided the big play, knife in the heart, game changer, is more important to stop than letting them chew up clock on relatively long drives. Think about it, this is a game of strategy, you know that they are only going to have so many possessions in the second half, if you make them take 5 or 6 minutes or longer to get down the field on each possession before they score, then chances are they will run out of time to catch up and the game ends. That's a W no matter what the final box score says. What would lose you the game, is to stay ultra aggressive, have a play break down a couple of times and score two really quick TD's and that puts them back in the game. Now you're facing having to come back in the game with your 3rd string QB. Probably not going to happen.
The best thing you can do is chew as much clock as possible, keep the plays in front, limit the big play, and try to run out as much clock as possible with long sustained drives on your end. With Brady at the helm, that's easier, with a 3rd string, it's def harder. But the strategy is the same and as we've seen over the years, it's worked. Maybe not for out blood pressure and sanity, but what team has won more over the years playing the odds ? BB is out there playing chess while most of them are playing checkers. But at the end of the day, when you've got 5 or 6 players that have freakish athletic abilities, kind of like the Queen on the chess board. Even the guys playing checkers can do some huge damage that wasn't planned for or expected.
Just my two cents on the subject and why I think BB employs the strategy he does. As a conclusion, the defense is not so much about protecting the lead, as chewing up clock, and limiting huge game changing plays that put teams back in the game with enough time to win. One more though, lol, then I'll finish, think about how many times teams stayed ultra aggressive on Brady when we were down, and blitzed, etc, and Brady killed them for it to come back from large deficits and win. Although even when teams try to keep Brady in front, he's so good, he will carve you up and run the 2 minute drill the entire time. So yeah, I guess with him it's a double edged sword. There are maybe only 3 or 4 QB's in the league that will kill you like that. So, good strategy on BB's part.
