Keys to the Big Game – A Think Piece
I’ve really tried not to think about the Super Bowl
much. I’ve seen enough of these that I
know it will probably be uncomfortably close, and the thought of that makes me
fussy.
That being said, I wanted to highlight a few things that I
think will be key. (Im trying not to
include things like ‘win the turnover battle’ because….duh”)
I guess if closing out a double dynasty was easy, everyone
would do it. Here are some thoughts:
Bend, But Don’t Break
– I am officially stumped by the Patriots defense. They started out this year as a clown show,
but buckled down throughout the year. When I expected them to continue the trend against Jacksonville
(A bad offense), they totally regressed.
They let up chunk play after chunk play mostly on check downs. How is that possible? We would have great coverage and Bortles
would flip it to his running back in the flat.
The entire point of that defense is to force that throw and make a
tackle….but no one was there to cover the outlet! They would turn a broken play into 40 yards
on the regular. Now we face a better
quarterback in Nick Foles, and at this point I am expecting to get torched
between the 20s.
I just need to force them to kick field goals and we will be
ok. If we don’t look totally hapless on
defense and can buckle down in the red zone, I really like our chances. (Im also hearing a lot about Run-Pass options….lets
stop those too.)
Outlast To Win –
I think the Eagles are going to come out with their hair on fire. I’m not expecting to win the first quarter,
especially knowing our track record. The
Super Bowl is way longer than a normal game.
If we can even just keep it close early, I think we can exhaust the
Eagles and take advantage of their excitement.
No Lead Is Safe –
For either team. Gotta play the full 60
to win this one. (OK this is one of
those wicked obvious ones. Hand up.)
Spread ‘Em Out – How
do we attack this Eagles offense? I say
we use the pass to set up the run. The
Eagles will be counting on generating pressure with their front four…no word
yet if they are crazy enough to send extra pressure. The easiest way to beat that is to go five wide
and spread them out as much as possible. Get the ball out fast.
Let’s see how confident they are in their 4th cornerback,
cause you know that is where Brady is gonna be looking.
