I think the far more interesting story line is a NE offense that is averaging 32 points per game against a Bears defense that is only allowing 16 points per game - and hasn't given up more than 26 yet this season.
EXHIBIT A:Outside New England Game, Pittsburgh allowed 13.8 Points Per Game and never more than 22 points.
New England Posted 39 Points on them (3x their average) IN PITTSBURGH.
Outside the Pats game, Pittsburgh is allowing UNDER ONE PASSING TD per game. NE had 3.
EXHIBIT B:
Outside the New England Game, New York allowed 17 Points Per Game and never more than 27 points.
New England Posted 45 Points on them (just under 3x their average)
Outside the Pats game, New York was allowing one Rush TD every two games. NE had 2.
The second half of the season has shown a New England squad that is firing on all cylinders.
The Pats will find the Bears weakness... then they will exploit it and blow them up from the inside.
In 2001-2006, the Pats weren't loaded on offense so they relied heavily on good gameplans that exploited weaknesses in each opponent and balanced playcalling that kept opponents always guessing. In 2007, the Pats got cocky with their high-powered spread offense and basically announced to the league, "This is what we're running, we dare you to stop it." Granted they were exceptionally talented, but the coaching got away from well-tailored gameplans to exploit each opponent; dare I say they got a bit lazy and complacent. In 2009, this philosophy continued with lesser talent and much lesser results as the Pats blew more 2nd-half leads than they had every other year under BB combined, particularly on the road. The Pats spread was figured out...only the Pats hadn't caught on.To start 2010, the Pats were kind of schitzo in their gameplans, even within the same games: They played a good and balanced games overall vs. Cincy and Buffalo, played good 2nd halves vs. San Diego and Baltimore, got their spread stuffed in NY, then got dismantled in Cleveland. Something finally clicked after the Cleveland game and the offense became fully committed to exploiting the opponents weaknesses and avoiding predictable play calling. The Steelers victory was a gameplanning masterpiece as was the Jets MNF game, the first 3 quarters of the Colts game and the 2nd half of the Lions game (on short rest). The raw firepower may not equal the '07 offense, but combined with the superior playcalling this year's offense is getting the '10 offense is
better at this point in the season.
The Pats are a matchup nightmare and the keys are the TEs. With two TEs on the field, the D has to be wary of going nickel or else will be gashed by the running game. Also, the safeties have to respect the run with the heavy set. Yet Gronk and Hernandez are excellent pass-catchers who are difficult to cover with LBs so the Pats have a mismatch when throwing to those two, especially on play-action. Their pass-catching ability also forces safeties to cover the middle, giving Welker and Branch room to get open. When the Pats are in pure-passing situations, jamming WRs and blitzing Brady (worked great in 2009 in those road losses) rarely works as the Pats have rediscovered their outlet game to their RBs as Woodhead has proven to be an excellent replacement for Faulk and even BJGE has had his moments catching out of the backfield.
Despite the great play over the last four games, only two were on the road and in one of them (Detroit) the offense took one half to really get rolling. Road games against winning teams are never an easy win, so I suspect Chicago will have some success stopping the Pats on several drives. The key is will they stop them on enough drives.
... (The older guys know what I mean.)
... (The older guys know what I mean.)
Since he's thrown less than that in the last 5 games...combined....and NE's pass defense is 31st in passing yards allowed. This isn't 2005. NE is also 19th in points allowed per game. I think the far more interesting story line is a NE offense that is averaging 32 points per game against a Bears defense that is only allowing 16 points per game - and hasn't given up more than 26 yet this season.
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44-0
IMO we're looking at NE 30 CHI 23 or something along those lines.
This isn't the same Bears offense from early in the season. Martz genuinely has seemed to dialed back the passing a little bit and has leaned slightly more on the running game. I think everyone on the team realizes how great this defense is and this team can go far as long as the offense plays average, if unspectacular football and doesn't turn the ball over and put the D in a bad position (this should sound familiar to Bears fans).
Not enough love for this post.
