How did the Patriots make it to the Super Bowl? What is it going to take for them to win?
Three names have been headlining the news over the past week as the key for the New England Patriots to be able to beat the Seattle Seahawks on February 1. Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and….LeGarrette Blount?
No doubt Blount was a key factor in the AFC Championship game against the Colts where he tore up Indy for 148 yards on 30 carries. Brady only had to throw 35 times, which is his average for the season, but a small number considering the Patriots had the ball for almost 38 minutes.
No doubt Blount made some valuable contributions during the regular season while being on the team for only 6 weeks after being dropped by the Steelers. It can be debated whether he was in the Patriots’ Week 12 game plan before he even walked off the field in Pittsburg. Or did he get the touches against Detroit because Jonas Gray really was late for a team meeting? We’ll never know what goes on in the brain of Bill Belichick.
But we do know that Belichick’s success is due to keeping his opponents guessing.
Admittedly, this was not a good season for my Fantasy teams. I put a little too much faith in Detroit. Where was the Stafford of 2013? But a lot of guys in my leagues got nailed by having far too much faith in the Patriots. Dropping Brady after Week 4, even when Belichick repeated they were “on to Cincinnati”…riding Ridley through his 28 yard games…starting Vereen after Ridley went down and Jonas Gray took off…picking up Jonas Gray after his 201 yard game and then getting burned when he didn’t show up for a team meeting…and then comes Blount.
(Photo Courtesy of New York Daily News)
“Legion of Boom.” When the Patriots played in Seattle in 2012, the Patriots racked up 475 total yards, but Brady threw two interceptions against the league’s top defense. Final score 24-23 Seahawks.
But the next time they meet is at University of Phoenix Stadium…neutral territory. No 12th Man effect. And Brandon Browner is now wearing a Patriots uniform.
Back in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Seahawks’ defense held Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos to 8 points on a touchdown and 2-point conversion. The Broncos are basically a one-dimensional team riding on the arm of Manning who had only 279 passing yards and threw 2 interceptions in the game. Want proof of putting way too much faith in Manning? The Broncos only ran the ball 14 times for 27 yards while playing from behind.
(Photo Courtesy of Fox Sports)
What about Blount? Won’t the Pats establish the run early to draw in Seattle’s secondary? Maybe. But that’s what everyone is expecting, which is exactly the reason Belichick will mix it up.
Nobody has heard from Jonas Gray in 3 months, and he had a solid three game span. Shane Vereen has the flexibility to line up as a RB and be part of the passing game. And Belichick will certainly want to test out the secondary after Richard Sherman’s arm was injured in the NFC Championship game, Earl Thomas shoulder, and Kam Chancellor’s recent injured knee. The 2014-2015 version of the Patriots is not the big play team of the Randy Moss era, but Seattle’s secondary should get a test pretty early in the game in hopes to stretch them out for Brady’s signature dink-and-dunk methodical ball movement. The Patriots don’t want to draw in Seattle’s secondary. They need those screens to Edelman .
My prediction is that the Patriots’ offense in Super Bowl XLIX is anything but one-dimensional, like the Blount running attack they used in the AFC Championship game against the Colts. They need keep Seattle’s defense guessing, and may throw in a trick play at some point. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Patriots end of game stats being a pretty vanilla 325 passing yards, 120 rushing.
Final score: Patriots 30, Seahawks 14.
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