When the Falcons Have the Ball...

Silverdude2167

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SoSH Member
Oct 9, 2006
4,683
Amstredam
The more I read about this game and these teams, I feel like this is just going to be a traditional Bend Don't Break gameplan by BB with nothing that fancy.

Atlanta has an explosive offense but are not very good in the red zone. The Pats are a very good redzone defense.

I expect the Pats D to keep the game in front of them and force ATL to drive the field and then score in the redzone. This puts a "weakness" of ATL O against a stregnth of the Pats D.

If the Pats can hold them to field goals in the red zone they should be in good shape and all the stats point to those situations favoring that Pats.
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
9,209
South of North
Great write up by Dom Consentino over at Deadspin:

http://deadspin.com/let-us-now-praise-the-patriots-super-bowl-defense-1792170043

How did the Pats do it, after giving up three scoring drives in the first half-plus? They dialed up a few more five- and six-man blitzes, but by and large they stuck with the script they had used for much of the game.
Several plays described in detail with video. For example:

Let’s return to the Falcons’ missed opportunity to put things away. The Pats also ran a five-man loop-stunt blitz on the game-defining play that resulted in Hightower’s strip sack. And there was one more wrinkle added by defensive coordinator Matt Patricia: Hightower rushed from the left side, rather than from the right, as he had been doing earlier.