ATLANTA — They hit with a three-man rush. Pressured him with a four-man rush. Sacked him with a five-man blitz.
Three years ago, the Broncos beat Brady and the , 20-18, in the AFC title game, the penultimate game for a legendary Denver defense.
That game has been revisited leading into Sunday’s . Brady still leads the Patriots’ offense and former Broncos defensive coordinator is now running the Los Angeles Rams’ defense.
With a different cast of players — aside from cornerback — can Phillips author a second play-calling masterpiece against Brady?
“Each team and each year is different,” Phillips said. “(The 2015 Broncos) were one of the great defensive teams of all time. When they talked about comparing them to the ’85 (Chicago) Bears — you know how good they were. I’ve had teams that played against (Brady) that didn’t do very well and that team did really well.”
Really, really well actually.
- Posted 23 total disruptions of Brady: Six pressures, 13 knockdowns and four sacks per a Denver Post review of the game this week.
- Limited the Patriots to 44 yards rushing on 17 attempts (long rush of 11 yards on a Brady scramble).
- Forced four three-and-outs (the Patriots were 2 of 15 on third down), ended two drives with fourth-down stops and intercepted two Brady passes.
- And stopped the Patriots’ two-point conversion with 12 seconds remaining that would have tied the score.
(Watching the game replay is also a reminder of how much the current Broncos have to improve.)
Two weeks later, the Broncos used their dominating defense to smother Carolina in Super Bowl 50.
Creating pressure without blitzing was Phillips’ plan against the Patriots back then. The Broncos rushed five or more players on only 10 of Brady’s 63 drop-backs. They had one sack with a three-man rush (), two sacks with a four-man ( and Miller/) and one with a five-man (Miller).
The Rams figure to be a rush four-and-cover defense against the Patriots, using linebackers to take shallow drops in an attempt to contain the steady diet of crossing routes by New England.
Phillips could call seven-man coverages in that AFC title game because he had Miller and Ware working the edges to the tune of a combined three sacks, four pressures, and six knockdowns. The Patriots felt they could block the Broncos 1-on-1 (they couldn’t) and they only occasionally used a running back to chip Miller/Ware (bad move).
Miller and Ware creating trouble allowed Wolfe, , and others to clean up in the form of sacks and knockdowns. That Broncos’ pass rush worked from the outside in.
The Rams’ defense under Phillips is the opposite. It works best from the inside out. Their game plan against Brady should be predicated on interior pressure from and . Donald, the presumed NFL Defensive Player of the Year, led the league with 20 1/2 sacks.
“He’s pretty much unblockable,” Patriots coach said of Donald. “Wade does a great job of utilizing his personnel and putting his players in position to be productive. When he had Von Miller, he didn’t change what he did, just the volume and percentages shifted to accentuate a player like that or (now) Aaron Donald.”
Brady is effective sliding up in the pocket to throw, much more so than moving laterally. The Rams’ best bet is to get Donald free of double teams (and maybe triple teams) and Suh to win his 1-on-1 matchup to force Brady to move outside and into the path of rush linebacker Dante Fowler.
This Patriots offense’ appears to be built better to attack and defend Phillips’ game plan than it was against that 2015 Broncos team.
New England’s offensive line is better now. The Patriots allowed no sacks to edge rushers /Melvin Ingram (Chargers) and Dee Ford/Justin Houston (Kansas City) in the playoffs. And, they are more balanced — they rushed 34 times for 155 yards and 48 times for 176 yards against the Chargers and Chiefs, respectively, to get to the Super Bowl.
“That was just an incredible effort (against Kansas City) and we’re going to need it again because this (Rams) group is obviously exceptional,” Brady said of the offensive line. “The D-line is certainly a strength of theirs. We’ll be challenged. We’ll need those guys (up front) to play a great game.”
In the January 2016 Patriots-Broncos game, New England prioritized getting running back downfield outside against linebackers or .
Two weeks ago, New Orleans running back had 11 catches for 96 yards as he worked over the Rams linebackers on the perimeter. That would seem like a natural point of emphasis for the Patriots in using White (team-high 87 regular season catches, third-most among NFL running backs).
The 2015 Broncos defense is likely to always be regarded as Phillips’ best group, but beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl could register as his biggest accomplishment.
“I don’t think we’re going to see like three new fronts and three new coverages that he hasn’t run in the last 30 years,” Belichick said. “They do what they do in their system, they do it well and they have a lot of confidence in it, which they should.
“Wade’s been doing it for 30 years in multiple organizations with multiple groups of players against every kind of offense he could see. You’ve got to get him credit for that.”
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