Pats’ aerial assault poses Giant problem
INDIANAPOLIS — Like every other team in the NFL this season, the New England Patriots featured a pass-oriented offence.
Through the air, quarterback Tom Brady threw for a whopping 5,235 yards, while on the ground the Pats rushed for a collective 1,764 yards.
After all, when you have a weapon like Brady, you use him.
What is peculiar about the Patriots, though, is their list of who caught the ball.
Leading the pack was slot receiver Wes Welker, who topped all NFL receivers this season with 122 catches. Placing second on New England was big tight end Rob Gronkowski with 90 receptions, while placing third was another tight end, Aaron Hernandez, who snagged 79.
Finally, we now come to a wide receiver, Deion Branch, who chipped in with 51.
The t wo towering tight ends, plus the diminutive Welker, were also the targets that Brady sought in the end zone as the three accounted for 33 of the 39 TD passes Brady threw. Leading the way were the 17 to Gronkowski, he of the injured right ankle.
It is an unusual offensive scheme, but was one that was highly successful.
The Giants, on the other hand, feature a more traditional set of receivers as their slot receiver, Victor Cruz, topped the team with 82 receptions. He was followed by wide receivers Hakeem Nicks (76 receptions) and Mario Manningham, 39.
While Cruz runs plenty of deep routes for the Giants, Welker is a possession receiver running primarily short to intermediate length routes.
It all creates something of an adjustment for the Giants’ secondary.
“The thing that they present to us is that they have all these different body types,” Dave Merritt, the Giants’ secondary coach, said. “You have Wes who is 5-8 or 5-9, real quick twitch, quicker than fast, as we like to say.
“Then you have (Chad) Ochocinco on the outside, who has had a fabulous NFL career but still is trying to fit into the system with Tom Brady and how they want to do things with that offence. And then you have Deion Branch, who has been a journeyman and found his way back to New England where they won before with him.
“Then, of course, you go to the two tight ends and that’s a whole other monster. Now you’re dealing with Hernandez, who is like a wide receiver yet bigger. He has vertical speed, he has quickness to go up underneath.”
Merritt saved the threat for the last.
“Then, of course, you have Gronkowski who is just a big guy who is able to power his way through any type of press or jam coverage and who has fabulous hands. They all present a different challenge to you.”
The Giants dealt fairly well with the matchup problems the
biggest Patriots present in their comeback regular-season victory. But what the Pats receivers offer is a look that few other teams have.
“New Orleans,” Merritt ticked off when asked what team offers the same problems. “They didn’t have two tight ends, but they had the one tight end (Jimmy Graham) and then all the other receivers.”
Being able to contain elite tight ends is a growing problem for NFL secondaries. The league is a copycat league and the problems these big receivers create and the havoc they bring is something that all teams are rushing to fill.
“You look at who we played this year and all the different tight ends that we played,” Merritt said. “You go to Philadelphia and Dallas and on and on. We faced at least 14 premier tight ends this season.”
The height disadvantage is especially hard to compensate for.
Gronkowski, for example is 6-foot-6, while Giants safety Antrel Rolle and corner Corey Webster, for example, are both six feet. Inside the red zone, Brady often looks Gronkowski’s way and throws it high with the big man more times than not going up and grabbing it. Merritt, though, isn’t intimidated.
“We have a couple of big safeties that can play against him in Kenny Phillips (6-foot-2) and Deon Grant (also 6-foot-2),” Merritt said. “So we have the luxury of being able to play three safeties on the field and they have the ability to cover their tight ends. They’ve done a great job of doing that this year.”
Speaking of Gronkowski, there is no way the Giants think his ankle injury will prevent him from playing Sunday. Merritt believes it’s all smoke and mirrors.
“Oh, he’s going to play, he’s going to start,” he said emphatically. “We’re prepared for it. We have game plan A and game plan B. But we’re planning that he’s going to play and play for 60 minutes, no doubt about it.”