This week the Green Bay Packers will play the New England Patriots on Sunday Night Football. The game is being hyped as an Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady duel. But that is wrong since neither plays defense. The game will be won by the defensive coordinator and the defense that can limit the other team’s offense.
Tom Brady is an excellent quarterback regardless of what a defensive coordinator can throw at him defensively. He has an answer to beat cover-1 and 2 men, zone schemes, blitzes, fake blitzes, etc. Last year, Scott Kascmar of Football Outsiders, tweeted out that from 2006 to 2017, Tom Brady had an outstanding ratio of 70 touchdowns to zero (yes, zero!) interceptions when facing an all-out blitz.
Since 2006, Tom Brady has 70 TD and 0 INT against 6+ man blitzes (source: ESPN)
— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmar) June 21, 2017
However, throughout his glorious NFL career, there has been evidence that he can get rattled. Interior pressure is Tom Brady’s kryptonite, and the Green Bay Packers interior pressure will be key to beating the New England Patriots.
Green Bay Packers Interior Pressure Crucial To Beating New England Patriots
Last season, the Miami Dolphins shocked the National Football League when they downed the Patriots 27-20 on Monday Night Football. The game was not as close the as the score lets it out to be. The Dolphins inside rushers led by Ndamukong Suh generated pressure on Brady.
Due to his limited mobility, Brady will not get out of the pocket on the sides, but rather step up. Brady is the master at side-stepping pressure to avoid a singular edge rusher. However, he’s never looking to get out of the pocket. So, rushers coming from the interior of the line have to either flush him out or finish the play.
The Jacksonville Jaguars interior rushers got to Brady in last year’s AFC Championship Game. The Patriots began mounting the comeback after two of the Jacksonville Jaguars best interior rushers (Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue) left the game with injuries.
Packers Interior Rushers
When the Green Bay Packers hired new defensive coordinator Mike Pettine to run the defense, one of his goals was to upgrade the production from his interior pass rushers.
It is his philosophy, and it stems down from Rex Ryan, who always gave Brady fits. Essentially, the idea is that it is easier to block an outside rusher and that generating an inside rush gives the rest of the defense more confidence.
The good news for the Packers is that they have gotten strong performances from their inside rushers starting with their week four home shutout of the Buffalo Bills. Now, apparently, the Packers even with a breathtaking performance from their interior rushers will not shut out the Patriots. However, they can replicate (or at least come close to replicating) the seven sacks.
In that Bills game, none of the interior rushers (Mike Daniels, Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry) got home, but they flushed Josh Allen into the arms of their outside brethren who finished the play.
Conclusion
This Sunday Night Football game has the potential of an epic-tale, instant classic game fans will remember for a long time, similar to the 2014 game at Lambeau Field. The Packers must prevent the Patriots from running up the score, and the best way to keep Brady and co at bay is to generate an inside rush.
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