Pats Preview

A familiar foe in a familiar venue with the stakes as high as it gets. The winner of Pats v. Colts goes to Miami for a shot at the Super Bowl. It doesn't get much better than this.

What does our beloved home squad, the New England Patriots, need to do in order to win this game? Indy came into New England (pre-FieldTurf, mind you) and took New England to task 27-20 on November 5th.

The Indianapolis Colts defense we'll see on Sunday is different from the team that was giving up 177 rushing yards per game. Reason number one for this is the return of Safety Bob Sanders. Sanders, who has played in both playoff games and played against the Pats earlier this year, makes the Colts a totally different defense against both the run and the pass. Being able to take advantage of opportunities against what has become a quite stingy defense (6 points given up against Baltimore, 8 against Kansas City) will be the key on offense for the Pats. Tom Brady will need to be a bit better against Indy, and let's hope that Laurence Maroney and Corey Dillon can put together a formidable ground attack to shorten the game and keep Peyton off the field.

Defensively, New England has its work cut out for it. Receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne ran roughshod over the Pats secondary in November, and quarterback Peyton Manning was razor sharp. Rodney Harrison, the Pats star safety, is playing it close to the vest about his possible return this week to the lineup. His addition to a banged up secondary would be a welcome addition, no question, especially facing one of the best passing attacks in the NFL. Either way, the Patriots will need to play press coverage on the outsides and blitz Manning. Force him him to make mistakes. The Colts have an outstanding O-line to go along with their top-notch skill players, so blitzing is a risk. But by pressing Wayne and Harrison at the line of scrimmage, it will hopefully give the Pats front seven a chance to get to Manning and hit him, or at least disrupt his rhythm.

And the biggest subplot of this week's game is Adam Vinatieri in the playoffs, again, this time against New England. Five field goals last week, and as coach Tony Dungy mouthed during the Baltimore win in describing Vinatieri "Money, money, money!", Adam is as good as he ever was. Oh, and he still has never missed in the RCA dome.

The Pats will need to be solid on special teams and create better starting field position than they had against San Diego in the first half. If they do that, along with everything else, the Pats will put themselves in a position to have a chance to win the game. And that approach has been pretty good to them the past 5 years, don't you think?

Photo of Benedict Arnold Adam Vinatieri courtesy of Wikipedia.com