A Little Solace

If I can take any solace in the super bowl, particularly a Giants win, it will be that it was the Eagles who gave teams the blueprint for beating the Patriots and also ended their aura of invincibility.

 

It may be difficut to remember now, but before the Eagles-Patriots game, Belichick and company were blowing teams away. To the point where the Eagles were 23 point underdogs on the road, and there were serious discussions about whether that number were too low.

 

Since then the Patriots have been beating teams by smaller and smaller margins and not once blew another team out the way they did in the first half of the season - even when playing the league's doormat, Miami.

 

As Jim Johnson showed, and which is now conventional wisdom, give Brady different looks, pressure him from different angles, double Moss, and be physical with the receivers. On offense, keep attacking (something Baltimore nor the Giants did when they had the Pats on the ropes in the second half), try to get mismatches with their linebackers, and throw the deep square in. And when you get in the redzone, or even inside their 30 - you really need TDs and not FGs.

 

Here's hoping that in the 24 hour coverage leading up to the game, the announcers give due credit to the Eagles for showing the Giants the way to beating the Pats. Cause it all started with Philadelphia.