What's the defensive gameplan for NE?

[Rajmahal33]

If springs can practice (and I don't want to speculate given his father's condition), then we should play him. Otherwise, I wouldn't be confident in starting a player for a game like this that required a whole week's worth of preparation (esp in the passing game). If springs does in fact practice and play, i think we have a shot of shutting them down (relatively speaking) or rather having the most success at stopping them thus far.

As far as scheming if I was GW I wouldn't try the Detroit tactic, of pressing and sitting back in a zone, b/c Tom Brady will pick apart that zone like Warner did in the 4th quarter...but with more efficiency. The only way to stop brady is to put him on his ass. I think I would give them a taste of their own medicine and play a 3-4. With Washington (if healthy) and/or Carter rushing from a standup position on each side on every play. Give them different looking blitz packages out of that formation too. Rotate as many interior linemen in there as possible so they all stay fresh. Safety blitzes wont work b/c they will take too long and that man could be used in a much more effective way in coverage. Study a LOT of film.

Finally our defensive gameplan should be aided by our Offense. We have to have long sustained drives to keep Brady and the pats offense off the field. That's the only way to stop the Pat's Offense. If we are healthy on offense we can do this. I hope the skins practice screens and checkdowns a lot. Give Mike sellers the ball vs. NE thats their weakness. They're too fast for finesse/outside running and despite what ppl say, their Defense isn't the best at tackling. I think they will have their guards down and be looking forward to Indy the week after.

Remember when the Pats won their 2nd superbowl, we were one of the only teams to beat them that year. They had a bunch of injuries but we were able to get in brady's head and force him to throw 3 picks. I know the teams are completely different but for history's sake we've done it before.