Three Years After Broncos' AFC Title Game Win, Wade Phillips Needs
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Three years after Broncos’ AFC title game win, Wade Phillips needs another masterful plan vs. Tom Brady By Ryan O’Halloran The Denver Post February 1, 2019 They hit Tom Brady with a three-man rush. Pressured him with a four-man rush. Sacked him with a five- man blitz. Three years ago, the Broncos beat Brady and the New England Patriots, 20-18, in the AFC title game, the penultimate game for a legendary Denver defense. That game has been revisited leading into Sunday’s Super Bowl. Brady still leads the Patriots’ offense and former Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips is now running the Los Angeles Rams’ defense. With a different cast of players — aside from cornerback Aqib Talib — can Phillips author a second play- calling masterpiece against Brady? “Each team and each year is different,” Phillips said. “(The 2015 Broncos) were one of the great defensive teams of all time. When they talked about comparing them to the ’85 (Chicago) Bears — you know how good they were. I’ve had teams that played against (Brady) that didn’t do very well and that team did really well.” Really, really well actually. • Posted 23 total disruptions of Brady: Six pressures, 13 knockdowns and four sacks per a Denver Post review of the game this week. • Limited the Patriots to 44 yards rushing on 17 attempts (long rush of 11 yards on a Brady scramble). • Forced four three-and-outs (the Patriots were 2 of 15 on third down), ended two drives with fourth-down stops and intercepted two Brady passes. • And stopped the Patriots’ two-point conversion with 12 seconds remaining that would have tied the score. • (Watching the game replay is also a reminder of how much the current Broncos have to improve.) Two weeks later, the Broncos used their dominating defense to smother Carolina in Super Bowl 50. Creating pressure without blitzing was Phillips’ plan against the Patriots back then. The Broncos rushed five or more players on only 10 of Brady’s 63 drop-backs. They had one sack with a three-man rush (Derek Wolfe), two sacks with a four-man (Von Miller and Miller/DeMarcus Ware) and one with a five-man (Miller). The Rams figure to be a rush four-and-cover defense against the Patriots, using linebackers to take shallow drops in an attempt to contain the steady diet of crossing routes by New England. Phillips could call seven-man coverages in that AFC title game because he had Miller and Ware working the edges to the tune of a combined three sacks, four pressures, and six knockdowns. The Patriots felt they could block the Broncos 1-on-1 (they couldn’t) and they only occasionally used a running back to chip Miller/Ware (bad move). Miller and Ware creating trouble allowed Wolfe, Malik Jackson, and others to clean up in the form of sacks and knockdowns. That Broncos’ pass rush worked from the outside in. The Rams’ defense under Phillips is the opposite. It works best from the inside out. Their game plan against Brady should be predicated on interior pressure from Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh. Donald, the presumed NFL Defensive Player of the Year, led the league with 20 1/2 sacks. “He’s pretty much unblockable,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of Donald. “Wade does a great job of utilizing his personnel and putting his players in position to be productive. When he had Von Miller, he didn’t change what he did, just the volume and percentages shifted to accentuate a player like that or (now) Aaron Donald.” Brady is effective sliding up in the pocket to throw, much more so than moving laterally. The Rams’ best bet is to get Donald free of double teams (and maybe triple teams) and Suh to win his 1-on-1 matchup to force Brady to move outside and into the path of rush linebacker Dante Fowler. This Patriots offense’ appears to be built better to attack and defend Phillips’ game plan than it was against that 2015 Broncos team. New England’s offensive line is better now. The Patriots allowed no sacks to edge rushers Joey Bosa/Melvin Ingram (Chargers) and Dee Ford/Justin Houston (Kansas City) in the playoffs. And, they are more balanced — they rushed 34 times for 155 yards and 48 times for 176 yards against the Chargers and Chiefs, respectively, to get to the Super Bowl. “That was just an incredible effort (against Kansas City) and we’re going to need it again because this (Rams) group is obviously exceptional,” Brady said of the offensive line. “The D-line is certainly a strength of theirs. We’ll be challenged. We’ll need those guys (up front) to play a great game.” In the January 2016 Patriots-Broncos game, New England prioritized getting running back James White downfield outside against linebackers Danny Trevathan or Brandon Marshall. Two weeks ago, New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara had 11 catches for 96 yards as he worked over the Rams linebackers on the perimeter. That would seem like a natural point of emphasis for the Patriots in using White (team-high 87 regular season catches, third-most among NFL running backs). The 2015 Broncos defense is likely to always be regarded as Phillips’ best group, but beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl could register as his biggest accomplishment. “I don’t think we’re going to see like three new fronts and three new coverages that he hasn’t run in the last 30 years,” Belichick said. “They do what they do in their system, they do it well and they have a lot of confidence in it, which they should. “Wade’s been doing it for 30 years in multiple organizations with multiple groups of players against every kind of offense he could see. You’ve got to get him credit for that.” Super Bowl Journal: NFLPA already bracing players for 2021 lockout By Ryan O’Halloran The Denver Post February 1, 2019 Ten things from the Super Bowl on Thursday: 1. Per the NFLPA, the Broncos have elected to carry over all $8 million of their cap space to 2019. Buffalo was the only team not to carry over 100 percent of its space. Teams combined to carry over a total of $339.4 million. Most: Cleveland ($56.5 million). Least: Rams ($466,000). 2. The NFLPA held its annual Super Bowl Week news conference. A potential (likely?) lockout in 2021 was a primary topic of the conversation. The union long ago began educating players about a lockout, chiefly the importance of saving money. The 2011 offseason was wiped out because of a lockout and there figures to be another fight this time around. Each side wants a bigger piece of the revenue pie, period. But remember, there hasn’t been a stoppage that resulted in missed regular season games since 1987. Action in collective bargaining is not spurned until there is a deadline, in this case missed game checks. 3. Union president Eric Winston was asked what the players learned from 2011. “Every player is going to believe us when we say (we’re) going to be locked out,” he said. “It was such a foreign concept to a lot of guys (before 2011), it didn’t really sink in. We’ve always learned from things. We’re going to take all that knowledge and put it into a package guys can understand.” 4. Rams coach Sean McVay had high praise for owner Stan Kroenke, whose family also owns four Denver teams (Avalanche, Nuggets, Rapids, Mammoth). “I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to work for such a great owner,” McVay said. “He’s been nothing but great to me. He’s really an enjoyable guy to be around.” 5. Kroenke bought 30 percent of the Rams in 1995 to help facilitate a move to St. Louis. He bought the team outright in 2010. The Rams moved back to Los Angeles in 2016. “When you talk about looking for an owner that’s committed to investing and providing all of the resources you could ask for to be a successful franchise, it’s outstanding,” McVay said. “He has a quiet confidence but a humility. I can’t imagine having a better situation.” 6. Rams running back C.J. Anderson carries the same mindset as when he signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent. “When I was in Denver, it was (about) making the team and changing from (No.) 39 to 22,” he said. “Obviously, I had fun there and the career worked out well. As I’ve been through this league, being undrafted, being doubted, being overlooked, that has pushed me.” 7. Do the Rams call different run plays for Anderson and starter Todd Gurley? “It doesn’t appear that way,” Patriots defensive line coach Brendan Daly said. “I went back a number of games trying to answer that same question. (Anderson’s) skill set is definitely different than Gurley’s and his running style is definitely different than Gurley’s. But I don’t necessarily see them calling different plays. They run their offense.” 8. McVay and Patriots receiver Julian Edelman played against each other in college. Edelman was with Kent State and McVay with Miami (Ohio) in 2006-07. “I just remember respecting him as a competitor,” McVay said. “He could really do it all.” 9. Edelman on McVay coaching in the Super Bowl at age 33: “Very remarkable. He’s a stud. He’s my age and he’s leading an organization to the Super Bowl.