If everyone knows that the Bill Belichick likes to:

Butler has pretty much shut brown down in man coverage

This year he has gone more to 1v1 I believe

They see it coming. They target something, and it doesn't work. Great personnel and coaching across the board.

I don't think they will be able to use that game plan against the Falcons. Despite Julio being able to beat double coverage, Ryan has way to many weapons.

Double teams on Julio actually fuel the Falcons on offense, even if he has just a decent, or below average game himself.

You need to be a strong enough defense to play him 1v1 with some safety help. It may mean he gets his yards but in a lot of games recently (unlike today) him "getting his yards" has not been leading to the Falcons winning the game.

Beating great QBs with today's rules involves either having a elite pass rush with just four down linemen or playing coverage and hoping for mistakes. The fact is guys like Rodgers and Brady are just going to get theirs if they're on and if you don't hit them very quickly after the snap it doesn't matter what players you have back there covering.

The Falcons are different in that Ryan a very good QB, but he is not a consistently great one. Their offense is so good this year because they have two amazing receiving backs and can effectively catch defenses in nickel packages against 5 wides any time they want. They can be in three or four wide sets and send a back our who runs routes like an elite slot receiver, or have him as a checkdown for a guaranteed 5-8 yards. Because linebackers cannot cover them as they can most backs, what you end up with is a design that almost guarantees a true pass catcher is wide open every play. And if the defense goes with 6 DBs, they just hand it off.

Watch the checks Ryan makes at the LOS, they really have it down to a science. The backs are what make that offense go.

Teams with good linebackers can slow that down. Seattle did in the first matchup but in the second one they were really banged up.

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People give NE all this credit for personnel decisions they make when in reality they have the luxury of taking chances others teams simply can't because they have a QB that makes them an automatic 11 win team every year right off the bat.

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Drew Brees is a prime example of how an elite QB can't mask too many garbage players

2006 Patriots also a good example of that

Belicheck tested as much as he could the "can Brady just make anyone good" and then lost the easiest chance at a Super Bowl in his career because of it. Reche Caldwell, jabar Gaffney, and Doug Gabriel were his top 3 WRs and they survived (by a shoe string) by some of Brady's best football but intimately the WRs inability to make simple football plays (like Caldwell dropping a pass that the colts did not cover at all) ended up allowing the Colts to come back from an 18 point lead

Feel like this will bite us in the arse for dumping Collins

Drew Brees doesn't play in an offense that's going to take what the defense gives them. Sean Payton is going to pass the ball if you run quarters defense the whole game. The patriots will just hand it to Blount 50 times and bludgeon you to death. They aren't interested in being pretty or getting too cute, they just run what works. Sure they take shots, but they'll nickel and dime a team to death or run it down their throats too