I just see no way that the Colts go into Foxboro and beat the Patriots today. Even if the game was in Lucas Oil Stadium I still don't see them beating the Patriots. At least the Packers have a punchers chance vs Seattle with Aaron Rogers.
Less likely teams have taken the Patriots down in the playoffs in recent years. They are very good, but far from unbeatable. It is cold and wet in NE today. Maybe a low-scoring, turnover filled affair?
Any given Sunday is the only real argument. The Pats beat Balt last week and had so much trouble running the ball they stopped running it in the second half and still won. They put up over 200 yards on the Colts on the ground this season. This will probably be a rout.
Luck is 0-3 vs. the Pats, so perhaps it's time for he and the Colts to make that leap. If you're a numbers person, maybe this is a regression towards the mean kind of situation where they're due since both teams are very good (albeit the Pats are probably better). To focus on Luck again, he's been improving since he entered the league and looks like a truly special player. Perhaps this is "his time" to take the next step and get his team to the Super Bowl. He's having a tremendous season and is the kind of QB you want in big moments. The mighty 14-2, 2010 Pats got beat pretty well by the Wildcard Jets at home. That was an even bigger upset than this would be. The Pats haven't been successful in the playoffs over the past ten years compared to that initial ridiculous run. Maybe they've lost something. The Pats have a very good team with few glaring weaknesses (maybe OG is one), but they're not a dominant powerhouse. Overall, they have a pedestrian backfield, wideouts, and offensive line. Pats fans seem especially overly confident or even arrogant about this game... That kind of stuff seems to backfire not infrequently And if you don't buy any of that... then just go with the any given Sunday idea, which is absolutely true, of course. Personally, I think the Pats will win, but I'm really hoping this will be that game for Luck and the Colts.
NE playoff losses with Bill and Brady have all been regular season rematches. Andrew Luck is really good. That's about it. NE should win but their defense was a little suspect against BAL. IND should have the same gameplan they had against DEN, dare NE and Brady to beat them deep over the top, one of the few things that offense struggles with. The difference is Gronk, nobody on IND can cover him and he'll break the top off of the D. If Brady sees them doing that, he'll hurry up, catch INDs suspect defense out of position and hit them with a big play. So yeah NE should win hands down unless Brady gets hurt.
I think it's going to come down to the Colts defense. Jam the receivers and take away those short, quick passes that is the bread and butter of the Patriots offense. Get to Brady quick.
It's not going to happen, Brady is not limited like manning was with his old tired arm. The pats are going to the SB again.
While NE obviously isn't great at going over the top, Brady has an arm that the Colts can't just disrespect. Manning's arm deserved absolutely none at all which is why they were able to crowd the middle. Manning's dead arm probably also counted for DT's 2 or 3 drops on quick screens, if I had to guess I'd say it became muscle memory for DT catching those and the ball getting there half a second slower while he's basically turning up field already with a ball that on a good day had already arrived and was secured. I also feel that Manning's arm discouraged his own team, the Broncos quit. I don't think the Colts can really count on situations like that. Still, any given Sunday, the Colts winning would definitely not be the strangest thing but the Pats are favored for a reason (which is also something we've said for just about every game they've ever lost, so obviously anything can happen).
Andrew Luck will need to play the game of his life. Luck has the most pressure out of any QB to perform this weekend.
I mean yeah, Brady has an arm but you rather NE take their chances over the top to their wideouts than dink and dunk you to death. You aren't stopping the NE short pass game without a pass rush. I don't think IND has a pass rush to effectively get to Brady to disrupt the short ones, so I think you need to use your DBs and LBs to do it by playing tight. Gronk is the game changer though that puts a huge hole in the play the close plan. I don't think you can blame DTs drops on Manning's arm. The timing might have been off slightly, but DT routinely turns up field while catching the screen pass. He just plain dropped a couple that hit him in the hands. That's on him. But I don't see any other way for IND to effectively stop NE offense unless they hired Rex Ryan for the week. They basically have what they have and they need to dare Brady to beat them over the top. It limits the rhythm, limits the hurry up, and hopefully disrupts the offense enough. Turn NE into a different offense than its used to being then hope for the best. But if they don't stop the run to start, it's already over for IND
45-3. Remember how we had no chance against the big, bad Pats and we went in there with Mark Sanchez and beat them. Well, they have Andrew Luck, already a top 5 QB and a guy who will be the best in the business in a year or 2...
