I see most of you are on the Patriots tonight, and am not surprised at all. They are a heavily backed public team, it's monday night football, and frankly it's more comfortable to take NE than Miami in this one. However what I don't really see from any of you are reasons why NE will cover. Most of the analyis only goes as far as "Brady is awesome, Miami sucks, NE will win by 3 TD's" or something along those lines. Well i'm going to try something different here and actually break down the game.
Reasons the Dolphins could cover:
1. Pressure from the interior of the defensive line. Brady is a great QB no queestion but throwing from outside the pocket is something he isn't comfortable doing. He prefers to drop back, read the defense, stay in the pocket and then step up to pass. One problem with that. New England is a little shaky in the middle of their O-Line and Miami's D-Line is anchored by massive DT Paul Soliai. Soliai is a very solid player and vastly underrated, i'd venture to say 95% of you have no idea who he even is. If you watch the game tonight you'll find out. If he can get some penetration tonight that i'm expecting that'll flush Brady out of the pocket and force him to deal with Miami's solid pass rush from the edge with the likes of Jason Taylor and Cameron Wake.
2. The Dolphins secondary is better than you think. The common thought on the board today is that Brady is just going to carve up this Dolphins defense. I'm not sold it'll be as easy as everyone else does. The Dolphins secondary includes solid young CB's Vontae Davis and Sean Smith along with former Pro Bowl safety Yerimiah Bell. Think back to point #1 I made here about the Miami pass rush. If that pass rush can force Brady into some rushed passes I think the secondary is up to the task of picking off a pass or two.
3. Possible communication problems with the Patriots defense. In the pre-season there were numerous examples of communication issues in the Patriots secondary. With the release of safeties James Sanders and Brandon Meriweather the safety position could be a problem tonight for the Pats. The responsibilty of calling out coverages and alignments now fall on Patrick Chung and Jerrod Mayo. Neither of which has much experiance or consistency in doing this well. If Miami mixes in some no huddle and forces the Patriots into some hurried defensive situations this lack of experiance coupled with those troubles at the safety position could lead to some Dolphins big plays.
I have a few more, but I don't want to write an essay here. That's just some food for thought for you guys.
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