Saturday, January 12, 2008

NFL Division Round Preview, Jaguars vs Patriots


Ok...so evidently the weather.com forecast was just a bit off.  They said winds of 5-10 mph with snow accumulations of under 1".  Oh well...the Packers are playing their best football at the right time.  Here's to hoping they're playing in Dallas next weekend!!!


Now onto tonight's game...

Jacksonville Jaguars (12-5) +13.5 @ New England Patriots (16-0)

How the Jags win:  Remember a few weeks ago when all we heard was that nobody wanted to play the Jaguars?  Some even thought that their running game would be the best challenge against the Patriots?  Well...that all changed last week once their defense was exposed by an under-manned Steelers squad.  While their offense mabe able to play keep away from the Pats, their defense is nothing more than a 4-man rush with an average secondary.  
Three Keys:
 - First off...they'll have to control the clock.  35+ minutes in time of posession.
 - Defensively, they'll need to keep the Patriots under 28 points.  The 3 "close games" they've had this year, only broke 28 once...and that was on a late 4th quarter TD against Philly.
 - Be opportunistic!!!  The Pats do turn it over some.  When they do you HAVE to turn it into points!!!

How the Pats win:  This might be the easiest preview I ever write.  When you're 16-0...you know what's working.  As long as you've prepared well (and we assume that they have) then it's all about execution.  Play your game, control the field, go home with a W.
Three Keys:
 - Mix the run with the pass.  This will keep the Jags D-line off balance and slow down their pass rush.
 - Don't turn the ball over.  Turnovers change the dynamic of the game and field position.  Force the Jags to go 80 yards to beat you.
- Get the ball to Wes Welker.  That's the Texas Tech plug of the weekend.  The more Welker gets the ball...the more the defense has to shift away from Randy Moss and this creates big play opportunities.  I think we'll all agree that the Tom Brady is pretty good in making big plays!

New England Patriots 37
Jacksonville Jaguars 23

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your comment about Wes Welker was right on and the Patriots did a great job of using him as well as all of the other receivers. Brady used so many different receivers in the game; the Jaguars should have expected this. He has done it before in big games.