Breaking Down the Tape: The Giants-Patriots Regular Season Matchup (Part One)

Against the Patriots in their regular season matchup, the Giants defense kept one safety back and flooded the middle of the field.

I'm posting a lot of content this week as we approach the rematch of the greatest Super Bowl in NFL history (sorry Santonio Holmes), including photos and observations when I head out to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl this Friday.  Check back often this week, as the site will be updated daily.

Back on November 6th, the Giants visited the Patriots for a game that gave us all 42 deja vu. To get a better sense of what New York and New England will try to do in this Sunday's Super Bowl, I looked back at the tape of that Week Nine matchup.  Today, I'll break down how the Patriots offense attacked the Giants defense.

Patriots Offense vs. Giants Defense

Any team facing New York's defense needs to slow down their pass rush, and New England's offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien had a novel strategy for keeping Tom Brady upright in this game. On a whopping 29 percent of their offensive snaps, the Patriots brought in rookie tackle Nate Solder as a sixth lineman. Teams usually only use an extra blocker when they want to run the ball on third and short, but half of Solder's plays were called passes. Having that extra lineman in pass protection slowed New York's rush for much of the first half. That is, until the Giants defense countered by blitzing whenever Solder entered the game.

The Patriots tried to establish the run early with BenJarvus Green-Ellis, but had limited success due to an outstanding game by the Giants' best run defender, Mathias Kiwanuka. Kiwi frequently knifed into the backfield to tackle Green-Ellis or redirect him towards another defender. By the second half, the Patriots had mostly ditched The Law Firm in favor of pass-catching running back Danny Woodhead.

The Giants didn't pay much respect to the Patriots' outside receivers, and they didn't have to. Corey Webster and Aaron Ross covered Deion Branch and Chad Ochocinco man-to-man and rarely encountered a problem, as the two receivers caught two passes for 21 yards on 10 targets. This advantage allowed the Giants to play Cover-1 (one safety deep) and keep eight defenders near the line of scrimmage to clog up the middle of the field (see photo above). This frustrated Wes Welker and New England's tight ends in a scoreless first half.

Speaking of Welker, he was clearly the biggest concern for the Giants' defense. He abused both Aaron Ross and Antrel Rolle to the tune of nine catches for 136 yards, which often forced Phillips to roll to Welker's side.  This made the difference on the Patriots go-ahead touchdown with under two minutes left. On 4th and 8 from the Giants' 14 yard line, Welker ran to the corner and Phillips went with him, leaving Rob Gronkowski all alone with linebacker Michael Boley in the middle of the field for an easy touchdown.

Tom Brady said he "sucked" against the Ravens last week, but Brady was also scattered in this game. He threw two bad interceptions and should have had two more that the Giants' defenders dropped. He occasionally failed to spot a linebacker or safety who was lurking in the middle of the field. And he was frequently on a different page from his receiver (I'm looking at you, Ochocinco).

What limited success the Patriots offense had in the first half came because they confused the Giants' secondary with bunch and stack formations, where their receivers lined up close together and crossed underneath each other). New York's cornerbacks struggled to communicate in these situations and often ended up double-covering one receiver while another ran free. The Giants have cleaned up these mistakes in their playoff run, but the Patriots will test that improvement with plenty of bunches and crossing routes.

When the Patriots receivers lined up together, the Giants secondary often lost track of them.

After a scoreless first half, the Patriots finally started moving the ball against the Giants in the third quarter by dictating one-on-one matchups that gave them an advantage. Their two touchdown drives featured plays where Gronkowski beat Kiwanuka, Woodhead beat Jacquain Williams and Aaron Hernandez beat Boley. The Giants will want to avoid those pairings in the rematch.

I was surprised that New England didn't use the hurry-up offense more often, given that New York has struggled against it dating back to the fake injury controversy in Week 2. When the Patriots did quicken their pace late in the fourth quarter, they exhausted the Giants' defensive line. On New England's final touchdown drive, their five offensive linemen easily handled New York's front four.

What To Expect in Super Bowl XLVI:

The Steelers and Giants showed the rest of the league that you could neutralize the Patriots' outside wide receivers with tight man-to-man coverage. New England has responded to that by leaning more heavily on Welker, Gronkowski and Hernandez.  In the seven games before they played the New York, that trio accounted for 68 percent of the Patriots' receiving yards. Since then, that number has jumped to 76 percent. I expect the Giants to once again play one-on-one coverage on Branch and New England's other outside receivers, so they have more defenders to roam the middle of the field.

The Giants defense focused on Welker in Week Nine, but New England has leaned so heavily on its tight ends lately that New York must pay more attention to Gronkowski and Hernandez. This time Boley won't be left to deal with either of them one-on-one, but that could open up more space for Welker to operate.

The Giants really struggled to cover Woodhead out of the backfield. The Patriots love to throw to the running back where he can scamper for some yards after the catch, so I think we'll see more Woodhead in the Super Bowl than Green-Ellis or Kevin Faulk.

Despite how the Giants defense held up against the Packers' hurry up offense two weeks ago, I think the Patriots will try more no huddle drives to tire out New York's defenders. Everyone remembers how dominant New York's pass rush was in Super Bowl XLII, but few recall how gassed they were on the Patriots' final touchdown drive. The Patriots may quicken their pace earlier in the game to tire out Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora. If they do, it will pay massive dividends in the fourth quarter.

We've barely covered the tip of the iceberg for this matchup.  Tomorrow, I'll tackle how the Giants offense attacked the Patriots defense in that regular season game.

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Photos courtesy of NFL Game Rewind.