Details of How the Pats Get Their Revenge On the G-Men

First and foremost;

On Defense:

Tell Vince Wilfork to go out there and dominate that average-at-best Giants O-line. He's been on a hot-streak lately. Everyone knows he had a monster game, everyone has heard that if you look closely at the tape it's even more impressive than it looked. What shocked me the most about his performace was that it was against probably the best Guards-and-Center trio in the entire league. Those three Pro-Bowlers(or equivilant talent) got chewed up. Put him up there with two other beefy guys and tell them to just keep banging away at the interior of the G-Men's offensive line. Brandon Jacobs is primarily a North-South kind of runner, so like the Ravens, trust that they'll constanstly try to rush up the middle. The OLBs/DEs need to set the edge against Ahmad Bradshaw and the NYG Tackles, who aren't great but who are athletic. The thing is that the interior-3 of the Giants' line has nowhere near the talent of the Ravens' line's interior-3. Vince Wilfork will probably spend much of his time at LDE or NT, making life miserable for Snee(NYG RG) and whoever their Center is going to be(injury watch for Baas, Kevin Boothe likely backup). Those other-two linemen next to Wilfork are going to have opportunities that they better try to take advantage of without losing their discipline. Pats should stick primarily to a 3-4 look but not be shy about constantly bringing a 4th man to bring the pressure right to Eli's face.

With all the fun that Giants O-Line is going to have, that should give our LB corps their own share of opportunities. I'd like to see a lot of four-man rushes, with the three linemen up front and a LB alternating in the blitz from each different position. Mark Anderson shouldn't have too hard of a time against the Tackles of the Giants, who might be even worse than their Gs/C in the interior. The same for Ninkovich. I'd like to see them at the snap pull an outside-to-inside pass-rush up the middle. Edge-pressure will only be effective against Eli if it's coming consistently from both sides or else he'll scramble and find a pass-lane. From right up the midde, I'd like to see ILBs Mayo and Spikes alternating to bring pressure right at Eli's face. What the Pats Front-7 can't do is disrespect the run or the TEs, sure, but most of all they got to keep defenders infront of Eli to prevent open lanes for a pass to his hot-read.

In the secondary, I think Sterling Moore has probably earned time as a starter at CB. I'd put him on Nicks(unless he looks very hobbled) or Cruz if Cruz is working outside the numbers(he's usually a slot-receiver). Manningham has been kind of like Deion Branch for them; inconsistent as the #2 WR. Kyle Arrington should move back to being a slot-cornerback where we'll need to match someone up with Victor Cruz in nickel-packages. Devin McCourty looks good enough as a FS, and that's far more than can be said about James Ihedigbo when he drops into coverage. Ihedigbo isn't bad against the run or blitzing the passer, but you know who else can do that? Patrick Chung. Only he's not a liability against the pass like Ihedigbo is. In Week 9, he was completely taken advantage of and Eli will be looking for him. Nate Jones should be next on the depth chart at Safety.

On Offense:

Gronk Watch is on. Whatever happens with him, here are the facts; the Giants threw out a lot of nickel and even more dime packages at the Pats Offense in Week 9. More often than not there were 6 DBs on the field at once, meaning most of the Giants defenders weighed around 200. They might try it again. Fact is, they probably will try it again while putting their best pass-rushers outfront. Probably 9 out of 10 snaps will involve the Giants putting 2-4 men in the trenches, playing the pass unless it's an obvious run-play. It's the Jets playbook from the playoffs in last year's Divisional Round; focus on taking away the middle of the field away from the Pats pass-game, and they have little Offense.

Pats should wait for those DB-heavy packages and then get physical as all Hell with that small-D, rushing the ball out of the No-Huddle to make Coughlin choose between more pain or Timeouts. Pats should run, run, and run again. Obviously some passes too to mix it up, but they should be eager to bash and gash at those light-D packages. The Pats O-Line has been dominating lately, and let's face it, the Giants don't have a Haloti Ngata in the middle. They also don't have a Ray Lewis in the middle. They do however have Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul on the edges, and I'd rather run the ball away from them than towards them. Just like the Pats D should bring pressure up the middle, the Pats O should drive it right up the middle if the Giants are bringing out their dime-packages again. The Pats should let Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley get some touches; we drafted these guys in the 2nd and 3rd round for a reason, and if we're going to run-heavy we don't want to wear out BJGE too much. Also, with the Giants being so concerned about taking the middle of the field away from the Pats, they might want to think about getting the ball past the edges. A strong ground-game means a stronger reaction to play-action.

The Pats are going to get some shots at the middle of the field to the Big-3. They're too good to not. The best slot-receiver and the best tight-end tandem ever are going to be the ones that the Giants game-plan for the most. They'll do what they can to double as many of them as possible, even if that means leave the CBs outside-of-the-numbers alone on the true outside-the-number wide-receivers. Those corners will be using press coverage and neither Edelman, Welker, nor Branch are likely to beat it. This is why the Pats picked up Chad Ochocinco. The Pats need him because the field is going to be clogged up between the numbers.

The Pats will need to find some success beyond the Big-3, especially if the biggest of those 3 is hobbled come Super Bowl Sunday. They'll only find that outside-the-numbers or in the run-game.

What else I'd like to see;

Another 60 minute game. They took long enough to finally happen this season, didn't they? Now they just need one more...

Mistake-free football on the part of the Pats, with the Pats taking advantage of every NY mistake.

Another snap for Slater, if only to trick the Giants into overreacting. Trust me, Fewell has shown that tape from last week to his DBs a dozen times. It'll free up someone else.

A pass to Nate Solder. They've had him run routes. Wouldn't you like to see him reach two-feet over a DB to grab a pass and then run forward, with the small DB unable to drag him into a tackle? He's not a Gronk or a Hernandez, but he'll sure as heck throw the Giants D off.

Let WR Underwood get another shot at cutting the head off a Defense. He's a burner and if he can just anticipate Brady, could be a legit deep threat.

How about a (bleep)ing Return game for kickoffs and punts? We're great at coverage, but what the heck are we doing on returns?