Denver Broncos defensive end Malik Jackson knows that things are going to be different against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the AFC Championship Game. “This one is for all the marbles,” Jackson says. “A chance to represent the AFC,” is on the line, something Brady has done six times in his career and twice in the last four years. After suffering a loss in Week 12 to the Broncos and being hit by Denver’s pass rush on 13 occasions, Brady will have a quicker trigger this time around.

He’ll also have two of his top wide receiver targets back in Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola. They were both out with injury in the Sunday night matchup that saw Denver escape with a 30-24 overtime win after a furious fourth-quarter comeback. Edelman is one of the fastest receivers in the NFL off the line of scrimmage, not to mention Amendola and tight end Rob Gronkowski, wall of whom have 60-plus receptions on the year. New England’s bread and butter when all three are in the lineup is a quick slant and crossing pass offense that regularly sees Brady get throws off in under two seconds.

Those 13 hits that Denver registered against on Tom Brady on a Sunday snowy night in November will be harder to come by this time around, as a result. Jackson says Denver is game-planning for a quick-hitting attack from New England, much like the one that stopped Kansas City’s 11-game winning streak in the AFC Divisional Playoff when Brady passed for 302 yards.

Denver has only allowed two games of 300-plus yards passing this season, both to Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brady was held to 262 against Denver previously. But with all three of his main targets back, Brady and the pass-first Pats will look to target a Broncos secondary that has one of its main defensive weapons, Chris Harris, reportedly battling severe injury.

That’s where Jackson and the defensive line know they need to step up and help out the pass coverage unit. He doesn’t expect to get to Brady as often as they did last game, so their impact on the d-line will be twofold:

“Stopping the run when they do run it,” Jackson said, “and putting your hands up when they do those quick throws … [Brady’s] not going to hold it, so we have to find other ways to be known and show up.”

Jackson made himself known almost as much as anyone in the league this year when it comes to getting his hands on outgoing passes from opposing quarterbacks; his seven passes defended were tied for second-most among defensive linemen. Only J.J. Watt had more.

A few more batted passes on Sunday might get Brady thinking twice and give the rest of the pass rushers more time to get in and disrupt him with hits. Disrupting Brady is no easy task; the all-time leader in playoff wins has cemented his legacy by being rock-solid in the pocket and having quick releases. Jackson and the Broncos d-line knows they’ll have to chip away at that if they hope to repeat the Week 12 upset performance that knocked New England from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Listen to the full conversation with Jackson, including a look back on the AFC Divisional Playoff win over the Steelers, plus his take on all the trash talk that went down this week, in the podcast below…

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