Mile High Sports

Wade Phillips’ nearly perfect game plan shuts down Patriots

MHS Staff
Broncos victory over the Patriots

The New England Patriots were without Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola when the Denver Broncos beat them in Week 12 of the regular season. That was supposed to be the difference when New England returned to Denver for the AFC Championship Game, with both players ready to start. Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ game plan and his outstanding unit of players proved to be the real difference. Despite difficult matchups against Edelman, Amendola and the greatest tight end to perhaps ever play the game, Rob Gronkowski, Phillips and his defense put on the performance of the year and sent the Broncos to their eighth Super Bowl in franchise history.

Were it not for injuries to their two starting safeties that made Denver vulnerable in the fourth quarter, not to mention a mental lapse by Ronnie Hillman in the first quarter that gave New England the ball inside the Denver 25, the Denver defense might have allowed less than 18 points they ultimately surrendered in Denver’s 20-18 win.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady ended the day with the second-worst passer rating of his career, despite having all of his primary weapons at his disposal. At 56.4, Denver became only the third team to hold Brady below a 60 rating in the playoffs, joining San Diego and Baltimore (who did it twice). New England is now 2-2 in those games.

Brady was forced to throw 56 times in the game, connecting 27 times for 310 net yards. Denver’s four sacks for 18 yards brought him back below the 300-yard mark on the day. He threw two interceptions for the fifth time in his postseason career.

Nearly half of his yardage went to Gronkowski, with much of the damage coming on New England’s final drive and a 40-yard pass to convert a fourth down and four-yard touchdown pass. Edelman and Amendola were limited to 53 and 39 yards respectively, pulling in only 12 catches on 29 targets.

For the better part of the day, Phillips and the defense was just as exotic in its coverage and defensive alignment as Bill Belichick is known to be on offense.

At different points in the game Phillips had his edge rusher DeMarcus Ware in slot coverage, safety T.J. Ward on Gronkowski at the line of scrimmage and linebacker Brandon Marshall playing as more or less a cornerback covering running backs in four- and five-wide sets.

At various points each of them made critical stops and contributed to blanket coverage of the New England pass catchers. Along with Aqib Talib, Chris Harris and Bradley Roby, the unconventional coverage guys gave the defensive line time all day long, enough to get to Brady and hit him more than a dozen times. Even after losing Ward and Darian Stewart to injuries, Denver managed to limit Edelman with Kayvon Webster and Shiloh Keo in coverage.

It made no difference who Denver had on Edelan and Amendola. This was a win engineered by Wade Phillips and delivered by a defensive unit that would not be denied.

Here’s how the team from Mile High Sports and the rest of the Denver media reacted to how the Broncos got creative and matched up on defense…

https://twitter.com/MikeKlis/status/691365874758918144

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