There are only 3 teams left in the Playoffs!  I say that because I believe the Playoffs this year revolve around dethroning New England; hence, the Playoffs this year involves 3 defenders and a Champ (of sorts).  With the potential matchups coming up I’m more skeptical than ever of any of the 3 being capable of stopping the Patriots from their almost inevitable Crowning.

The gist of why I say that is as follows:

AFC Championship

New England vs. San Diego
The Chargers have the best RB in the NFL with L.T., but they have one of the sketchiest QBs in the NFL as well in Rivers!  If I’m Belichek I write a great deal of my game plan around Rivers!  If L.T. wants to run the ball, I let him, so long as I’m able to keep his average below 7 yards (almost any defense can do that, it’s below 5 that’s next to impossible with this guy).  I put my D into man coverage on the corners, keep Harrison in his usual ‘Pathfinding’ missions, and use a base D of 4-2, that inches in and out of 3-4 and 5-1, with the usage of a roving LB.  The constant switching forces Rivers to audible, BUT, he’ll have to be careful, because much of the time a 5-1 initial setup will drop into a 3-4 upon the snap of the ball.  This will throw off his rhythm in the trenches and keep him using his peripheral vision more.  With the man coverage on the corners I’m able to send a Safety blitzing from his blind side, or open side, to flush him out of the pocket … further rattling him.  Do this enough and soon I’ll see the Offensive Coordinator’s adjustments inching in and I’ll probably see more passes to L.T.  In the form of either playaction passes or quick outs.  When I see this, or if I see this first, I have Harrison or another defender stop roaving and specifically focus on L.T. every down; before this duo gets into a good rhythm. The only edge I see of SD preventing this is if they find a way to “keep” the tight end actively engaged, downfield, on every drive!

Having the number 1 offense in the NFL, I don’t necessarily have to change anything I’ve been doing for this team.  I can wear out the corners with Moss, Stallworth, and Welker, and I can wreak havoc on the safeties by sending Watson on a post or flag, while one of the others is doing the opposite.  Whomever the safety commits to, doesn’t get the ball!  Maroney could start out by lining up in the backfield and taking short passes and occasionally lining up in the slot opposite Watson, with Brady in the shotgun!

Potential Superbowl Matchups

New England vs. New York
The Giants don’t necessarily hold the claim to the ‘best’ anything, arguably, but Jacobs, on a good day, is a freakin workhorse, so the game plan would be very similar to that of the Chargers.  Except when facing the Giants I’d start out by forcing the ball into Manning’s hands.  Lets face it, his hands aren’t as scary as his brothers, Buress’s leg is bothering him, and I can matchup with, or double-team Toomer if need be.  Having Harrison roaving allows me to have him focus on either the tightend or Jacobs, depending upon which shows up as a greater passing threat early on.

The Giants have a much better D than San Diego, however, so I’d come in with the game plan to do exactly what I did against the Jaguars on Offense!  I’d try to use Moss as a decoy early on, and inform him prior to the game that it will probably be in the 2^nd and 4^th Quarters when he gets the ball the most, so he’ll have to make serious work of the balls thrown to him then!  In large part Welker or Stallworth would be right there with Moss attempting to distract the Safeties and tie up the corners.  If I do this successfully, Watson, Welker, and Maroney will have the ability to make big work of short tosses underneath.  With the Giants, more likely focused on Maroney as the key back, I’d coyly put the emphasis on Evans.  He’s a big strong dude, who if successful, could make the Giants D shift their emphasis to him and his up-the-gut running abilities.  I can then go back to my bread-and-butter offense and put their D on their heals and thus tear them apart, sideline to sideline! 

The Giants need to ensure they tackle on “first contact” to give their O a chance of winning the matchup!!

B. New England vs. Green Bay
The 'solid' key to stealing the Superbowl Crown from the New England, in my honest opinion, lies with Green Bay.  Belichek can’t setup a D for Favre, as an individual, like he can for Manning or Rivers.  If you pressure Favre he could very likely flush himself out of the pocket with an audible and force your entire D into playing backyard ball while he shreads your corners and safeties with his Civil War Cannon!  On the other hand, with the hot streak Grant’s on, he could opt to go there first and tie that into his plan of spreading the D line of the Pats.  Favre has the potential of forcing the entire D line of New England into running windsprints or pushing sleds for several Quarters.  Arguably his O line, and himself will get fatigued, but its spookier for a team to have a D line on their heels, in the 4^th Quarter, than it is for your O line!!  It’s the D who are supposed to keep your opponents from scoring!

On Offense I’d have a pretty good ability to run my own game plan against this team, but the scary part of this entire game is whether or not I can score on every possession!  Because with a man like Favre on offense I don’t want to punt once, or settle for a field goal twice, and have that be the difference between him holding the trophy up in the air and myself after the game is over! 

This game forces Brady and Favre into a pressure situation against the opposing D’s.  Whoever is able to shread the D better, and avoids the D line’s rush, is going to win the game!  Grant and Maroney, essentially, are just Bishops in this game of chess!  They can help keep you moving toward the victory, but it’s the two big daddy’s who are going to decide the outcome! ------------ That and the playcalling!  Both teams better be doing the same thing on 4^th and 1 or 4^th and 2, and I don’t want to be the first one to play it safe and punt it to the other!  Even a 4^th and 4, so long as I’m passed midfield, or close to it, may “not” be an opportune time to try and pin the other QB inside his 10.

Prediction:
My end-all prediction, Green Bay and New England meet, and special teams and playcalling will be the two determining factors of this game (special teams mainly focusing on Kick Coverage and Returns of more than 25 yds)!  Barring no injury to either, I see both QB’s and both RB’s showing up to play big games, as will Moss and Jennings!  Green Bay has what it takes to win, and Favre has a career night, but in the end New England wins … by a Harrison and Watson.  Final: NE 34, GB 27

If by some chance, however the Giants end up playing the Patriots, I think the Giants will be shreaded.  Final: NE 42, NY 24

I don’t even want to watch the Superbowl if somehow the Chargers pull out the win this weekend, so I won’t even predict scores.  The Chargers really don’t have enough to overcome the Pats.

Final Word:
The biggest "cheat," if you will to ending the Patriots run at perfection, in my opinion, is having a QB throw for more than 280yds, having a running game with at least 120yds, and having no less than 28 points on the big board!  With that amount of yardage you may well keep New England's offense off the field long enough to prevent them from matching your points.  For every 40 or 50 yards you subtract from either number (not combined ... individually), I think you need to add 7 points (Ex. if you throw for 240 and run for 120, I think you need a score of 35 or more to defeat the Pats).  If you don't add 7 points, then you need to add a take-away that resulted in you eating up 3-4 minutes of the play clock, and ended with either you scoring, or pinning them inside their 30 yard line (takeaways within the first two minutes of the 1st and 3rd Quarters are not counted in this equation ... only the points scored, if any, are). 

---Of course, one could argue that this equation is an equation to beat "any" team, and I would agree, but I hold this as the 'minimum' equation to defeating the Pats, in this year's Playoffs, considering the way they are playing "NOW."  If any of these three teams does not do this, then I predict a New England Win of this year's Superbowl unless an injury occurs, or the weather changes, dramatically the playing conditions!