In regular season play, defensive tackles Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh combined for 154 pressures on the quarterback. However, that aggressive penetration allowed a league-worst 5.1 yards per rushing attempt. If the Patriots are allowed to establish a running game to that degree, Brady will have too many options for pressure to be effective.
Wade Phillips, Rams defensive coordinator, emphasizes the need to stop the run when he says, “Michel is the lead rusher in the playoffs so far and he’s had a great year plus they have two other running backs that are great too. This is the first challenge for us, stopping the run.”
One of the key players who will be responsible for stopping the run is defensive tackle Suh who, in obvious agreement with Wade Phillips, emphasized, “It is important to shut down their run game so we can eventually get to Brady and deal with their passing game.”
The effectiveness of the Patriots run game is demonstrated by the fact that in their last two victories against the Chargers and the Chiefs, Brady was pressured on only 15.6 percent of his dropbacks including only five pressures by the Chiefs. This compares to a league average of over 30% of pressures versus dropbacks. Compounding the problem of dealing with Tom Brady is his quick release. During the regular season, Brady’s average release time was 2.61 seconds. He actually improved his release time in the postseason with an average time to release of 2.33 seconds against the Chargers and 2.51 seconds against the Chiefs.
When asked how to defend against a quarterback with such a quick release, defensive tackle Aaron Donald replied, “I am just going to keep playing. We just have to find a way to get to him, pressure him, and make him feel uncomfortable.”
Defensive end Michael Brockers agreed with the need to put Brady in passing situations. “We need to get pressure in Brady’s face and mess up his route timing. That’s how it is with any quarterback, but especially Brady this Sunday.”
The roadmap for a Rams win appears to be stopping the run, forcing Brady into passing situations, and putting pressure on him to disrupt his timing. The difficulty will be in its execution. The recurring theme for the Rams pathway to victory is the necessity of shutting down the run game.
