Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 1231 A new look

Doubts, swirling around Brady——

For Brady, this was foreign.

He almost forgot how it felt.

At the beginning of his career, Brady was always facing doubts and challenges. He needed to prove himself again and again.

However, the past ten years have been completely different. He outlasted his old rival Manning, suppressed another old rival Brees, and withstood the impact of the new generation Rogers. He has stood firm and proved himself in the waves of transition from the old to the new, and gradually transformed into the best player in the league.

"GOAT", this is where he is now.

Although he has not retired yet, he has already been inducted into the Football Hall of Fame and has left his name firmly in the history books.

"Brady is football, and football is Brady."

Bathed in such a halo, Brady has become accustomed to admiration and praise, even blind trust and admiration.

But this season, Brady has had his worst statistical performance in the past decade, and those doubts and provocations have resurfaced and are unfolding in full force.

Brady found this hard to accept.

Or, more accurately, Brady refused to accept --

This strong candidate for GOAT gritted his teeth and managed to hold on game after game.

Regardless of whether you like Brady or not, no one can deny that when Brady's big heart meets Belichick's overall control, driven by the two people's almost perverted desire to survive, they can always collide to produce a chemical reaction, overcome danger time and time again, and find a way to move forward in desperate situations.

So, this season, with Brady in poor form, how did the New England Patriots offense rank seventh in the league?

Is it a ground attack?
Correct, but also incorrect.

The New England Patriots' ground offense does play an important role. Sony Michel, the running back who emerged as a surprise last season, has naturally become the main running back this season and has a very good chance of winning his first 1,000-yard season in his career, but he is not the savior of Foxburg.

The real key is to rely on ground offense as a screen, and finally return to the passing offense. Brady once again showed his heroic qualities——

Red zone offense.

New England Patriots, No. 1 in the league.

In short, Brady has not played well this season, and the New England Patriots' early three-out rate has soared, and the data is very ugly; but as long as the New England Patriots enter the red zone, they will seize the opportunity, and the red zone touchdown success rate currently ranks first in the league.

This is the confidence.

In fact, judging from the number of touchdowns, total points and other data, the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers and other teams are stronger than the New England Patriots, and the New Orleans Saints, Tennessee Titans, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys and others are not inferior to the New England Patriots.

However, in terms of red zone offensive success rate, the New England Patriots still demonstrated their ability to seize opportunities.

Although the retirement of tight end Gronkowski left Brady without a red zone killer, Belichick transformed the No. 2 and No. 3 running backs into heavy weapons in the red zone. Although they are running backs, they have more receiving touchdowns than the team's main wide receivers and firmly grasp every touchdown opportunity.

Or to put it another way, Belichick and Brady's experience, background, and determination always continue to burst out energy in crisis situations. Of course, this is not all -

Relying solely on an undermanned offensive team and a half-struggling Brady, the New England Patriots still find it difficult to threaten the Kansas City Chiefs.

Even the professionals in the league, although they crave hype and gimmicks, and although they hope to create sparks, they are not crazy, and they have not forgotten one fact:
The Kansas City Chiefs are still undefeated. They have not only withstood the impact of strong enemies, but also overcome their own difficulties. These twelve consecutive victories are of great value.

Under such circumstances, "Inside the League" predicts the outcome of the game is still fifty-fifty, with half supporting the New England Patriots and half supporting the Kansas City Chiefs. The real key lies in the defense.

The New England Patriots, who have always relied on Brady to win, have transformed themselves into one of the league's top defensive teams this season. This is an unexpected direction of story development; but precisely because of this, this brand new New England Patriots team proves Belichick's experience.

No wonder Lawson commented:
The so-called New England Patriots' victory model is that Belichick controls the situation through the defense and special teams, and relies on Brady's flash of inspiration at the critical moment. They don't care whether the victory is ugly or not. A one-point victory is equal to a thirty-point victory. The championship is the only important thing.

This season, the New England Patriots defense has stepped up.

Currently, this defensive group ranks first in the league.

Yes, the statistics are not wrong. The New England Patriots' defense has surpassed the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings to temporarily hold the top spot in the league.

Among them, passing defense ranked first and ground defense ranked fifth.

This season, many New England Patriots defensive players have played the best performances of their careers.

If last season it was wide receiver Edelman who played at a super god level, then this season it was cornerback Gilmore who transformed into a Super Saiyan.

Led by Gilmore, the linebackers, cornerbacks, and safeties had an all-out outbreak, and the New England Patriots' defense allowed the lowest pass success rate in the league, at only 56.5%. In other words, the quarterback's pass success rate was suppressed below the passing line when facing this defense.

There are only two defenses in the entire league that are so dominant, the other being the Baltimore Ravens.

In addition, the New England Patriots' defense allowed the lowest passing yards, passing touchdowns, quarterback ratings, etc. at all times in the league. At the same time, although this defense had a relatively low number of sacks, ranking "only" sixth in the league, its quarterback hits, pass interferences, and quarterback interceptions all ranked first in the league.

As of the twelfth week of the regular season, the New England Patriots' defense had completed 21 interceptions, while the second-ranked Minnesota Vikings had only 14 interceptions.

Not only leading, but also leading by a huge margin.

however!
This is still not all. The defensive team in front of us is the most offensive and scoring team in the league this season.

They scored eight touchdowns, including a fumble return touchdown, an interception return touchdown, a safety, and a special teams kickoff/punt return touchdown.

This data surpasses the Baltimore Ravens' seven and leads the league.

In other words, the offense led by Brady is struggling to score?
It doesn't matter, the defense can still score, ensuring that the New England Patriots can still find a way out of difficult situations and maintain their winning pace.

This is the confidence of the New England Patriots this season.

Obviously, this New England Patriots is unfamiliar, and can even be said to be a brand new team.

(End of this chapter)