Pressuring Brady along the interior of the defensive line
Re-watching the Week 8 matchup in 2017, two things were clear:
- Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram are ridiculously good at their jobs
- The middle of the defensive line was not getting much pressure on Brady
The only sack of Brady by an interior lineman was Darius Philon, a play that pushed the Patriots back and resulted in a missed field goal. Good things happen when the opposing quarterback can’t step up and make a throw.
Take a look at these three plays, the first two giving Brady tons of time and the last play having someone finally get in his face:
Pats/Chargers Problem 1: No interior presence. Can't beat Brady without it. He's too good. pic.twitter.com/0tSB1Lcv8K
— Tyler Schoon (@tylerjschoon) June 20, 2018
If the Chargers want to beat the Patriots, they need to emulate teams that did. The Miami Dolphins, a team that had no real business beating their division rivals, had Ndamukong Suh to hit Brady over and over en route to a 27-20 win. During the Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Eagles only got to Brady once: a sack fumble by defensive end Brandon Graham (lined up in the middle this time) to seal their most important victory in franchise history.
Here’s what the Bolts have done to fix this: Add Justin Jones, a third round selection whose biggest weakness is that he offers very little in the pass rush. That’s it. He’ll be a solid player stopping the run, which is what he was brought in for, but that still leaves the exact same interior line that was ineffective against the Patriots last season.
Brady is too smart to let dance around for five seconds or more. It was a simple game plan: Let Bosa and Ingram rush, but push them outside. Then step up, and throw. Textbook yet simple tactics that nearly worked to perfection. For now, it appears the Chargers would again be watching him do just that: Avoid the outside rush and make the throws after stepping up.
There is one glimmer of hope here: The 2018 draft selections. They do not necessarily affect the middle of the defensive line, but could be versatile enough to blitz Brady up the middle. Derwin James is a fantastic quarterback attacker and could do some damage down the A-gap, a blitz philosophy that works well against Rivers too. The Chargers should also entertain the idea of putting Bosa in the middle (something he’s done before) and let Uchenna Nwosu and Ingram rush from the outside.