Carter's Classroom: Breaking down Brady

Jan 20, 2017 • 2:48 pm

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Tom Brady's style of passing has been a bane to the Steelers since he entered the league.

His combination of quick and timed passes underneath has been the recipe to counter the Steelers' normal defensive philosophy of giving up the small yardage plays with zone coverage in order to not surrender big passing plays while exotic blitzes are being sent.

What has hurt the Steelers in the past is that Brady was always content with taking the underneath options that turned first-and- ten situations into second and five and then third and one. What that does is make third down conversions easier and the Patriots' play call options open up more in short yardage situations.

The Steelers cannot afford to give Brady those situations consistently throughout the game. Eventually it wears down the defense and if the game is close, it becomes a very tough test of the discipline to the secondary as they want to jump the underneath passes.

It's when the secondary tries to jump those passes or makes a mistake in communication that Brady capitalizes with a deep ball to an open man. To keep those plays at a minimum, it will take a more aggressive style of coverage that consistently presses the Patriots' wide receivers to ruin those quick passes and timing patterns.

WHEN BACKED OFF

Brady is very good at identifying where the soft coverage is in a defense. Watch how the Steelers take away all but one option and Brady finds that one in Rob Gronkowski:

The Steelers have to find ways to be up in the face of the Patriots' receivers to create tighter windows for Brady to fit the ball through. Doing so forces Brady to put more velocity on his passes and puts more pressure on the Patriots' receivers to make a play.

PRESS

Watch how the Steelers engaged the Patriots' spread offense back in 2011 on a third-and-short situation. Each receiver is pressed off the line of scrimmage and the help is coming from defenders in zone coverage floating in the middle of the field:

Brady tries to fit the tight pass to the slant, but is unable to complete it to his receivers. The two times the Steelers have beaten Brady, this game in 2011 and in 2004, their defensive backs pressed the receivers and took away the easy routes throughout the game, preventing Brady from ever establishing his comfort zone.

Brady will capitalize on some of these situations, but it forces his receivers to make catches in tighter windows and requires the Steelers' defenders to make tackles consistently.

BE AWARE OF RUNNING BACKS

One thing the Steelers have to be prepared for is for the Patriots to sneak passes in the red zone to their quicker running backs. They've hurt the Steelers with it in the past and they used it to score against the Texans last week. Sometimes it's a simple dump pass to the flat, but other times it's a screen like this:

While it will be important for the defensive line to be nasty and get after Brady, they will also have to be consistently aware of being tricked out of position. Watch how Lawrence Timmons is aware of the screen the whole way, but the rest of the line doesn't follow and James White has a clear path to the end zone.

The Steelers have a rookie in Javon Hargrave that has consistently recognized screens and misdirection plays. Between him and a healthy Tuitt, the Steelers will need their players upfront to be aware at all times to cut down on these types of plays. They will need to force Brady to throw the ball down the field for big yards and not have these more comfortable dump-down options.

JAM THE TIGHT END

One thing the Steelers have not done nearly enough against the Patriots, even when they are pressing receivers, is jam the tight end. While Gronkowski won't be a factor this game, it doesn't matter who lines up at the position if the Steelers consistently give them free releases and Brady gets an easy target with a big frame:

Watch how Gronkowski cannot get free here and that disrupts everything. Many of Brady's reads are made before the play even happens. What makes him even more impressive is that his reads are often correct based off what he sees in the defense. It will be up to the Steelers to throw off what he thinks he normally sees to bait him into a poor decision or two.

Taking away the bread and butter of Brady is no simple task, but the blueprint is there from over the years. It takes a great effort from multiple players on defense to slow down what Brady wants to do, but the Steelers may have those pieces.

Between the youth on defense and their increased speed, the secondary and cover linebackers who have developed more consistent play and regularly execute their assignments could be a recipe for victory.

While everyone knows that Brady is a quarterback that falters when he gets hit more in the game, applying this kind of coverage could be what grants the pass rushers the time needed to get to him.