AFC Playoff Odds And Scenarios, Bill Belichick’s…

JJ Stankevitz: Sharp question. I wrote about the Patriots’ big, physical, throwback defense earlier this week – which features those 250-plus-pound linebackers you mentioned in your question.

I’m not sure exactly how Frank Reich will try to attack the Patriots’ defense with the Colts’ run game. But something he said on Monday was interesting with regard to countering Bill Belichick’s efforts to mute Jonathan Taylor.

“I think it’s a combination of always having your core stuff ready – having some things in our back pocket, knowing the different ways that he might try to attack us,” Reich said. “That’s unpredictable to some extent. It probably is helpful to us that it is later in the year so that we have a lot of accumulated reps on offense so if we need to make adjustments in the course of a game, we can go to things that we’ve run and have a lot of accumulated reps on.”

The key thing here is those accumulated reps on offense. The Colts aren’t an offense that does only one thing well – they’ve shown they can be successful with different run concepts, different pass concepts, RPOs, play-action, etc.

Since Week 4, no team has scored more points than the Colts (228) and no team has allowed fewer points than the Patriots (96). That’s the battle the Colts and Patriots are walking into on Saturday night, and whew, it’s going to be a fun one.