I think one thing that made the Rams easier to slow down (and might make the Patriots easier) is that the ball is basically going to the RB over 50% of the time if you count all the runs and passes to the RBs... so if you limit the other guys and stop the RBs, then you give give their offense some troubles.
In the Patriots case, over 21% of attempted passes have completed to the RB (mainly James White, who is 7th in the entire NFL in number of catches, beating WR Adams by 3), so I'm expecting them to keep Whitehead at ILB at least while James White is at RB.
Also of the completed passes over 31.5% have been to RBs (of course you're more likely to miss longer passes to WRs than shorter passes to RBs... but still that seems pretty high).
Originally Posted by: beast