Brady vs. Ryan - and no it's not the Jets again

Rob Ryan back in his days with Dallas. Image from espn.go.com

Whenever the Patriots are around, there always seems to be a Ryan that follows. Whether it is the Jets or Saint's, the tempo always is picked up when the teams come together. One of the Ryan's, the coach of the New York Jets Rex Ryan, usually is no problem for the Patriots offense and defense. But the Saint's on the other hand are ALWAYS a challenge for us, with the Patriots having a difficult time picking up the ways of the offense and defense on a regular occasion. Part of the reason is Rob Ryan, the linebacker coach for those pesky Saints.

It always seems that whenever the two teams come together, the Saints defense provides a major challenge to the Patriots offense, with the Ryan's being responsible for holding the Patriots to fewer then thirty points three times. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick agrees as he talked to media today, along with WEEI.

“I’d say last year they were a really heavy blitz and zone team and they gave up a lot of big plays,” Belichick said. “I would say this year under Rob, they haven’t given up very many big plays. I’d say one of the characteristics of their defense is that they play a lot of multiple defensive packages that vary from week to week, similar to what Rex does, or has done at New York, at times. They might play nickel, but one week it’s one version of nickel, and another week it’s another version of nickel. They’ll play dime and they’ll play seven DBs, but the players don’t necessarily all play in the same spots, they’ll move them around by game plan and by matchups and by the type of plays or calls that they want to run.

“You have to be ready for something different. The way they deploy can change quite a bit from a game-to-game matchup basis. They played a lot of 3-4 defense early in the preseason, and that’s certainly their base, similar to what he did in Dallas, but the actual number of snaps that they’ve played during the regular season this year has been a far lower percentage.”

Be ready for Sunday, this show is going to be GREAT

- Joshua Powers
@jmano33