Colts Vs Patriots: Keys to The Game

In 24 hours the Colts and Andrew Luck will take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Boston.

The weather for tomorrow night’s game is lows in the 40s with wind at 21 mph and rain.

So the Colts and Patriots are looking at a bad weather game which favors New England.

A lot of people are talking about a barn burner and how will New England slow Andrew Luck but the weather will take care of that.

This won’t be a high scoring game and the passing attack for both teams, especially the Colts, won’t be as crisp as usual.

The Colts are a dome team and they’re not used to playing in the weather and their offense isn’t built for bad weather games since they have no running game and rely on the pass.

New England is better suited for the bad weather game due to their upstart run game.

So New England can use the weather to their advantage tomorrow and get the win, but this isn’t the only key for New England to win. I will break down the rest below.

Stop the run

- The New England Patriots need to stop the Colts run.

The Colts don’t have a good running game but that doesn’t mean they can’t run on New England. New England’s run defense has been a bit of a weakness this season but they have picked up toward the end, and they will need to keep getting better tomorrow night. The Patriots need to keep Donald Brown contained or his break out speed can pick up big yards in a hurry and score from anywhere on the field. They also have to watch Brown in the pass game too because the Colts will try to get him involved in the screen game and dump off passes, two things the Patriots have trouble with.

They also have to stop Trent Richardson when he touches the ball. Richardson is a powerful back and a goal line threat so New England needs to remember him when he’s in the game.

Side Note: Dont’a Hightower will have his chances to tackle his former Alabama teammate, Trent Richardson, tomorrow.

Establish the run

- Just like New England needs to stop the run on defense, they need to establish it on the offensive side of the ball.

In the rain against the Bills, the Patriots went to the run game to win and they will need to that again tomorrow night. They need to establish the run and not go away from it.

They need to get LeGarrette Blount to get going early and Stevan Ridley. They have to be careful with Ridley, whose a great back, but has fumbling issues, and they can’t afford that tomorrow night.

They also need to run more when they are close to the goal line to help their red zone issues.

Get Shane Vereen involved

- Shane Vereen is the X – Factor tomorrow night and a great weapon for the Patriots to use against an aggressive Colts pass rush. The Colts line is an aggressive one, and they see red when they see the QB so the Patriots can use it against them by using screens or dump offs to Shane Vereen. Vereen is elusive, and electrifying in the open field and can hurt the Colts tomorrow.

The more involved Vereen is in the game the better off New England will be.