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Oct 12
Rick Gosselin
Here's one way Cowboys can beat Patriots
by SportsDayDFW sports
Sean Lee is the best tackler on the Cowboys with a team-leading 35 on the NFC's top-ranked defense.
But Lee is also the team's best coverage linebacker -- and that's where he'll earn his keep this weekend when the Cowboys visit the New England Patriots.
Three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady has been on fire through the first five weeks of the season, throwing for an NFL-best 1,874 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Brady is completing almost 68 percent of his passes and averaging 9.6 yards every time he drops back to throw. He has authored the league's only 500-yard passing game this season plus a 400-yard game and two other 300-yard games.
To stop the Patriots, you must stop the pass -- and that means stopping the tight ends. No one likes throwing to his biggest targets more than Brady.
Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski arrived in the 2010 draft and have changed the way the Patriots do business through the air.
Brady threw a league-high 36 touchdown passes last season, and a team-high 10 of them went to the rookie Gronkowski. Hernandez caught six more. This season, five of Brady's TD passes have gone to Gronkowski, with Hernandez catching two more.
The spread is the formation of choice for the Patriots, and Brady likes the mismatches it creates when a Gronkowski or Hernandez is on the flank or in the slot. Gronkowski goes 6-6, 265 pounds and Hernandez 6-1, 245. They can outmuscle cornerbacks and outrun linebackers. Assigning safeties to them leaves the middle of the field vulnerable for crossing routes by Wes Welker and Deion Branch.
So Lee becomes the best option for the Cowboys because he does have the size (6-2, 242) to jostle with New England's tight ends plus above-average speed. The Jets and Redskins both found that out.
Lee intercepted a Mark Sanchez pass intended for tight end Dustin Keller in the opener against the Jets, and he picked off a Rex Grossman pass for tight end Fred Davis in the Cowboys' home opener against the Redskins.
Rick Gosselin
Rick Gosselin
Here's one way Cowboys can beat Patriots
by SportsDayDFW sports
Sean Lee is the best tackler on the Cowboys with a team-leading 35 on the NFC's top-ranked defense.
But Lee is also the team's best coverage linebacker -- and that's where he'll earn his keep this weekend when the Cowboys visit the New England Patriots.
Three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady has been on fire through the first five weeks of the season, throwing for an NFL-best 1,874 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Brady is completing almost 68 percent of his passes and averaging 9.6 yards every time he drops back to throw. He has authored the league's only 500-yard passing game this season plus a 400-yard game and two other 300-yard games.
To stop the Patriots, you must stop the pass -- and that means stopping the tight ends. No one likes throwing to his biggest targets more than Brady.
Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski arrived in the 2010 draft and have changed the way the Patriots do business through the air.
Brady threw a league-high 36 touchdown passes last season, and a team-high 10 of them went to the rookie Gronkowski. Hernandez caught six more. This season, five of Brady's TD passes have gone to Gronkowski, with Hernandez catching two more.
The spread is the formation of choice for the Patriots, and Brady likes the mismatches it creates when a Gronkowski or Hernandez is on the flank or in the slot. Gronkowski goes 6-6, 265 pounds and Hernandez 6-1, 245. They can outmuscle cornerbacks and outrun linebackers. Assigning safeties to them leaves the middle of the field vulnerable for crossing routes by Wes Welker and Deion Branch.
So Lee becomes the best option for the Cowboys because he does have the size (6-2, 242) to jostle with New England's tight ends plus above-average speed. The Jets and Redskins both found that out.
Lee intercepted a Mark Sanchez pass intended for tight end Dustin Keller in the opener against the Jets, and he picked off a Rex Grossman pass for tight end Fred Davis in the Cowboys' home opener against the Redskins.
Rick Gosselin