Patriots Coaches Use Unique Methods to Prepare for Giants’ Pass Rush

Bill Belichick and his coaching staff have never been called “ordinary.” Before leaving for Indianapolis, Bill Belichick cranked up the heat in the Patriots’ practice bubble to simulate conditions in the dome. Yesterday, our own Ryan Hannable discussed how Belichick simulated the long halftime in the Super Bowl by stopping practice for about 31 minutes, giving a halftime speech, and then re-starting practice full steam ahead. Today, the Boston Herald has a piece discussing how the Patriots prepared to deal with the Giants’ explosive pass rushers.

Due to the Patriots having their best pass rushers working on the Giants’ offense and not having any players that really match the skill set of the Giants’ pass rushers anyway, Bill Belichick and offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia elected to go with the fastest players they could use to simulate the speed of the Giants’ pass rush. The pass rushers came from all angles and also worked on batting down passes. It’s a pretty unique method, and one that makes sense if you don’t have defensive linemen available with the skill set you need to properly simulate what will the team will face.

Both Dante Scarnecchia and right guard Waters commented on the methods used in practice.

"“We have a group of guys who have done it all week for us,” offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia said. “They’re undersized, but we just have them going as fast as they can go, just giving us the fastest tempo they can give us. That’s been a huge help.”"

Waters came at it from a player’s perspective.

"“Whether we’ve been working on different blitzes, and different things, that’s what we try to do,” Waters said. “They got some powerful guys, but the speed is definitely something that we want to adjust to. That’s something that in a big game like this, you don’t want to get behind right away, trying to catch up to the rush, trying to figure out what they’re doing. You want to be ahead of it, be on top of it right off the bat. That’s really one of our biggest obstacles right away at the beginning of the game.”"

Did it work? We’ll find out tomorrow. For the full story, click HERE.

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