Posted this in the VIP Forum. This is my take:
I like our chances a lot. Generally, we play NE well and tend to give Brady fits with pressure, and that's without blitzing. They have no true offensive threat outside of Gronk. Gordon will play, but will he be rusty? Limited? I like X lining up with him when he is in. We can do what Detroit did to handle Gronk because X gives us that luxury and Brady has no one else to throw to of any consequence. That will free up Fitz and and LB to double Gronk. Their running game is mediocre, at best. On the other side, they are giving up more than 140 yards a game on the ground at a 4.7 YPC clip. I know our running game was shut down against the Raiders, but I don't think that will happen two weeks in a row. They MIGHT have tried what Oakland did to stop our ground game, but after seeing the big plays we're capable of, that should cause BB to back off and try to remain more balanced defensively which, IMO, is a big advantage to us. We have to start fast, which we've yet to do in the first three games. I think Gase needs to let our dogs off their leashes earlier. He tends to be too conservative early on. We need to attack New England's defense aggressively and get them in a hole and wear their not-so-good defense down. Everyone is saying Miami has benefited from a weak schedule. Well, NE hasn't exactly had a hard rode. They lost to a Lions team that looked flat out BAD in their first two games, barely beat a bad Texans team, and were handled pretty well by a very solid Jags team. I know that they intend to come out, guns blazing as hard and as fast as they can. But this year, their talent just doesn't give them much more power than a pellet gun in comparison to past years. On our side of the ball, we have the ability to create so many mismatches with our speed and versatility. Grant and Wilson have become a two-headed monster that will continue to give coaches headaches throughout the year. Then we still have Stills, Parker, Drake (all three with above average speed) and of course, our hammer, Frank Gore. Tannehill has been sharp, completing better than 70% of his passes in each game so far and, YES, he CAN throw the deep ball. I just think we finally have the offense that can outscore theirs if it comes to a shootout and I give us the edge because, overall, our defense IS BETTER than New England's.
I also should add that it looks like we'll have R. Jones back. That will help our secondary immensely. Additionally, our STs is damn good. NE, not so much.
