Super Bowl 2012: 4 Keys to a New England Patriots Victory

To win a Super Bowl, a team doesn't have to play flawlessly, even if that is the ideal.  A team simply has to play better, in all phases of the game, than their opponent.

Just as in the regular season, anything is possible in the Super Bowl.  Even heavy favorites can fall on the game's biggest stage.

If the New England Patriots are to defeat the New York Giants Sunday, there are a few key areas in which they need to come up big.  In the following slides, I detail four of them.

Bring the Pressure on Defense

The New England Patriots' secondary has been getting beat all season long, giving up an average of 293.9 yards per game, and allowed Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco to throw for 306 yards in the Patriots' win over the team in the AFC championship game.

While they managed to bring pressure on Flacco as the game wound down, they'll have to put forth a full four-quarter effort against Eli Manning and the New York Giants in Sunday's Super Bowl.

In the regular season, Manning was averaging 308.3 passing yards per game, and he's had a total of 923 yards for eight touchdowns and one interception in the postseason.

He hasn't managed to accomplish that unscathed, however, the San Francisco 49ers' defense sacked him six times and hit him 12 times in the NFC championship game.

The Patriots will need to replicate the Niners' efforts in putting pressure on Manning if they are going to have much hope of stopping him. 

With their secondary still highly questionable, the best way to cut off Manning's ability to pass the ball is to get in his face.

If they can do so consistently, they should manage to be effective enough to slow down the one area the Giants have been successful on offense this year.

Don't Abandon the Run

With a quarterback like Tom Brady under center, it doesn't seem terribly prudent to focus too heavily on the run game. 

However, the New England Patriots will need to make headway running the ball in Sunday's Super Bowl.

The Patriots haven't been all that bad when it comes to the ground game, considering they have a quarterback who threw for over 5,000 yards this season, but they'll have to ease off the passing a bit against the Giants.

In the regular season, the Patriots averaged around 110 rushing yards per game; at the same time, the Giants were giving up just over 120 yards on the ground.

New England had relative success running the ball in the postseason, with 146 yards against the Denver Broncos and 96 yards with two scores against the venerable Baltimore Ravens' run defense.

Though the Giants defense has been strengthening with every playoff win, the Patriots need to do whatever they can to keep Manning off the field, especially if they are nursing even a slim lead.

That means running the ball, consistently, on almost every drive. 

While the Patriots don't and shouldn't have to shift their offensive philosophy all that drastically, more runs would keep the Giants' defense guessing and allow New England to control the clock.

Spread the Ball out

While the Patriots need to give due attention to their running game, ultimately it's their Brady-led passing game that's the team's greatest strength.

However, Brady will have to take care to get the ball into the hands of as many receivers as possible; focusing on one receiver over and over is unlikely to be very successful for long against the Giants' defense.

Brady's had no trouble spreading the ball around this year, targeting nine receivers when the Giants and Patriots first met, seven receivers in the divisional round game against the Denver Broncos and eight against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game.

It's not just Brady's otherworldly accuracy that makes the Patriots' passing game one of the best in the league, but also their ability to field so many versatile receiving options and confound opposing defenses.

Brady has nine potential receivers in every game, and he would be well-served to target each of them at least once. 

The more receivers who catch the ball, or are at least targeted, the more off-balance the Giants' secondary becomes.

Evade Pressure

Even if the Patriots' defense is successful in bringing pressure to Manning in Sunday's Super Bowl, the team still isn't guaranteed a victory.

They'll also have to evade a Giants' pass rush that's inevitable to make itself known from the Patriots' first offensive snap.

The Patriots' offensive line has been fairly solid at protecting Brady this season, giving up 32 sacks—an average of two per game. 

Brady was sacked just once in the postseason, even though he faced the solid pass rushes of the Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos.

In the Patriots' week nine meeting with the Giants, Brady was sacked twice and hit three times. 

In a Super Bowl that could come down to just a single ill-timed third-down sack, the Patriots linemen are going to have to work harder than ever to keep their quarterback upright.

The Patriots' ability to win depends on Brady having the time to make plays.  They'll have to ensure he does so as often as possible, which means limiting the amount of pressure he sees.