Giants vs. Patriots: No-Huddle Attack Will Vault New England Patriots to Victory

If you've heard it once, you have heard it 8,062,234 times this week: The key to this game will be whether or not the New York Giants can pressure Tom Brady and slow down the New England Patriots' high-powered passing attack.

But what you haven't heard is how the Patriots' formations and no-huddle offense will make that difficult to accomplish.

Consider the following from ESPN's Numbers Never Lie:

That's all fine and dandy, but the issue with that is we don't know how many times Giants' opponents sent out the tight ends into patterns and how many times they stayed in to block. The key to the Patriots' passing game is throwing the ball to their tight ends, after all.

And this also doesn't take into consideration how much pressure the Giants were able to sustain against two tight end formations. It isn't always about sacking the quarterback so much as it is about getting pressure in his face early enough to force poor decisions.

So no, numbers never lie, but they also don't tell the full story.

But the Patriots do have another tactical advantage up their sleeve: the no-huddle offense.

The Patriots run the no-huddle frequently, keeping defenders on the field and limiting the defensive calls of the offense.

Keeping Giants' defenders on the field and and allowing the Patriots to dictate the matchups on the field could be a huge tactical advantage for the Patriots. A tired pass rush is an ineffective pass rush, after all.

You can read an excellent breakdown of New England's no-huddle attack by Pat Kirwan of NFL.com here. One fascinating aspect in particular is that the Patriots have added a wrinkle to their no-huddle scheme that they did not have when the teams met in Week 9:

"

The newest no-huddle package Bill Belichick has devised—and one the Giants did not see the first time around—is the 03 personnel group, with no running backs, three tight ends (Solder is the third tight end) and two receivers. This can create serious matchup problems. If the Giants attempt to defend this package with a dime defense (six defensive backs), Brady will be quick to move Hernandez into the backfield and run the ball.

"

For all of the talk about how difficult it is to slow down the Giants' pass rush, perhaps what we've ignored is how difficult it could be to sustain pressure when facing a team like the Patriots, who are able to schematically devise so many mismatches.

It's for this reason that I believe Tom Brady and the Patriots will win yet another Super Bowl.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets are chicken soup for the Internet soul.