Giants vs. Patriots: Why New York Must Blitz to Stop Tom Brady

Since the resurgence of the New York Giants defensive line in mid-December, a lot of comparisons have been drawn between this year's group and the dominant unit that played a huge role in stopping the unbeaten New England Patriots just four years ago. 

Because of their great talent up front between guys like Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck, it would make sense for the Giants to try to get to Brady with four guys, leaving extra bodies in coverage against the Patriots' weapons. 

However, if you examine this matchup in greater detail, it is clear that the Giants must utilize a healthy amount of blitz concepts to knock Brady off his game. 

What has been somewhat overlooked is that right tackle Sebastian Vollmer is now healthy and will start at right tackle, which means that New England will be able to use Nate Solder as an extra offensive lineman to help in protection. 

As talented as the Giants are on the defensive line, trying to get through the Patriots line that includes six quality linemen with just four guys is hardly a formula for success. Tight end Rob Gronkowski is also a huge factor making chips and nudges to buy his linemen even more time. 

The best way for the Giants to counter this is to utilize stunts and blitz concepts to get the Patriots out of rhythm. If you go back to their matchup earlier in the season, the Giants actually blitzed fairly often, and it clearly rattled Brady all game long. 

Whenever you play a quarterback like Tom Brady, mixing coverages and blitz concepts is key for getting him out of rhythm. If the Giants elect to be vanilla and just rush four guys play after play, Brady is going to be able to make easy checks at the line of scrimmage and get his team in the right protection schemes with ease. 

If that happens, the Giants could be in for a long day trying to stop the Patriots.