INDIANAPOLIS — The New York Giants’ defensive line is relentless.
Big, mean, fast, quick, athletic, deep.
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Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck, Chris Canty, Osi Umenyiora, Rocky Bernard, Dave Tollefson, Linval Joseph. And that doesn’t include linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka, who rushes and chases down backs as well as anyone.
They can beat you with speed. They can beat you with brute strength. They had 48 quarterback sacks in the regular season, another nine in three postseason wins.
“Those guys,” said Patriots Coach Bill Belichick on Wednesday, “can really knock the line of scrimmage back.”
Somehow, the New England Patriots have to simulate that speed and power this week in practice if quarterback Tom Brady is going to have any success against an often-suspect New York secondary in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
It’s not going to be easy. The Patriots don’t have many players with the Giants’ combination of speed and size.
“We try to move our guys around a little bit, and get them to play like the Giants play,” said Belichick. “I don’t know if anybody can play like the Giants play. They have so many talented guys up there. We do our best to simulate that.
“They try to bat some balls down, even in 7-on-7 (practice drills) when there is no pass rush. We get some guys up there at the line of scrimmage to distract the quarterback and bat balls down, things like that, because (the Giants) are good at that too.”
But what do you do when you don’t have a 6-foot-5, 270-pound back-flipping end like Pierre-Paul. Or a 6-3, 260-pound dervish like Umenyiora. Or a 6-5, 274-pound speed bull like Tuck.
You improvise.
“What we’ve done this week,” said offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, “is we’ve tried to get our fastest guys out there. Some of them might not be true defensive linemen … they’re not defensive backs … maybe some linebackers. We just try to get the fastest guys out there to get the best look.
“We try to get them to understand, don’t run down the middle of the blockers, hit the edges, try to get the blockers off their spots and try to get them compromised. And they’ve done a great job.”
Among the players being “used” as defensive linemen on the Patriots’ scout team are defensive backs Ross Ventrone and Antaun Molden. They provide the speed that other, larger, players might lack.
The Giants are masters at getting offensive linemen out of sync. They loop, they spin, they do whatever they can to get an offensive lineman off balance and out of position.
“And when they can’t, they power you,” said Scarnecchia. “They’re just very good players. If they can get you off your spot, get an edge, they’ll go by you. And if they can’t they’ll go into power rush moves.
“But they’re always working. They’re always trying to get to the launch point. They do a great job of it.”
Brian Waters, the Patriots’ veteran right guard, said the Patriots have to understand what they’re up against.
“That’s the thing,” he said, “you’ve got to understand the difference of who’s in front of you.”
Is it a speed rusher, like Pierre-Paul? Or a bull rusher, like Canty or Bernard?
And then you have to react when they start moving.
Matt Light, who finally joined the Super Bowl pregame festivities on Wednesday after battling a stomach bug, is confident the Patriots will have it all down by Sunday.
“Our scout team’s always done a great job of watching film on our opponent, understanding their tendencies, what they’re going to do,” he said. “Then they go out there and work hard. And hats off to them because they’ve had a long season of doing that stuff.
“It’ll never be the same of what you get in the game but, hopefully, with your own film study and what you do and what they show you in practice, you’ll have a pretty good clue.”
In the end, he said, it’s going to come down to a team effort anyway. Brady is going to have to make the right reads. His receivers are going to have to get open.
That is the essence of football.
“It’s a team game,” said Scarnecchia. “We’re all in it together. Receivers get open. Backs block. Tight ends block. Linemen block. Quarterback makes decisions.
“We’ve got to lock arms and understand it’s going to take our best effort to be successful against these guys. No doubt.”
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
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