The Patriots haven’t faced the Jaguars since blowing them out in 2015. Much has changed since then for the previously downtrodden franchise that went a decade between playoff appearances.
“There is not a lot of time for the quarterback to throw,” New England quarterback Tom Brady told WEEI on Tuesday, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “I think the whole secondary knows it. The linebackers know it. They’re aggressive. They take chances. They get a lot of turnovers . . . [The quarterback] is under pressure all day.”
While Brady may say that publicly, he and the coaching staff surely are dissecting every frame of film to figure out how the Steelers scored 42 points, and how quarterback Ben Roethlisberger generated 469 passing yards and five touchdowns.
Whatever the Steelers did, the Patriots will hope to do some of the same, while also trusting the defense to find a way to give up fewer points than however many New England can score.