ATLANTA — It's part of his effectiveness, really. It's a reason why he's lasted as long as he has in the league.
Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, 71, looks and sounds like a country bumpkin. The southern drawl. The soft voice. The pudgy appearance. The ruffled hair. If you drew up your long lost uncle from Georgia, Phillips would be the end result.
But Phillips is not what he appears. He's actually quite smart and only plays like he just fell off the turnip truck so others underestimate him.
The Patriots did that in Denver in the 2015 AFC Championship Game. New England thought they'd get the same ol' Wade: Cover 1 man coverage with selective double teams and heavy (40 percent) blitz.
Wrong.
Then the ball was kicked off in Denver, and everything turned upside down for the Pats. Phillips went against his tendencies in every facet. He blitzed just 15% of the time, and he rushed only three defenders 14 times. The Broncos in the first half rushed a different combination at Brady, in personnel, numbers or technique, on every snap. In the secondary, the Broncos mixed coverages almost as often. The Broncos often threw additional bodies at Gronkowski, and occasionally they’d send a lurker to help on Edelman. On second- and third-and-longs, Phillips often rushed three and played one deep safety with six defenders underneath in match man and zone coverages in an effort to take away Brady’s quick, short passes.
Up front, the varied rushes kept the Patriots’ inexperienced line guessing on every snap. And the variety of coverages made the looks very cloudy for Brady. The Broncos executed the plan nearly flawlessly. Brady normally knows exactly what he’s doing before the snap. In this game, it was clear he never had a grasp of what was going on.