ATLANTA Dante Fowler has the AFC championship game from the 2015 season committed to memory, so much so that the Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker does not feel a need to watch it again as he prepares for Super Bowl LIII against New England.
Fowler, acquired in a trade from Jacksonville on Oct. 30, spent hours studying Denvers 20-18 defeat of the Patriots in that game before the Jaguars played New England for the AFC championship last January.
The Broncos defensive dominance was inspirational and instructional for Fowler, who hopes to reprise the role of Denver edge rusher Von Miller against the Patriots in Atlantas Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday.
Miller turned that AFC title game into a demolition derby, sacking Patriots quarterback Tom Brady 2½ times for a loss of 13 yards, hitting Brady four times and intercepting him to set up a second-quarter touchdown for the Broncos.
Denver was relentless in its pursuit of Brady, sacking him four times, hitting him 17 times seven by linebacker DeMarcus Ware intercepting him twice and leaving him bruised and bloodied.
Brady completed 27 of 56 passes for 310 yards and threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski with 12 seconds left, but his potential game-tying two-point conversion pass to Julian Edelman was tipped by cornerback Aqib Talib who now plays for the Rams and intercepted by Bradley Roby.
I feel like thats a blueprint, especially from my position, on how to get to Brady, how to affect him and help the secondary in the back end, Fowler said. I studied that game last year what (the Broncos) did, what Von Miller did and I like how Von just took over the game.
He was electric from the first snap to the end. He made a lot of key plays in big moments. One thing I learned is youve got to have pressure on Brady. You have to keep bringing it to him from the first quarter to the end of the fourth quarter.
Brady, 41, is the best playoff quarterback in NFL history. Hes completed 984 of 1,554 passes for 10,917 yards with 73 touchdowns and 33 interceptions in 39 post-season games. He was named most valuable player in four of the five Super Bowls his Patriots have won since 2001.
But as Fowler said of the revered pass-thrower who is often called the GOAT Greatest of All-Time by fans, teammates and opponents, He can be got.
In defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, the Rams have a proven Brady Buster. The 71-year-old coach was Denvers defensive coordinator in 2015, and his Rams play the same 3-4 scheme, with some notable star power and muscle up front, that those Broncos used to suffocate Brady.
That was one of the great defensive teams of all time, Phillips said of his 2015 unit, which went on to stifle Carolina in a 24-10 Super Bowl win. They compared them to the 1985 Chicago Bears, so you know how good they were.
Each game is different. Ive had teams that played against (Brady) and didnt do very well, and that (2015) team did really well. You cant fool the great quarterbacks. You have to outplay them. Thats what that team was able to do.
The Broncos didnt rely heavily on the blitz that day. Most of their sacks and hits on Brady came on four-man rushes, with Miller and Ware winning one-on-one battles on the edge and down linemen Derek Wolfe and Malik Jackson squeezing the pocket with inside pressure.
We just had a great rush that day, and we were able to get to him, Talib said. The pressure was coming from everywhere. Von and Malik were touching him, Wolfe was touching him, D-Ware … everybody got a little piece of him.
Brady is a drop-back passer who does not have the speed to extend plays with his legs. But he has the experience and instincts to anticipate blitzes and evade rushers by stepping up in the pocket or sliding to the side to buy extra time.
