What is the New England Patriots key to their success in the red zone? In one word the answer is: Gronkowski.
With that in mind, it’s worth pointing out how Rob Gronkowski impacts the Patriots offense and what are the key situations that make him so dangerous inside the 20-yard line.
The Patriots’ tight end is recovering from a concussion he suffered during New England’s 24-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Championship game, but now everything seems to indicate that he’ll be able to play on Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles.
As the team arrived in Minnesota, Gronkowski posted an Instagram photograph in which he declared himself “locked in and ready to roll” as he is apparently making progress and is expected to be cleared by medical staff to play in Super Bowl LII.
Gronkowski has scored six receiving touchdowns in the red zone this season, he ranks third in the NFL in targets in the red zone and that’s because he is a very versatile weapon for the Patriots as he can be deployed in several ways to score.
It doesn’t matter where Gronkowski lines up; he forces defenses to change their coverage to try to find a way to stop him.
Opposing defenses often double-team him and jam him off the line of scrimmage with a safety and the Eagles could use Malcolm Jenkins to cover him and apply pressure. He’ll need to be physical when Gronk’s deployed out wide to stop him from outmuscling defenders and breaking free to gain yards after the catch.
But regardless of what the Eagles do, the truth is that they have no definite answer to stop Gronkowski. If the Eagles double-team him they will leave the running backs or other wide receivers open, and with Brady at the helm this has repeatedly proven lethal as he is capable of distributing his passes all around and releases the ball very quickly to avoid the pass rush.
The Patriots are among the teams that more use their running backs in the passing game and this will prove to be vital on Sunday. The Eagles are very good at containing running backs that are running the football, but they are just average when they have to stop running backs from getting out in the flat and catching the ball, thus New England will try to exploit that especially when they are in the red zone.
