Krause: Broncos present formidable foe, but Pats should pull it out

Conference championship games are a big deal no matter who plays in them. But when it?s Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning again, the stakes get commensurately higher.And already there?s kind of an odd twist to this. It came out Sunday, during the Broncos-Chargers game, that Manning is going to undergo tests on his surgically repaired neck after the season to determine whether he should keep playing. One wonders whether he took his cue from Ray Lewis, who used the emotion surrounding his imminent retirement to fuel the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl win last season. Either that, or he?s more physically compromised than any of us know, and the idea of him risking life and limb for that one more elusive ring will spur his teammates onto greatness.Who knows? And it?s not for any of us to mock either. The man is legitimately great, and it does take a special kind of guy to go through what he?s endured all for the sake of one more Super Bowl ring.But that?s not the Patriots? problem. Their problem is how to beat Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. And there?s no easy answer to that.There are a few things the Patriots have to guard against. The biggest is that the Broncos — if they?re smart (which we know they are) — will not waste time feeling out the Patriots and trying to figure out what they?re going to do. They should — and probably will — go right after the Pats.Why not? They have the home field, it?s a loud crowd, and the venue is not the Patriots? favorite place to play. It would be in Denver?s best interest to use shock and awe tactics with the Patriots, which means lots of Manning passes in the hopes they can get comfortably ahead and then switch to a steady diet of “keep-away” with Knowshon Moreno, who piled up more than 200 yards on the ground when the Broncos were here in November.What do the Patriots do? Does anyone remember what the Patriots did in their first Super Bowl victory against the “Greatest Show on Turf”? One thing they didn?t do was try to pressure Kurt Warner. And it says here they shouldn?t try to do that with Manning either … at least, not to the point of sacrificing coverage downfield.Manning has one of the quickest releases in football. If you don?t get him right away, the ball?s left his hand and he?s found the one matchup that favors him.So if I?m designing a defense, I go back to that game against the St. Louis Rams. I don?t try to knock Manning down on every play. I play a lot of nickel, drop as many linebackers into coverage as I can, blanket the field to make sure I don?t get beaten deep, keep the play in front of me, and hammer the daylights out of anyone who catches the ball.That is correct. You don?t want the score to be 14-0 five minutes into the game, with the crowd at ear-piercing decibels. That is not the way to win in a hostile environment. If you make Denver plod its way up the field, and get physical with its receivers (this being the playoffs, the referees generally let you get away with more), you could slow the Broncos down, stay in the game, and absorb that early-game crowd rush that tends to destroy a lot of visiting teams.Offensively, the worst thing the Patriots could do is get giddy with all this running they?ve been doing. Indianapolis? defense couldn?t stop a cold, and Buffalo?s wasn?t much better. Denver?s strength is up front and the Broncos are more vulnerable at linebacker (no Von Miller) and, without Chris Harris now, at defensive back.This means that it?s quite likely the Patriots are going to have to put the ball in the air. Tom Brady?s too experienced, and too intelligent, to come out blasting, the way Manning can (and possibly will). But this might be the week to establish Shane Vereen as more of a weapon. The goal would be to try to get him beyond the big boys up front and let him take his chances with backup linebackers and DBs.Establish that, and then perhaps you can go to Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman and do the old dink and dunk until you have the Bronco