``Maybe the 4-3. Maybe the 3-4."
In other words, who cares about all this nonsense? The bottom line is that the Broncos' offense has no idea what to expect. And in the ultrasophisticated realm of the NFL, a little confusion is what really matters.
If nothing else, the Patriots created this element of mystery this past Sunday in their 24-17 ordeal against the New York Jets when they unveiled the 4-3 -- and unshackled Seymour and his fellow linemen.
Of course, Seymour has no complaints. He's mastered the Patriots' 3-4 sufficiently to have earned four consecutive Pro Bowl trips and three Super Bowl rings. But while his role in that setup is to contain, the effect on him can be to constrain. In the 4-3, he's like a horse breaking from the herd, and against the Jets, he frolicked for five tackles, a sack, a pass deflection, and a quarterback hurry. Not confined to devouring blockers but instead free to attack whatever moved in the Jets' backfield, Seymour and his colleagues up front -- Ty Warren (11 tackles), extra man Jarvis Green (6), and Vince Wilfork (5, including a sack) -- became predators.
It was a pleasant change of pace for Seymour, who acknowledged that it can get lonely out there with only 600 pounds of company beside him.
``I like having four defensive linemen on the field," he said. ``I like having more of our guys out there. It gives us more beef up there. It gives us a chance to move around up front, not always line up on the same guy."
But its primary benefit is that it introduces a question mark that hovers over the X's and O's in opponents' game plans. At least that was implicit in his boilerplate discussion of the 4-3 vis-a-vis the 3-4.
``Whatever gives us the best chance to win, that's the defense we're going to use," said Seymour, as if offering a groundbreaking discovery. ``We do it all pretty well. It's good to be versatile. Teams don't know what to prepare for. They know we can do both. We can switch in and out defensively. It gives offenses more to prepare for."
One caveat, a huge one: The object of mixing it up is not to get mixed up yourselves. And all was not serendipity for the Patriots in the Meadowlands.
