FOXBOROUGH - The sobering reality seemed to jump off the screen.
During their videotape study of the Jaguars' vaunted rushing attack, the Patriots defense was impressed by what they saw of Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew. With each chunk of yardage Taylor and Jones-Drew churned out, it became apparent there was only one way the Patriots could prevent getting plowed asunder tomorrow night at Gillette Stadium.
It was going to take a supreme defensive effort across the board.
Defensive linemen. Linebackers. Defensive backs.
Everyone.
"I think this is the biggest challenge of the year in terms of facing running backs that are at the top of their games and two running backs who can score any time they touch the ball," said linebacker Tedy Bruschi. "You saw the play out of the backfield to Jones-Drew last week [in a 31-29 wild-card victory at Pittsburgh]. It was just an easy swing pass and he took it all the way to the house [giving the Jaguars a 21-7 lead]. His [96-yard] kickoff return [set up Taylor's 1-yard score that tied it, 7-7]. Taylor, all the breakout runs he's had, he finishes them in the end zone.
"They're not really a 3, 4, 5 yards and a cloud of dust-type team. If they get in the open field they're going to be going all the way."
Four times during their 16-0 regular-season run the Patriots allowed an opponent 100-plus yards rushing, with Baltimore gaining 166 behind Willis McGahee's 138, both of which represented season highs for New England's defense.
At no time this season, however, have the Patriots faced the threat of two opposing runners capable of going for 100 yards each. The last time that happened was against Philadelphia Nov. 4, 1990, when quarterback Randall Cunningham rushed for 124 yards and running back Heath Sherman added 113.
"Their backs are good," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "Fred Taylor is one of the best backs in the league. He's got a great combination of quickness, power, vision and he's a very good technique runner. But he's got exceptional vision. He finds and sees holes as well as any back we play. He's got the speed to go the distance and he's got the power to run over people and he's got the quickness to make defenders miss him in the hole.
"Jones-Drew is a little different style of runner, but very effective," Belichick continued. "He's a very powerful guy for his size and has got great lower body strength, runs through a lot of tackles and he can go the distance, we saw that on the kickoff return last week against Pittsburgh."
It would appear Jacksonville offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter does not discriminate when it comes to putting the ball into the hands of either Taylor, the team's leading rusher (223 carries, 1,202 yards, 5 TDs), or Jones-Drew, the team's biggest all-purpose threat (768 yards rushing, 9 TDs; 407 yards receiving; 811 kickoff return yards, 1 TD).
"There's a lot to keep us busy this week with Jacksonville," said All-Pro linebacker Mike Vrabel. "I think they like to throw the ball to Drew a little more than they like to throw it to Taylor. But when you talk about them running the ball, they're not drawing up any different plays for one guy or the other.
"They're both running them well, [Taylor is] averaging [5.4 yards per carry] the other one close to 5. So, really, they're two complete backs and both can catch the screen out of the backfield and both can block."
Jones-Drew, whose 5-foot-7-inch, 208-pound frame gives him the appearance of a fire hydrant in football pads, impressed one and all with his pass protection when he laid out Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman on a blitz pick-up earlier this season.
"He's probably as good a pass protector as we've seen this year [at] running back," Belichick said. "[He] plays a lot on third down, catches the ball out of the backfield, runs good routes; [he is] hard to tackle when he catches it."
Asked who posed a bigger threat in the open field, 6-4, 270-pound Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants or Jones-Drew, veteran safety Rodney Harrison responded with a chuckle.
"He's just a smaller version of Jacobs," Harrison said of Jones-Drew. "His legs are probably bigger than Jacobs's, and he's just as explosive. He's not 280 pounds, but he's probably more like 220. He's a guy who's obviously a threat in the run as well as the pass game and he does a great job of chip blocking and blocking in the passing game.
"He's a guy who can beat you with his hands and his legs all over the field," Harrison added. "He's a guy who'll probably start on 90 percent of the teams in this league. He's definitely not a second-string running back and we don't look at him like that. We just look at it like a two-headed monster and those guys are very capable. I mean, he's the guy on goal line. He's the goal-line back, so that just shows you how big and powerful and explosive he can be."
But does Jones-Drew provide a smaller and much harder target to pin down than, say, Jacobs?
"Well, you still have a lot to tackle, but, he has a lot of wiggle to him and he's very elusive and very powerful," Harrison said. "[He's] a guy who can make you miss in space and we're going to have to rally and get more than one guy to him."
Same with Taylor. It's going to take more than one.
It's going to take everyone.
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.
