A nickel for your thoughts?

Pats’ formula to stop Clark

NFL. If the Patriots are going to beat the Colts Sunday, they’ll need to do a better job of containing Indy tight end Dallas Clark than they did in last year’s AFC Championship loss at the RCA Dome.

Clark, who had game-highs with six catches and 137 yards for the eventual Super Bowl champs, exploited the Patriots’ thin linebacking corps in the Colts’ 38-34 comeback victory.

“He’s a good tight end,” Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel said. “He can run like most receivers.

They split him out [in the slot]. They bring him in [tight]. I certainly look for him to get the ball.

He’s obviously one of Peyton [Manning’s] go-to guys, and he’s tough to cover because he runs well. He runs good routes.

“So, how do we do that? I don’t know. He’s had good success against us.”

The answer may actually lie in the Pats’ scheme against the Cowboys, who New England drubbed 48-27 in Week 6. Bill Belichick often fielded three safeties — Rodney Harrison, James Sanders and Eugene Wilson — to defend Dallas tight end Jason Witten.

Harrison played close to the line and jammed Witten, who was held to three catches and 47 yards — all coming on one first-half drive — in, statistically, Witten’s second-worst game of the season. All the while, Sanders and Wilson manned their conventional safety positions.

The three-safety package, sometimes termed the “big nickel,” will typically come at the expense of a linebacker. Conventional wisdom suggests that would hamper New England’s run defense. But Harrison, who missed last year’s AFC Championship with a knee injury, is a solid run stopper, and he’s been more effective close to the line than deep in the secondary this season.

“I think a lot of times, we play personnel-wise, whether it’s three safeties, whether it’s five linebackers,” Vrabel said. “Safeties are cover guys. Safeties rush. Outside linebackers rush and cover. We’re going to have a lot of different combinations out on the field, as we do every week.”