PODCAST: Patriots vs Seahawks Recap: Hightower as the spy vs Wilson?
 Dont'a Hightower and the Patriots defense has quite a challenge ahead against a solid Seattle Seahawks team on Sunday. (USA TODAY Images) |
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Here's a quick run down of this week's episode:
SOME THOUGHTS ON DEFLATE-GATE:
Steve Balestrieri - "This whole thing has been overblown from the beginning. I mean, even other NFL quarterbacks are coming out and stating that. At this point, the NFL's investigation is a complete disaster. They have Mr. Magoo running this thing because every day we get a different story and they keep leaking it out to [Chris Mortensen] from ESPN, Jay Glazer from Fox, and they keep changing everything."
Derek Havens - "I really don't think the NFL will find anything, but I will tell you that this has kind of opened up a can of worms and the NFL will be changing how they log footballs and pressure, and all that. There will be more work for the officials now. Or there'll be an employee who guards the footballs and does all this stuff from now on, I promise you. I bet you next year there's going to be a guy who is not related to either team, who is going to be watching over the footballs, and he'll be logging each football and it will be numbered, there's going to be a whole new system now because of this."
ON SEATTLE'S RUSHING ATTACK:
Steve Balestrieri - "Seattle has the league's number one rushing offense. They average 172.5 yards per game, and 5.3 yards per rush, so they have the advantage here, that's their bread and butter. I mean, their running game is very good and it's not only Marshawn Lynch, it's Russell Wilson. I think Russell Wilson is the key here as well as Lynch, but that zone blocking scheme that the Seattle Seahawks use is difficult to stop, and the Patriots have had issues with it. It's similar to what Miami and the Jets use and the Patriots have seen it before. But what it does is it stretches the defense horizontally and then your running back has a chance to cut back and find gaps in there. It's going to be tough for them."
 I think they're going to leave [Dont'a] Hightower as the spy." - Steve Balestrieri (USA TODAY Images) |
ON HOW TO DEAL WITH RUSSELL WILSON AND WHO MIGHT BE SPYING HIM:
Steve Balestrieri - "I think they're going to leave [Dont'a] Hightower as the spy, and again, I'm not comparing the two quarterbacks, but I look back a the Jets game because the Jets run a similar package of plays like that with Geno Smith and what they were doing with Jamie Collins is they were crashing him down at the hand-off and trying to re-route the play to one side or the other and they left Hightower as the spy and they were keeping his eyes on the quarterback until he knew the play had actually been handed off, so I'm assuming they're going to do that. I'm not worried about Hightower being able to keep up with him as long as he stays disciplined."
ON MISDRECTION PLAYS BY THE SEAHAWKS AND HOW THE PATRIOTS MAY HANDLE THEM:
Russ Goldman - "I would be worried later on in the game if the Patriots were not able to adjust. If they throw this early, they might have some luck at it, but it's almost a situation where the more they see it, the Patriots will take care of it. So actually if they show some of these misdirection plays early, I think it's actually an advantage to the Patriots later in the game because I think they will be able to adjust to them."
Steve Balestrieri - "I think if they see it early, they'll be able to adjust to that later on. But that's a definite weapon that they use and they use it very well. So it's something that they'll have to be aware of. It all comes down to preparation, and we'll see but that's something that can definitely affect this game. "
For an in-depth look at the offense and to hear their predicitions for Patriots vs Seahawks, you can Listen to this week's Super Bowl Preview or you can download it on ITunes, or stream it using the TuneIn app.
