Lol, none of these match-ups favor New England which is why I believe that if these two teams met, Belichick and McDaniels would bring the tendency busters out of the playbook. But until we get the O-line playing back up to it's potential, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, Tony McDaniel and co. won't even make those other match-ups a factor.
On Defense, Seattle plays that Cover-1/3, takes away the deep ball and flies around the middle. They win on discipline and aggression. Seattle wouldn't have to fear our deep game. Thomas will sit back while everyone else cheats up. Wright and Wagner can be affective bracketing Gronk as well. We'd have to have success against Chancellor, Maxwell and Simon to move the chains. We'd have to employ 3 step drops and run great routes. CAMERON FLEMING NEEDS TO RETURN so we can run our counters and traps on the inside.
Against their O, we're at a disadvantage because we don't have a 3rd linebacker. I won't count Casillas beccause he is a - in the run game. We'd have to sell out on the run. Baldwin and Kearse get the job done and are versatile, but we'd have to depend on Revis and Browner to cover them. Arrington would get Richardson. Moeki would be their healthiest TE, so we dodge a bullet not having to cover Helfet or Zach Miller. This would probably be a game where NE whips out the 3-4 to contain the run. Silliga, Wilfork and Branch earn their paychecks.
We don't match up well against Seattle on offensively. Defensively, we can hang. We only beat this team by being physical and fundamental, ala SB36.
