Idle thoughts - the football talk edition.

SVN said:

Going to come down to our interior oline. Probably the fastest and and biggest defense size wise they have faced I think. I hope they dont go exclusively no huddle and with vereen. Blount needs to get his touches.

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No way. Seattle's DL is not big. That are definitely fast.

Tunescribe said:

Noise won't be anything remotely near what it is in Seattle. My guesstimate is 30 percent Squawks fans, 20 percent Pats fans, 50 percent mixed corporate freeloaders.

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The locals will be cheering for the Pats:

http://mobile.patsfans.com/m/articles/mobi.php?id=6230#.VMY3WcuCO0c

There weren't any Seahawks participating in Sunday night's Pro Bowl, but they found out what fans in Arizona thought of them after receiving a less than warm welcome from the home crowd.

There were five players for Seattle who were elected to attend the NFL's annual All-Star game, but since they're playing next weekend in the Super Bowl, they obviously declined. However, they did make an appearance during the contest, with safety Kam Chancellor, running back Marshawn Lynch, cornerback Richard Sherman, safety Earl Thomas and linebacker Bobby Wagner each on hand to take in the game.

Midway through the first quarter they were announced to the crowd, who booed them. Not that it should be that much of a surprise. With the game being played in the home stadium of the Arizona Cardinals, clearly fans aren't happy to see their NFC West rivals with an opportunity to celebrate a Super Bowl title on their home field.

That would be the same as the Jets playing in the Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium. Fortunately the odds are pretty good that won't happen, not because Gillette Stadium probably won't be a host for the foreseeable future, but because that would require the Jets to get there - which is the even less likely scenario.

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Would love to see Gronk get going early with a couple of seams...get him hit and into the game early...

If the O-line can keep brady standing, I feel like they have a good chance of diagnosing a mismatch and exploiting it. Aaron Rodgers had alot of time in the pocket it seemed. Bradys krytonite has been pressure. but you give a HOF QB time against any how good a secondary and I like his chances. The patriots offense seems to be hitting their stride at the right time. 35pts against the ravens, 45 against the colts

to me, while all the talk has been on the Patriots offense vs. Seattles defense. I feel the big matchup advantage for the patriots is their defense vs. the seattle offense.

That seattle offense is rather average. the Carolina panthers kept them down into the 4th quarter before Cam Newton became....cam newton. and the packers shut them down until their coaching broke down.

the patriots have more talent. I think you can put 8 in the box against lynch/ scrambles and force their average receivers to beat our secondary one on one. dare guys like baldwin/kearse/wilson to beat Revis/Browner/arrington/logan ryan. the patriots have shut down better offenses.

I think the key of the game early is to test Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas and see how close they are to 100%. Why the Packers didn't throw at Sherman or run at him after him after he hurt his arm is one of the biggest mysteries of the Championship round.

I would personally run plays where they spread Gronk wide right and switch LaFell and Edelman sides of the field and see if Sherman can get physical with the big boys. Also, do a couple of sweeps to his direction and see if he can tackle. If he struggles, pick on him all game. One thing I wouldn't do is avoid him like the Packers did.

On defense, I think the lack of receiving weapons that Wilson has helps the Pats. You can put Revis on Baldwin and Browner on Kearse and let McCourty play over the top which allow the rest of the team to play closer to the line to stop the run or Wilson running or passes to Lynch in the flat.

I really hope the Pats have a way to "practice/simulate" the emotional wave that is about to hit them. This Seattle team brings an enormous amount of energy to their games. Unless you have experienced it, it is difficult to explain, but the emotion this Seahawks team plays with is the biggest edge the Seahawks have. They feed off it and it inspires them to do more for each other, it also gives them that ****iness that we are getting to know more and more each day. I know many here will scoff at this point but I really hope the Patriots don't overlook this part of the equation, it very well could be the difference in the game.

Aaron rodgers noticed that seattle has a soft spot over the middle of the field. They will have a tough time on stopping gronk's seam routes.

Loved the convo with Greg Cosell and Ross Tucker in regards to Greg's theory that BB would deploy a Cover 2 scheme with lots of peeps up at the line of scrimmage.

The origin of cover 2 was to combat the option from Bud Carson.

http://www.rosstucker.com/wp/podcasts/ross-tucker-football-podcast/ (about 11min in)

He said he would be surprised if BB blitzes "ONE TIME"

TommyBrady12 said:

Aaron rodgers noticed that seattle has a soft spot over the middle of the field. They will have a tough time on stopping gronk's seam routes.

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Sterling Sharpe of all people picked the Pats to win. He keyed on Amendola having a surprisingly big game.

I scoffed at this at first, but considering Rodgers' observation and your conclusion, it is logical to think Seattle will correct this problem by selling out on Gronk. That means a hole somewhere else and the player who gets the least attention when NE goes to three WR sets is DA.

Tony Cahncuhd said:

Revis handled that one 'pick' play pretty effectively last week. He was able to peel off and undercut the route, almost as if he was baiting Luck. Early recognition and evasion is key I guess.

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We actually let Revis guy go uncovered and Revis made the instinctive play and they doubled Hilton. I don't know if you can get away with that with Wilson. I know Brady would hit the open guy.

Rob0729 said:

I think the key of the game early is to test Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas and see how close they are to 100%. Why the Packers didn't throw at Sherman or run at him after him after he hurt his arm is one of the biggest mysteries of the Championship round.

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Simply put, Mike McCarthy coaches scared. In the season opener against Seattle, they didn't throw at Sherman ONCE, going so far as to put their 3rd or 4th receiver over there to "waste" Sherman on him. It backfired, as it just allowed Seattle to roll coverage away from that side.

In the past game, he failed to go for it on two different 4th and 1's, and ran conservative play calling while they were trying to kill the last five minutes. That attitude trickles down to your players. If you've got a soft coach, your players will instinctively do soft things, like try to catch an onsides kick instead of laying out the opposing gunner, or dropping to the turf with no one in front of you after an interception with 5 minutes to go. Rodgers was never going to test Richard Sherman, because that whole team from the coach down was intimidated by him.

mosi said:

And you know that at the end, there will be no holding calls called on anyone.

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At least not on the offense.

Calhoun44 said:

I really hope the Pats have a way to "practice/simulate" the emotional wave that is about to hit them. This Seattle team brings an enormous amount of energy to their games. Unless you have experienced it, it is difficult to explain, but the emotion this Seahawks team plays with is the biggest edge the Seahawks have. They feed off it and it inspires them to do more for each other, it also gives them that ****iness that we are getting to know more and more each day. I know many here will scoff at this point but I really hope the Patriots don't overlook this part of the equation, it very well could be the difference in the game.

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I think the Pats match that energy and then some. They came out calm in 2007 and got beat by a hungrier team. This year, they are pissed, and Belichick held a press conference to stand-up for them. I think the Pats are primed to fight and won't take their foot off the accelerator until it's kneel-down time.

Dragda said:

We actually let Revis guy go uncovered and Revis made the instinctive play and they doubled Hilton. I don't know if you can get away with that with Wilson. I know Brady would hit the open guy.

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That's what it looked like to me, too, but I didn't get a good look at what the safety rotation was there. There was certainly a good window to get that throw in there, but that might have been someone else getting beat. I thought Revis was ad libbing and made a risky play, but I don't know for sure what the coverage was.

pencilneckgeek said:

That's what it looked like to me, too, but I didn't get a good look at what the safety rotation was there. There was certainly a good window to get that throw in there, but that might have been someone else getting beat. I thought Revis was ad libbing and made a risky play, but I don't know for sure what the coverage was.

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My guess was it was something they've seen before and planned to double the receiver in the flat. Arrington and Revis didn't look hesitant on that assignment. You can't tell who picked up number 10, but he wasn't turned looking for the ball. He was heading upfield on a go route.

Sicilian said:

Simply put, Mike McCarthy coaches scared. In the season opener against Seattle, they didn't throw at Sherman ONCE, going so far as to put their 3rd or 4th receiver over there to "waste" Sherman on him. It backfired, as it just allowed Seattle to roll coverage away from that side.

In the past game, he failed to go for it on two different 4th and 1's, and ran conservative play calling while they were trying to kill the last five minutes. That attitude trickles down to your players. If you've got a soft coach, your players will instinctively do soft things, like try to catch an onsides kick instead of laying out the opposing gunner, or dropping to the turf with no one in front of you after an interception with 5 minutes to go. Rodgers was never going to test Richard Sherman, because that whole team from the coach down was intimidated by him.

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The INT at 5 mins was where you could really see it. The DB thought about running but then he and the other Packer (I would have called him a blocker, but he decided that he wasn't) seemed to get the same thought at the same time, and both of them settled down for nothing. Was there anyone there who could stop him from taking it for a TD? It might have looked like a smart play at the time, but it was really just a lack of killer instinct.

Amendola could have a huge game

Funny interview going on with Tyrann Mathieu. Says Tom is the man and would like to be him. Model wife and everything. Too funny.

Kid seems to have grown and seems real and honest.

Idle thoughts for real, OT warning. Belichick being Nostradamus.

I bet Ernie has a brain of a computer. I will love to be in their conversation.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots_nfl/the_blitz/2015/01/seattle_defense_a_simple_science

While no defense in the NFL can really be defined as "simple," the Seattle Seahawks have built a philosophy of not overloading their players' minds with overly complex schemes. It's a completely opposite approach than the one BillBelichick and the Patriots take, but obviously very effective, as the Seahawks have had the No. 1 overall defense over the last two seasons.

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That's an interesting thought. A true contrast of defensive philosophies in this game.

I was surprised to see this. Not sure if it is misdirection:

“I love DQ," Wright said. "He really lets us excel. He keeps everything simple and he just makes simple calls. He probably has five calls a game and he just lets our athleticism go out there and win ball games. He loves to box up with eight men.

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If this is true, how did Manning not pick them apart last year?

Chancellor and Thomas make a difficult pair to combat in the middle, but it's not impossible . When Troy Palomalu was at the height of his powers Brady used to play him like a fiddle almost every time we played the Steelers. Chancellor is a very aggressive player and that can be used to the offenses advantage. You create routes the look like what they expect and throw in a twist.

I noticed that when Chancellor jumped the Line on the FG attempt that made everyone's highlight reel, he had to time his leap and take off a few counts before the ball was snapped. All you have to do is alternated the count and he's totally neutralized as a rusher. BTW there are dozens of guys in the league athletic enough to duplicate what Chancellor did.....IF they knew when the ball would be snapped.

Sometimes if you want to keep the Seahawks from being ultra scary, you just have to do a few simple things like alternate your snap count. Ever wonder why Seattle is so much better at home than on the road, its because at Seattle, teams have to be very careful of their snap counts. That's NOT going to be an issue in Arizone. A minimum of a third of the crowd is going to be fat cats and event goers more than partisan football fans. So even if 40% of the crowd are partisan Seattle fans, its not going to be close to the kind of sound that should cause snap problems by the offense.

Seattle has pretty much lived and died on just doing what they do, and do it very well. That strategy has worked really well when they have played mediocre offenses. As the offensive talent rises, not so much. Until they played GB with a limited Rodgers, the best offenses they have played were Miami and SF, over the last half of the season. The Pats are by far the most difficult, flexible, and versatile offense they have played in a long while

Another thing is that over this week the Pats have been designing specific routes for playing against a tight 5 under zone coverage that will look a lot like press man to the casual football fan. Because THAT is what we are going to see. For that reason, I wouldn't be surprised to see us come out in some spread formations from the start. If we are packed too tight, it will be easier for them to smother those short patterns they know we want to throw.

On defense I see us starting out playing much less with 5 DB's and Ninko at LB with Siliga, Jones and Jones at DE (with a little Vince thrown in on occasion. This might be one of the first teams we've played all year where our WR's are better than the opposition

Don't stop the conversation. Your comments are like shots of oxygen in the airless atmosphere of Deflategate hysteria