New England hasn't played indoors this season!

[Uncle Rico]

interesting...i think Brady could have a good good game indoor

Maybe. I just checked some stats and the first thing that jumps out is how few indoor games Brady has played: 10 in 8 years (excluded '08 and included '11). Brees and Manning are great, but TFB needs more credit for doing so much outdoors. Back to dome games: No doubt he has shined in many, but he's had some struggles too. Here's what I found (stats are Rating; TD-INT; % complete):

2010
Out: 107.6 - 32-4, 65%
In: 158.3 - 4-0, 77.8% (1 game; Detroit)

2009
Out: 99.5, 25-9, 65.9
In: 81.3 , 3-4, 64.4 (3 games; Indy, NO, Hou, Wembley/TB)

2007:
Out: 118.5, 47-6, 69.0,
In 95.2, 3-2, 65.6 (1 game; Dallas)

2006:
Out: 85.4, 20-11, 61.3
In: 115.6, 4-1, 67.4 (1 game; Minnesota)

2005:
Out: 89.4, 23-13, 62.0
In: 140.4, 3-1, 81.5% (1 game; Atlanta)

2004:
Out: 91.8, 26-14, 60.9
In: 103.4, 209, 58.1 (1 game; St. Louis)

2003:
out: 86.1, 19-8, 58.9
In: 84.6, 4-4, 67.1 (2 games; Indy, Hou)

The showings at Detroit and Minnesota are encouraging, as you could make a case that those D's somewhat resembled the Giants (big guys, pressure). The all-around disaster against the Saints skewed the '09 indoors numbers.

 

[Gwedd]

I saw this yesterday and was, this morning, still mulling over what it might mean. I'm thinking that being indoors might well increase the size of New England's comfort zone in this game.

I'm also becoming more confident of a solid performance and win by these Patriots as the days grow closer to kick off. It just all seems to be coming together nicely.

 

[The_Riddler]

The dome is one of the reasons I feel so good about this game. Brady kills it in domes and I think it is going to be really tough for the Giants to stop the Patriots offense in Indy.

I'm with you on this. Brady is at his finest indoors and he's played very well at Lucas and he's familiar with the Indy domes over the years. He'll be pinpoint accurate and on his game on this field. OTOH, I think Eli and the Giants are the type of team that plays better outside. I think the dome favors us more than them, but we'll see as I am keeping a very "humble" attitude going into this one.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Maybe. I just checked some stats and the first thing that jumps out is how few indoor games Brady has played: 10 in 8 years (excluded '08 and included '11). Brees and Manning are great, but TFB needs more credit for doing so much outdoors. Back to dome games: No doubt he has shined in many, but he's had some struggles too. Here's what I found (stats are Rating; TD-INT; % complete):

The showings at Detroit and Minnesota are encouraging, as you could make a case that those D's somewhat resembled the Giants (big guys, pressure). The all-around disaster against the Saints skewed the '09 indoors numbers.

As I've pointed out for a while now:

As should shock absolutely no one, Brady plays better outdoors than Peyton Manning.

What shocks a lot of people is that Brady plays better indoors than Manning, too.

The only reason that Manning had a better QB rating for such a long time(*) was that he played so many more games in a dome that that advantage swamped Brady's better play.

(*) And even that's a bit of a crock: if you compare them by actual number of games played (e.g., Brady after 20 games to Manning after 20 games), Brady's been ahead of Manning nearly his entire career.

 

[Uncle Rico]

Interesting take from Bruschi in his chat today:

Having played Super Bowls indoors and outdoors, the one thing I noticed is that in the second half in games indoors, defenses start to tire. Think back to the Super Bowl against the Rams in 2001. Also against Carolina in 2003. It gets warm inside, and defenses usually exert more energy than offenses. Defenses also ride on emotion more than offenses do, so you start to tire physically and emotionally, and offenses have the upper hand in the second half. I don't know how much being indoors would affect adjustments, but usually explosive players on grass are even more explosive on turf. There are explosive players on both sides of the ball in this game, for both teams.

The question becomes: Who does this benefit more? The Patriots because they have the hurry up, which can accelerate this process and work better against a key element of the Giants game?; or the Giants, with Cruz and Nicks and Eli's ability to extend plays by scrambling?