Idle Thoughts – the “on to Seattle” edition.

[SHOWTIME15]

Seattle struggles against the short passing game. Dallas, San Diego and GB proved you can move the ball on their defense by not forcing the ball deep. This is where NE excels.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Great stuff, Ken. Seeing the dominant run game return was particularly gratifying. You can't scheme Big. You either have the beef or you don't, and Indy was one heifer short of a herd. Even better, Seattle is undersized along the DL, so there will be a similar opportunity next month. Seattle has more depth and will therefore hold-up longer, but I think the Pats have the team to beat them soundly.

 

[moejr]

Complaints: Edelperson's beard and all the tough catches we expected Gronk to catch that he dropped.

UP: Edelperson's worst beard is better than Luck's best.

I would think some of those drops were from the ball being slicker than cat crap on linoleum.

 

[patriot lifer]

When NEP played against the two Giants' teams in the previous 2 Superbowls, those teams were playing hot at the right time. I don't get that sense from Seattle, but that isn't to say it's a bad football team. They're very good--just not on fire.

 

[patriot lifer]

2 Questions for those who are knowledgeable:

1. How do people rate the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? And try not to over-focus on the last game.

2. How heavy are the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? We all know the NEP struggle against the heavier lines on both sides of the ball.

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

My idle thought:
Blount's jersey looked awesome at the end of last night (see the post Revis pick TD run). The thing had lots of field paint on it - looked like it had been watercolored. Hope it ends up in the Patriots HOF.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

2 Questions for those who are knowledgeable:

1. How do people rate the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? And try not to over-focus on the last game.

2. How heavy are the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? We all know the NEP struggle against the heavier lines on both sides of the ball.

Their DL is a bit on the small side. Their big guy, Kevin Williams, is a good penetrating DT and very strong against the run, but he only weighs 310#. Their other DTs run around 300#, and the ends are similar in stature to Nink and Jones, so the Pats have a size advantage on offense. Their LBs (the ones that don't play end) are fast and all under 250#, so I do think that the Indy game plan has carryover. Chancellor and Thomas provide strong run support, but if they are moving forward to stop Blount, that opens up big plays down the field and with 2nd level crossing routes.

The Seattle OL plays big. More importantly, they move well and run a zone blocking scheme, which has given the Pats fits on certain occasions (e.g., Miami on day 1 and Baltimore more recently). I do think the Pats will manage the Seattle zone blocking better than Kubiak's system, which emphasized backside cut blocks that sometimes had some of the Pats DTs playing scared against Baltimore. (To my mind, those backside cut blocks should be illegal, as they are more of less clipping, but I digress.) The challenge of stopping Lynch while fighting-off zone blocks is, to me, the number one concern going into the Superbowl. If the Beast can be contained without selling out and opening-up room for Wilson on the read option, I think that Pats win handily. That said, the Hawks are likely to make this competitive, because that running attack is just that tough. People say that Seattle isn't hot right now, but that running game is the real deal. We're in for an old-time, smash-mouth game in two weeks. Should be fun.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Well, PFK, nice to ready you as always. Last week I told you BB was in Luck's head, that would be our biggest advantage. And it happened. I also said that Luck could be forced into a couple of turnovers due to frustration, and that also came true. I said the key was scoring points off the turnovers and we did that. I guess where I went wrong was I expected to see a lot of Jonas Gray, instead our hero was Blount, but the principle was correct, the Colts DL can't sustain against a persistent rushing attack. Bottom line, Pats win handily, rejoice!

Now for Seattle. As always they are a tough team to face. I feel that Russell Wilson is more poised and elusive than Luck. He also has the credentials and experience of winning it all, so he will be tougher to rattle. We will need to do our homework to find ways to contain him. In addition, Seattle has a much more formidable running game spearheaded by Marshawn Lynch. I feel the key is to limit the damage done by Seattles running game so that their play-action doesn't become a big weapon. Wilson has the arm and the receivers to do damage if we have to invest heavily to stop/honor the run.

The other challenge of course is scoring against Seattle's defensive unit. Green Bay did show some limited success in scoring. Maybe our coaches can suss out some weaknesses to attack for the big game. I feel like this is going to end up a defensive battle which makes me nervous. If we score 30+ I don't see Seattle matching us in point output in a shootout.

 

[JR4]

I don’t know about you, but I got the match up that I think is most advantageous

I agree. I feel PATs D can handle Seahawks' offense better than GB's.
This should be a relatively low scoring game. I like the idea of a D battle
verses a shootout especially with Rodgers.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I agree. I feel PATs D can handle Seahawks' offense better than GB's.
This should be a relatively low scoring game. I like the idea of a D battle
verses a shootout especially with Rodgers.

They keep Lynch under control- they win. They don't- they lose.

 

[mayoclinic]

2 Questions for those who are knowledgeable:

1. How do people rate the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? And try not to over-focus on the last game.

2. How heavy are the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? We all know the NEP struggle against the heavier lines on both sides of the ball.

DL is not that heavy, and is good but not great. Not in the class of the Jets, Detroit, Baltimore or Buffalo. Their DTs are in the 300-310# range, and their DEs are 260# (Avril) and 274# (Bennett). They don't have the dominant defensive tackles of those other lines, and they don't have the rotational depth of the 2013 Seattle DL.

Their OL is fairly big, and average or slightly above in terms of talent. Russell Okung is 6'5" 310#, James Carpenter 6'5" 321#, Max Unger 6'5" 305#. Rookie Justin Britt (6'6" 325#) has been a weak spot. Jim Sneezy is 6'5" 298#. Decent OL, but nowhere near dominant.