What’s a flying Elvis?
Never mind . . . the google is wonderful!
That guy always looks like Gul Dukat to me
Back in 2004 and 5, there was a woman from Japan who’d ask Brady to marry her. She wore a wedding dress to media day.
Legnom, I remember her. She was a Mexican reporter and she popped the question, as I recall.
as a lurker- Flying Elvis is the name of the current Patriots logo. As opposed to the old logo of Pat Patriots ready to snap the ball
Mexican? My mistake.
I put on sports radio and of course they’re in AZ and every guest has picked Seattle.
I’ve heard some weird stuff too. As in, Matt Millen saying some 2 time Super Bowl winning team hid radios in their linemen’s helmets. (I really doubt that; it would be too obvious.) I heard that NE conspired with LeGarette Blount for him to dog it in Pittsburgh so they could resign him. (Dumb because maybe they bench or suspend him but mostly because any team could have claimed him on waivers and no one, including NE, did. He cleared waivers.) And of course I heard that NE used “flat footballs” and that’s the same as when they find stolen money in your house. (Dumb because numerous source - I could link to videos - say cold air would lower pressure so we don’t even know if there was “stolen money”.) It’s funny to hear the constant yammering of the guest parade, all trying for a few minutes of exposure, all sounding like they’ve had 5 cups of coffee.
About the only things I heard that were interesting football-wise were the observation that Sherman is extremely good on fade routes but not particularly good when he has to move through traffic and that Wilson has trouble seeing but moves around well to get past that. Both sound insightful but I think that’s true of all good CBs and shorter QB’s.
I spent a few minutes looking at rosters. Why? Because in NE you only hear about the weaknesses of your team. As in Chandler Jones can be run over. He’s the same size as the other relatively big DEs in the league, same size as the Seattle guys. The teams are of similar sizes with the exception of the Seattle secondary being taller on the whole (and Seattle’s 3rd, 4th receiver being taller).
I did notice that if you look up depth charts they still list 3 LBs. That’s of mild interest because I heard Belichick say a few weeks ago that only the Jets ran more plays with the standard 3LB/4DB alignment, that the league has effectively moved to a 4-2-5 as the base defense with the 5th CB now standard. I think it would make sense to show the depth charts for the various positions because now even the base defense isn’t 4-3-4 or 3-4-4.
Most of those “radio row” guests seem to have a book or “project” that they are plugging - it does get annoying.
Seattle (as far as I know) plays a lot of 4-3-4 Bruce I. moves up on the line as a pass rusher in 3rd down passing situations but they don’t change up nearly as much as many teams do. They shortened their rotation even more than it had been when they had that mid season re-set.
As a totally casual observer, I like Pat Patriot a lot better.
Saintfan, I would not describe yourself as casual (unless we go back to your picture lounging with the cucumber slices)
I like Pat Patriot better also, but he is not modern enough. I also liked the dolphin with the helmet better than the current swooshy one.
Here are the squares we will be using at our super-bowl party to make sure everyone is interested in watching more than the commercials and the food table throughout the game. Do you have any sure locks?
1.Who wins coin toss
2.Will first score of game be a touchdown
3.Who makes first touchdown:
4.Who makes First TD pass
5.Who throws First Interception
6.Which QB Most Passing yards
7.Which RB Most Rushing yards
8.Receiving yards Edelman or Baldwin
9.Who has more Receptions Gronk or Baldwin
10.Will the Longest field goal be over 44yds
11.Total Field goals over 3
12.Will there be more than 4 Total sacks in the game
13.More than 3 turnovers
14.Who has first penalty
15.More than 25 points scored before half
16. More than 50 points scored in the game
17.Will defense of either team score a touchdown
18.Will the game be decided by more than 4 points
19. # of times Gisele will be shown on TV?
20.MVP for game?
Much of football is about creating match-ups so if you have 3WR’s then you need 3 people to cover them. You can cover with a safety but then the goal is to make him cover someone fast, thus the rise of the slot corner. A typical NE formation might be 2WR, 2TE, 1RB or 3WR, 1TE and 1RB, etc. This is the stuff I find fascinating, not psi of footballs. How they create match-ups, how the receivers decide the routes, etc. is complicated and is the heart of offense. If you split the RB out, someone has to cover and if that’s an LB then Brady throws to Vereen. If Gronk is covered by an LB, he goes to Gronk (sometimes even when the safety is behind, which can be a bad choice). If the guy opposite Gronk is a safety, he’ll go to Gronk. If the guy lined up across from Edelman is on his outside hip, Brady and Edelman are supposed to read that and take the route inside. If Gronk gets a free release, one of his reads is to go straight up the seam because that draws the safety and maybe even a third trailing man which either means he’s open or someone else has a great match-up. And so on. NE’s offense is more complicated than the original conception of West Coast. To give an example, in West Coast the QB would take the snap and each step backwards was a specific read and the routes were all timed so each guy would be open or not based on where in the read progression the QB saw him. NE’s offense is less specific route trees than what they call route concepts, which is why so many WR’s just don’t get it.
To compare, Peyton’s offense is more timing based though it’s of course read based - because all modern offenses are - but his outside guys almost always line up on the same side each time. That greatly simplifies the reads these receivers need to make. I think that emphasizes the need to have high quality receivers; the offense isn’t benefitting nearly as much from moving people around and causing the defense to shift when the defense can count on the outside guys being here and running these routes. Both offenses are designed to let the QB make very quick decisions.
Seattle like many teams gets run support from the safety. (Weird, but the concept of safety has been changing too from strong and free to up and back, with an older one being strong is on the strong side of the offensive line and weak is the other to strong being more in run support and weak becoming free more for deep coverage.) A lot of running now is to set up the pass. Seattle tends to run just to run but GB moved up to the line and immediately gave up deep balls. (And famously Pittsburgh stupidly brought every guy up repeatedly against Denver and Tebow threw over their heads all night.) In NE, the media worries about stretching the field deep, like in 2007 when Randy Moss played every down because that meant the defense always had to have a safety back (or the ball was going deep). But you stretch the field by encouraging the safety to come up or you stretch it wide. Gronk stretches the field because either you double cover or you risk a big play; stretching means creating areas where the defense can’t defend as well on that play.
This and line play is the stuff I really love in football. As in, watching a big game (not NE) and the TV guys are raving about this big play made by the LB and in replay on my tivo I see they left a gap for the LB to fill, knowing he would come forward, and the opposite guard was supposed to hit him in a classic trap block. But the DT pushed the playside guard backwards so fast the offside guard couldn’t get past, which left this great big hole for the LB to make an easy play that everyone called great when the actual play was made by the DT.
Ha! @jackief - I meant casual in that I don’t spent a lot of time thinking about the Partiots logo as they are neither a favorite team nor a pet hate. I have no dog in the race.
Two things that Seattle does pretty well usually is swarm to the ball and limit yards after the catch and have not only the safeties but even the corner backs come up on runs. Sherman gets a fair number of run tackles up at the line, strangely. I would expect NE to have a fair number of completions across the middle and Seattle will need to be able to bring Gronk down (easier said than done for sure). I don’t worry about Amendola and Edelman too much and I think people are kind of hoping they try to send them across the middle early. I am hoping not to have to eat those words 
It’s so hard to tell. They are both very strong teams, and on paper, it ought to be epic. But paper doesn’t always transfer onto the field, and I wouldn’t be surprised by any outcome – blowout by either team, or squeaker by either team.
A bit of Super Bowl trivia:
[49 quick facts about Super Bowl XLIX](49 quick facts about Super Bowl XLIX: Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots (slideshow) - cleveland.com)
Uh oh.
[Seattle Seahawks’ Richard Sherman on baby watch](Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman on baby watch)
I worry about Edelman on those slant routes. I think NE will have a fair amount of success there.
I don’t because we have Kam Chancellor and Edelman is not that big a guy. Most Seattle types are hoping that they go that route early so that Kam can set the same tone that he did in the Denver game. Of course, maybe that won’t come to pass but crossing routes in the zone with Wagner and Chancellor meeting in the middle is not necessarily a good way to go.
Uh oh. Somebody better watch her at all times. Wouldn’t put it past Coach B to hire someone to attack her with a needle full of pitocin. 
Well in my considerable experience that will STILL take all day
Lol Nrdsb.
You act like the Patriots have never been hit. I don’t pay attention to old games, particularly not last year’s games, but Peyton is not a big game player and his offense relies on timing much more than NE’s. When Peyton is healthy - which is, unfortunately, probably never again - he reads the coverage and puts the ball in a spot in the expectation the receiver will get there against that coverage. If you disrupt the route, his offense has huge trouble. That’s the big rules change, something NE fans remember well (and which Seattle people would likely agree with us on): Bill Polian, as Colts GM, was on the competition committee and pushed to have the no contact form of pass defense because his team couldn’t handle being treated so roughly. It wasn’t that their players were wimps but that the offense required timing and the Patriots disrupted that. In fact, after the “illegal contact” emphasis, in one AFC Championship game the Patriots were called for pass interference in the end zone because the DB slowed down a little and that prevented the receiver from reaching his spot (and the DB later received the letter from the league saying the call was wrong, which was too little, too late when your team lost in big part because of that call.)
NE’s offense is very different. While any team wants to get free releases off the line, the offense doesn’t depend on that because it’s more based on concept and expectation based on what Brady sees during the play. It relies, in other words, on his decisions matching up with the receivers’ decisions, which is why people in NE talk about him and his trust level with a guy. It’s more of a look-react offense where the receiver sees something and knows Brady sees it and they react together. If you wonder why respected receivers have failed here, it’s because the system isn’t easy to get. I sometimes think Belichick runs it because it’s more challenging not because it’s so much better.
Anyway, couple of ridiculous nuggets from this PM’s sports radio from AZ. The 2nd is the main one.
- Marshall Faulk needs to be examined for brain issues. Really can't let it go. Can't understand that the Rams outgained the Patriots in that game by nearly 200 yards but had 3 big turnovers (and 1 for a TD that was called back).
- Tim Brown. This is illuminating because it shows how egotistical these guys are. Brown is asked how he'd do in today's league and he said, not kidding, that teams pass the ball 20 more times a game these days and since he'd get half the balls thrown his way before he'd get 10 more throws each game and would catch at least 5. Talk about nuts: the passing game has exploded because they throw to more guys all of the time. His numbers maybe would go up a little but he exaggerates low on the number of pass plays then and exaggerates up for today to make himself look like he'd be catching an insane number of balls every year because, you know, he's just that good. (He averaged around 90/year and 16 * 5 = 80 more a year!!) And the Raiders threw the ball nearly 30 times a game, not 22. Then he really went out of the yard: he said that if the Raiders won the Tuck Rule Game then Tom Brady wouldn't have had a career because Drew Bledsoe would have been the starter next year. I guess if you peddle this stuff outside NE people might think that makes sense, though of course anyone here knows it wouldn't have happened. (BTW, at the time of the Tuck game, NE had won 8 straight with Brady as QB and Bledsoe was back and healthy and sitting on the bench He was traded to Buffalo, inside the division, in April of that year.) My point is the way this kind of idiotic claim revolves around him and his career, that his ego is so large he essentially claims a big share of responsibility for Tom Brady ever again seeing the field. I think this kind of thing is why it's important to take nearly anything these players say with about 500 huge grains of salt: many are warped and others are egomaniacs. They exaggerate, tell stories as if they were there when it's just a story, and find ways to make themselves the star of the story.
BTW, if you’re going to pick first penalty for the Patriots, good guess would be Browner on defense and one of the linemen for a false start.