K.J. Write is 6’4" and has long arms so he’s got a decent shot at covering Gronk (not saying he’ll be perfect but better than some) He gives up 2 inches but hold his own on speed and Wagner is a 4.46 guy and will close fast. Again - I expect Gronk to get his catches, the key for Seattle will be to bring him down right away.
FYI, the NYT has a story up - [url=<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/sports/football/deflation-experiments-show-patriots-may-have-science-on-their-side-after-all.html?partner=rss&emc=rss%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/sports/football/deflation-experiments-show-patriots-may-have-science-on-their-side-after-all.html?partner=rss&emc=rss]here[/url] - that scientists have realized they didn’t understand the Ideal Gas Law when commenting off the cuff about football air pressure and that tests which show a larger drop in psi are scientifically correct. In brief, they forgot that when you think of the pressure inside the ball, you also have to think of the pressure outside the ball so when it says 12.5 that’s in the context of the atmosphere not as a standalone number. You almost double the pressure in the ball to account for the atmospheric pressure and that means lower pressure by more is …
The summary of one technical report is “These findings support the fact that due to the rainy conditions and a 25°F decrease in the footballs’ temperatures, it is expected that the footballs would experience a pressure decrease of about 1.82 psi.” Note that this is by halftime, not at kickoff because the balls lose pressure over time not immediately.
I sincerely doubt anyone noted the pressure of the Colts balls. I haven’t been able to find a definitive statement that they actually re-tested the Colts balls, just affirmations that they must have passed. Given they didn’t note the Patriots’ football pressures, I’m unsure the officials did much of anything right.
A lot of people are not only going to look like idiots but I think many of them have burned bridges with Brady and Belichick that they will regret.
At this point I’ve moved on from “deflategate” and “crotchgate” and I think Katy Perry had the definitive word on, “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.” I am all about game prep now. I’m busy putting the finishing touches on my Blue Friday nails and making a Superbowl themes cardio play list for tomorrow. All the important stuff!
I think I really outdid myself this time putting those ambidextrous fine motor skills to the test.
Here’s a weird stat: all the talk about pass rush and I haven’t heard anyone talk about protection (not here but generally). Which team gave up the most sacks? Seattle. Tied for 12th in the league with 42 sacks surrendered. Tied with Carolina. This with a highly mobile QB. (A few of those might be run losses, but I think those must be outweighed by scrambles that negated a sack.) How did NE fare? Tied for 28th, with 26 sacks surrendered. I think we can say none of those were run losses and Brady maybe ran a 3 times to evade a sack.
Interestingly, Baltimore was 2nd with only 19, which showed in the playoff game: Flacco gets time and he throws the ball downfield (really well) but NE got to him with 2 sacks and a bunch of pressures. The Baltimore stat surprised me because they aren’t a quick throw team. Denver is. They were 1 with 17 surrendered.
When I look through the passing stats, Seattle had the fewest attempts, 2nd fewest completions and 6th lowest yards. Some of that is, well, if you look at the teams worse they have really bad QB’s and/or very bad passing attacks. Seattle’s numbers show a number of big plays, which speaks to two things: that protection can break down when the QB scrambles and the defense comes up to the line because they’re not a good passing team.
BTW, the teams are at the top in INTs, with 7 and 9. The leader had 6 so the difference is tipped balls and luck. The difference shows in TD’s: Seattle was tied for 26th with 20 - tied with a bunch of teams - while NE was 5th with 34. (Indy was 1 with 42.) I went through rushing before: Seattle is 2 in attempts, 1 in yds while NE is 13 and 18. In other words, there’s a difference in ranking but not as extreme as the passing stats. I honestly don’t know what to make of NE’s rushing stats because in some games they didn’t try to run, preferring to pass because they felt that was the best game plan. The ultimate of that was against the Ravens: they didn’t call a single run in the 2nd half.
Did you notice the post where I mentioned that Seattle will have it’s starting O line for the first time since week 5? They are admittedly better at run blocking than pass protection (hmmmm . . . could that be on purpose?) and have been decimated by a revolving door of injuries with 4 different guys playing center. They lost their blocking tight end, Zach Miller, early in the season which was also a blow on pass blocking. It has been a work in progress for sure.
Unger, the center, is back which goes a long way towards limiting sacks (and bad snap exchanges). He only played 6 games this season. Justin Britt, the right tackle who was out last week, is also back. Alvin Bailey played every line position but center this year, and Schilling made a valiant effort filling in at center and right guard until he went out with a season ending injury.
I don’t believe that the Pats will be making a big attempt to sack Russell Wilson. Instead, I think they’ll play one of their “disciplined rush lane” games where the two outside rushers focus on setting the edge to keep him in the pocket and cut off the roll out passes and scrambles. Having the discipline to do this is one of the Pats defensive strengths and they have had multiple games this year emphasizing that strategy against escape artist QBs.
IMO, Belichick has properly identified Wilson escaping the pocket as the single most dangerous aspect of the Seahawks offense and the number one priority to stop. They will want to force Wilson to beat them throwing from the pocket against the Pats secondary.
On the other side of the ball, free agency attrition and injuries have left Seattle with a weaker defensive line that they have had in the past. They were, for example, unable to get a single sack against a crippled Aaron Rodgers and their rush defense has trailed off significantly as their depth has been challenged. With the Pats back at full strength with their five and six man o-line, I believe that the Blount will be able to run a little and Brady will have enough time to throw a little. When that combination happens, the Pats offense is very dangerous. In fact, the only defenses that really give the Pats trouble are defenses with big powerful d-lines that can pressure Brady up the middle and stop any threat of the run (Ravens, Jets. etc.)
I think you’re right about gap integrity being a good place to start in playing Seattle. I think statistically they’ve had trouble against the run because they had a few very bad games in that part of the season where Mebane and Wagner went down and Kam wasn’t at full strength. They were really vulnerable up the middle. All in all they were 3rd best in the league or so on rush defense even with the bad patch so still not too shabby. I do kind of feel like the key over all for Seattle will be for the D to keep them in it long enough for Marshawn to get going. He tends to get better and better as the game goes on so if they are ahead or hold it close he usually starts to break more and more runs over time. I also feel like Wilson may hit Lockett for a big play or two. What I would like to see in general is some sustained drives early. In the GB game Seattle kept shooting themselves in the foot on offense so the defense had to work harder than one would want. They still didn’t give up much but the pass rush is always better when playing ahead and when the’ve had a breather.
I think that the biggest difference in Seattle last year to this (except injuries) is not having explosive potential on kick and punt returns. Walters is very reliable at fielding punts which is why he made the team, but he doesn’t get yards after the catch. Richardson was doing ok returning kicks until he was injured, although I thought he brought a few too many out instead of taking the 20 yards. Now Baldwin is doing it and he is just OK - I haven’t looked at stats but I feel like they are losing 10-20 yards per return attempts over last year.
Well there you go . . . Seattle went from averaging 11.1 yards per punt return and giving up 3.9 to this year where they are getting 7 and giving up 11.5. They had that crazy bad special teams flop against the Rams that did actually lose the game on several plays but when they had the starters out with injuries it messed up the punt coverage. Then again, Walters in no Golden Tate on returns. There were reasons outside of money why he had to go, but they definitely took a blow on starting field position.
and with that . . . HAPPY BLUE FRIDAY!!! :D/
saintfan, are you using highlights in your fur? You seem to have a darker complexion than usual
We may go to the Klink & sign “Mikes” flag before we see him play at Benaroya tonight.
Wondering how far I want to go for blue Friday
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Tattered-12-flag-to-tour-Seattle.html?mobile=y
Blue Friday!! Rockin my Seahawks t-shirt at work today! 
HAHAHAhaha, this hilarious (there’s some swearing):
[Marshawn Lynch and Rob Gronkowski Play “Mortal Kombat X” With Conan O’Brien](Marshawn Lynch and Rob Gronkowski Play "Mortal Kombat X" With Conan O'Brien | CONAN on TBS - YouTube)
This is pretty good too (swearing is bleeped):
[I</a> am the Locker Room Guy](I am the Locker Room Guy - YouTube)
Stats are what they are. They don’t say how a team performs in an upcoming game, just sort of how they did. Note, for example, that NE’s offensive line was terrible at the beginning of the year, not only so bad they were blown out in KC but so bad people were saying Brady was washed up. NE gave up 10 of their 26 sacks in those 4 games. And then 4 more in the last game against Buffalo when they didn’t try hard because they had the 1st seed sewn up. So that’s 14 of 26 when the line was either terrible or didn’t care (especially when Jimmy Garropolo was in). I can make this silly: if you look at sacks per game excluding the start and don’t care games and extend that number - which is a bit over 1 per game (12 in 11 games) - you get 17.5, which would make their offensive line’s protection ½ sack short of tied for best. Reasonable? Probably not - and I think not because teams do have bad games -but you can make that argument.
NRE, i can’t wait to watch those tonight! So sad that I don’t have speakers at work.
Anyone else having trouble concentrating on work today??
Yes, Jackie . . . I feel like the tinting as a bit more fierce looking for Blue Friday and game day. Normally I’m not that imposing looking.
RE: Punt returns.
Julian Edelman (or Edelperson as we call him in politically correct NE) has the highest average yardage per punt return in the history of the NFL.