BbtL Super Bowl XLIX Thread

Oppo

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In the 4 Seattle loses, Seattle was losing at halftime
Pats must force them to play from behind
Groundbreaking, I know
 

BornToRun

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H78 said:
The more I think about how our defense matches up with their offense, I struggle to convince myself that Seattle can score more than 17 or 20 points, barring major ST meltdowns or a pick-6 of Brady.

The only question to me is...can we score 21 on them? Will Brady play similarly to Manning last year and be overwhelmed by the speed of the Seattle D?

My score prediction has changed every day over the last two weeks. I have no idea what to expect, but as we get closer to game day, I feel more and more like they're going to JUST edge out the Seahawks.

If you asked me today, I'm thinking 23-20 Pats.
One thing I know is that Brady will not shit the bed like Manning did. We might lose but it won't be because TFB had a meltdown. I felt the same way last year, that Brady and the Pats would have put up way more of a fight than Denver did.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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It'll be interesting to see early on what the refs are letting the players get away with. Seems like holding and DPI have really been ignored this postseason (unless you're Browner). Seeing as how the Seattle game plan will likely to be to rough up the Pats receivers and be physical, the refs swallowing the whistles probably benefits the Seahawks more.
 

Harry Hooper

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SemperFidelisSox said:
It'll be interesting to see early on what the refs are letting the players get away with. Seems like holding and DPI have really been ignored this postseason (unless you're Browner). Seeing as how the Seattle game plan will likely to be to rough up the Pats receivers and be physical, the refs swallowing the whistles probably benefits the Seahawks more.
 
Add in that Seattle really needs a good outing from Lynch, so if offensive holding is not going to be called it probably helps them more.
 

brandonchristensen

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Pats were up at half in both Super Bowl losses right? In 2011 it started so poorly with the safety and touchdown but brady was a surgeon after.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Cool piece on 538 about how this is a historically good matchup.
 
Of course, you'll need to face the fact that the 2007 super bowl was basically the worst loss in the super bowl of all time... As if you didn't know that already.
 

dynomite

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Really interesting article, thanks for posting.

Also interesting:

But that’s partly because the system, in its simplicity, punished the Patriots for their meaningless Week 17 loss against Buffalo. Without that game, the Patriots’ Elo rating would be 1756, which would make Seattle only one-point favorites and which would vault this matchup ahead of Super Bowl XIII into the top slot of all time.
 

E5 Yaz

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#Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor _ likely involved covering Gronk _ listed on injury report with knee and was limited in Fri. practice
 

axx

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Somebody bet more than a mill on the Patriots. Probably Floyd Mayweather.
 

wiffleballhero

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In the simulacrum
On Th. I thought for sure I heard a couple people (Brady and Julian?) say that Friday was the last day of physical activity -- no scheduled practice Sat. So is this not a change at all?
 

singaporesoxfan

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An interesting tidbit. Now let's add up the practising in rain, cancelling walk through, and kicking

https://twitter.com/cpricenfl/status/561350892444995584
 

Laser Show

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I'd love to know why. At the very least the walk through has to be better than hanging out at the hotel all day right?
 

Soxy

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I recall on one of the America's Game films watching the Pats essentially run a walkthrough in the hotel.  Maybe that's the plan.
 

dynomite

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Soxy Brown said:
I recall on one of the America's Game films watching the Pats essentially run a walkthrough in the hotel.  Maybe that's the plan.
Believe this was prior to the '04 AFC CG in Pittsburgh, and they practices the play that led to Branch waiving goodbye to the Steelers defense?
 

Ed Hillel

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Impossible to hold your own and tape the other's at the same time, so it makes sense.
 

Caspir

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Laser Show said:
I'd love to know why. At the very least the walk through has to be better than hanging out at the hotel all day right?
Maybe not. It's been a long year, a mentally draining couple of weeks, and a day to relax before the game seems like a good idea. I doubt they'll just be hanging around. There's meetings, etc to go through. If anything, to me this means they've had a great week of practice and are ready to go.
 

Harry Hooper

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Scheme-wise, Seattle has to be one of the easier teams to prepare for. They don't do much hiding of what they're up to.
 

Oppo

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If not for deflategate, sigh, the team would have called it quits on practice a week ago
 

ShaneTrot

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I was listening to the Grantland football podcast today and they think Seattle is just going to run it on NE and NE will not be able to run much and will not be able to complete enough passes to maintain drives. NE did throw for 388 on Seattle in 2012. They lost that game because Tavon Wilson was burned by Sidney Rice with 1:18 left in the game.
 
Interested on how NE attacks this defense. They are really good and tackle very well.
 

Harry Hooper

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Amendola also has a cold. Mentioned as a note to an interesting article by Schrager on Pats running backs:
 
New England was the only team in the league to boast four backs who carried the ball 60 or more times during the regular season, and on any given weekend, a different one could be "the guy."
 
I've spoken to New England's five healthy tailbacks throughout Super Bowl week, and trust me, they've got about as much of an idea who'll carry the load on Sundays as the frustrated fantasy football owners who spend those early Sunday mornings agonizing over their lineups. They don't overthink it and they genuinely don't care —€” they just know they have to be ready if their number is called, and it's going to be their day carrying the load.
 
 
 
Schrager also discusses a July practice session where Brady, Gronk, and Revis all were on a field by themselves working on patterns together.
 

Turrable

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Seriously, once in a lifetime offer for anyone in NYC to invite a college kid to their super bowl party and let him drink your alcohol, all my friends hate the patriots and I can't suffer that
 

Laser Show

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Turrable said:
Seriously, once in a lifetime offer for anyone in NYC to invite a college kid to their super bowl party and let him drink your alcohol, all my friends hate the patriots and I can't suffer that
The second Giants Super Bowl was during my freshman year of college. Me and my roommate held a small party. Unfortunately I didn't realize that most of our friends were (mostly casual) Giants fans until it was too late. That was.... unpleasant.
 
Don't condemn him to that guys.
 

JohnnyK

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Reiss thinks the Pats will dress 8 OL and that Boyce, Devey, White, Gray, Tyms, Vellano and Moore will be inactive.
 
If they indeed go with 8 OL that looks reasonable; Butler seems like a luxury for defense, but he has more ST value than Tyms. I'd love to have Tyms as an option to stretch the field though.
 
It's far-fetched, but might they sit a core special teamer like White or Fleming and have some of the starters play more ST? Probably not, right?
 

Super Nomario

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JohnnyK said:
It's far-fetched, but might they sit a core special teamer like White or Fleming and have some of the starters play more ST? Probably not, right?
You could do it with someone like Collins (who led the team in ST snaps last year) but then you run the risk of him being gassed late. Special teams (especially the punt / punt return matchup) is one of the few clear edges the Patriots have, so I don't think you want to mess with that.
 

Kevin Youkulele

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JohnnyK said:
Reiss thinks the Pats will dress 8 OL and that Boyce, Devey, White, Gray, Tyms, Vellano and Moore will be inactive.
 
If they indeed go with 8 OL that looks reasonable; Butler seems like a luxury for defense, but he has more ST value than Tyms. I'd love to have Tyms as an option to stretch the field though.
 
It's far-fetched, but might they sit a core special teamer like White or Fleming and have some of the starters play more ST? Probably not, right?
Seems like when they go empty backfield, Vereen temps as a WR. So Tyms seems unlikely to be of much use.
 

Devizier

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Laser Show said:
The second Giants Super Bowl was during my freshman year of college. Me and my roommate held a small party. Unfortunately I didn't realize that most of our friends were (mostly casual) Giants fans until it was too late. That was.... unpleasant.
 
Don't condemn him to that guys.
 
OTOH, I saw the 2002 Superbowl with a bunch of casual Rams fans.
 

JimBoSox9

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Devizier said:
 
OTOH, I saw the 2002 Superbowl with a bunch of casual Rams fans.
 
M-I-Z.  Fixed that redundancy for you.
 
I absolutely 100% refused to do the same.  I don't even want to think about how fucking annoying those two weeks were.  I skipped the various watch parties to watch it in my dorm room with a pothead Broncos fan and a possibly-autistic Bears fan.  I don't remotely regret the decision.  Fuck those bandwagon fucking posers and their fucking backwards Issac fucking Bruce jerseys.