If you haven’t watched the Do Your Job documentary from NFL Films above, stop reading this blog and get on it right now. This, along with Bill Belichick’s A Football Life, are the two most critical must-watch pieces about the dynasty Patriots. Nowhere else will you find the kind of look behind the curtain that these two shows provide.
One of my favorite parts (and no, it’s definitely not the Deflategate act) was where the Patriots coaches talked about their keys to the game going into Super Bowl 49. It’s worth a quick look back since this Seahawks team is very much like the one they saw in Arizona and the keys are likely to be very similar.
If you want to hop to the part where they talk about these keys, fast forward to 22:30.
Defensively, there was only one thing mentioned:
Keep Wilson in the Pocket. Make him throw from “the well”. Don’t reverse field, change direction, and don’t go past quarterback. Use a controlled rush, not timid or slow, but understand that at some point it turns into a run.
Wilson has been limited due to injuries lately so his effectiveness running is less than it was back in February of 2015, and while he’s shown improvement in the pocket since then, the Patriots are likely happy to take their chances forcing Wilson to beat them with his arm. Wilson has only 54 yards on 28 carries through eight games. In 2014 he had 849 yards rushing. He also has the lowest passer rating of his career this season (81.4).
Of course, Jimmy Graham, who’s been on fire, is certainly a new problem that will have to be dealt with.
Offensively, the Patriots mentioned three keys:
1. Block Michael Bennett
Bennett won’t be playing, so that’s a major blow, especially when Brady considers him to be the best defender in the NFL.
“If he’s not the best defensive player in the league, I don’t know who is,” Brady said, per FieldGulls.com. “He’s right up there at the top, so they’ve got good genes in that family, I know that.”
Still, Cliff Avril (nine sacks) and Frank Clark (6.5 sacks) aren’t pushovers, and will require plenty of attention even in the absence of Bennett.
2. Don’t run vertical routes, run horizontal, force their defense to defend quickness.
We all know how important Julian Edelman was in crunch time in Super Bowl 49, and he did most of his damage in the middle of the field, taking big hits but still making big plays. The interesting twist now is the difference between Chris Hogan and Brandon LaFell. Hogan’s demonstrated a better downfield receiving presence than LaFell did, so you wonder how that might alter the gameplan a bit. Still, the Seahawks love their Cover-3 Zone defense, and that should mean plenty of Edelman and Danny Amendola on the quick-open routes across the middle.
3. Recognize the difference between man and zone.
The big example of this was the touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski near the end of the first half of the Super Bowl. It’s explained in detail in the video and since I’m sure the Seahawks saw this too, they could perhaps stay away from those man coverages. There is no easy option to stop Brady, but the best place to start is usually dropping seven in zone coverage and getting pressure with four. Getting that pressure isn’t always easy though. This will be one of the most interesting chess matches within the game.
[…] Here’s my gameplan, with some help from Bill Belichick’s Super Bowl 49 gameplan. […]