A very brief thought

The Seahawks are clearly the more talented team.

What happened yesterday was that you guys were outcoached and outschemed by belichick, and even then he shouldn't have won.

Thanks for telling us what we already know.

yep even as injury depleted as we were...the game was ours..Seahawks lost the game...

The crazy thing is that this felt eerily like the end of the 49ers/Ravens Super Bowl.

The 49ers were clearly the more talented team that year and all they had to do to win was give the ball to Frank Gore at the end. Instead they threw low percentage passes.

With how much the 49ers were reamed for that playcalling, you would think every OC in the NFL would have learned. Guess Bevell wasn't watching that game.

The only scheming aspect I hated was not having Sherm follow Edelman. Or even Maxwell. Simon very clearly could not keep up with him, especially on the quick hitters, and we continued to let the Pats exploit it.

I also started screaming at the TV the second KJ lined up across from Gronk split out wide in single coverage.

HawkFan72":14c3ievp said:

The crazy thing is that this felt eerily like the end of the 49ers/Ravens Super Bowl.

The 49ers were clearly the more talented team that year and all they had to do to win was give the ball to Frank Gore at the end. Instead they threw low percentage passes.

With how much the 49ers were reamed for that playcalling, you would think every OC in the NFL would have learned. Guess Bevell wasn't watching that game.

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Yes, very similar. Run Gore 3-4 times if we have to and we likely win. Now you know how we felt and still kind of feel.

At least you guys won a superbowl during your window, and your window hasn't shut yet.

Our window might've completely shut, we won't know for sure till next year.

mistaowen":2h7yow92 said:

The only scheming aspect I hated was not having Sherm follow Edelman. Or even Maxwell. Simon very clearly could not keep up with him, especially on the quick hitters, and we continued to let the Pats exploit it.

I also started screaming at the TV the second KJ lined up across from Gronk split out wide in single coverage.

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Seemed like Belichick's plan was to spread you guys out, man to man matchups, run subtle route intersections and pick on your weakest cover guy. It worked well. 14 points in the 4th QTR. Those short routes are cheap but work.

RationalNiner":2elakm3m said:

mistaowen":2elakm3m said:

The only scheming aspect I hated was not having Sherm follow Edelman. Or even Maxwell. Simon very clearly could not keep up with him, especially on the quick hitters, and we continued to let the Pats exploit it.

I also started screaming at the TV the second KJ lined up across from Gronk split out wide in single coverage.

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Seemed like Belichick's plan was to spread you guys out, man to man matchups, run subtle route intersections and pick on your weakest cover guy. It worked well. 14 points in the 4th QTR. Those short routes are cheap but work.

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It definitely worked. Brady averaged under 6 YPA I believe but still put up over 300. Simon just could not keep up to anything but the deep routes and for whatever reason RB's coming out of the backfield for 4-5 yard catches worked consistently. That was their running game. The only deep ball that worked was Gronk in single coverage which like I said, was infuriating to see coming before they even snapped the ball.

RationalNiner":1va4oe3n said:

mistaowen":1va4oe3n said:

The only scheming aspect I hated was not having Sherm follow Edelman. Or even Maxwell. Simon very clearly could not keep up with him, especially on the quick hitters, and we continued to let the Pats exploit it.

I also started screaming at the TV the second KJ lined up across from Gronk split out wide in single coverage.

Click to expand...

Seemed like Belichick's plan was to spread you guys out, man to man matchups, run subtle route intersections and pick on your weakest cover guy. It worked well. 14 points in the 4th QTR. Those short routes are cheap but work.

Click to expand...

I think if more teams employed that strategy it would have been a lot harder. Don't go long on the Seahawks, go short and have patience.

Agreed OP

RationalNiner":2mikvw4q said:

The Seahawks are clearly the more talented team.

What happened yesterday was that you guys were outcoached and outschemed by belichick, and even then he shouldn't have won.

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An accurate account and that is why they play the game. Belicheat didn't have to scheme too much on offense once Lane and Avril went out, that was easy. In the end the Hawks outschemed themselves.

Honestly, I am still trying to take in last year's SB. This one came so quickly that I didn't get to enjoy it as much. It seemed like a very short season to me. I am over it and consider them even returning to put the game in their hands a bonus. Winning it would have been even more unreal. That's just me.

Not sure I agree with that Belichick out-schemed Seattle. Both teams exploited weaknesses. Belichick attacked Seattle's vulnerability in defending short passes and then Tharold Simon. They did a good job of shutting down RO and Lynch's cutback lanes.

Carroll did a great job of exploiting New England's vulnerability in defending explosive passes and created a mismatch out-of-nowhere with Chris Matthews. Despite the last play, Seattle did commit to the run and had success. They made Blount invisible and did a reasonable job of containing Gronk.

New England guessed right on the last play, Seattle guessed wrong. That's about it. By talent, not sure either team had a distinct advantage. If you factor in the fact that Sherman, Thomas, and Chancellor played with significant injuries and we lost Lane and Avril, I'm not convinced Seattle had more talent out there than New England. If healthy, Seattle definitely wins the talent battle, but that wasn't the case.

We weren't the better team that day.

The team as a whole looked spent. Then again that was a ringer of a last 8 to 9 weeks they were put through, maybe the mojo was up in those last 15 minutes.

RationalNiner":28npiszh said:

The Seahawks are clearly the more talented team.

What happened yesterday was that you guys were outcoached and outschemed by belichick, and even then he shouldn't have won.

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The Hawks do have the most talent in the NFL, when healthy.

So I disagree, the Pats were BY FAR the healthier of the two teams, and therefore the talent gap was even at best, and as the game went on the losses of Lane and Avril turned the talent tide decidedly in the Patriot's favor.

As far as outschemed and outcoached? How could Pete have been outschemed if he knew what was coming?

So the proper term would be to say we were out-executed. We knew exactly what the Pats would do on both sides of the ball, and didn't execute to stop it. Big difference.