How the Patriots Receiving Corps Should Attack the Seahawks Secondary

Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks has the potential to be a battle of strength vs. strength, as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game will clash with one of the best defenses in the league today.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has mastered the art of taking advantage of his most favorable matchups throughout his 15-year career, and he will need to do so once again on Sunday if the Patriots are to walk out of Glendale, Arizona, with his fourth Super Bowl trophy.

But where will those matchups be?

Against the Seahawks' Legion of Boom secondary it may be harder to find those favorable matchups since the Seahawks are so talented and deep at cornerback and safety. From cornerbacks Richard Sherman and Byron Maxwell to safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, Brady's job will not be easy.

But fortunately for Brady, Sherman isn't hard to find. He is always located on the offense's right, regardless of which receiver lines up out there. The fact that he plays a side will give the Patriots an opportunity to put their best matchups away from him on the left side of the field—and coincidentally, Brady is better at throwing to his left than to his right anyway.

According to stats website Pro Football Focus, Brady completed 64.8 percent of his throws to his left and 56.9 percent to his right in the 2014 season.

Thus, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Patriots put a receiver on the right simply as a decoy to keep Sherman occupied, while getting their more favorable matchups with their better receiving options on the other side. If that's the case, look for Danny Amendola to spend a lot of his time on the right while receivers Brandon LaFell and Julian Edelman spend their time on the left.

That plays into a pretty frequently-used concept in the Patriots offense, where the Patriots run a play-action fake and then throw to LaFell on a crossing pattern from the backside (left) of the play.

That being said, the Patriots would be foolish to not test Sherman and his injured elbow, even if he could "slap his brother" if he needed to. Look for the Patriots to try a couple of screen passes in Sherman's direction to start the game, just to test out Sherman's elbow and see whether he can still use that arm effectively to tackle an oncoming Patriots receiver in the open field.

Brady knows where Sherman is going to be, so at that point, it's just a matter of deciding when and how to attack that side of the field. Along those lines, the overall predictability of the Seahawks defense also works in Brady's favor.

Yes, the Seahawks are supremely talented, but they typically stay in the same defensive look for most of the game and do not come out of it very often.

Credit: Matt Bowen, Bleacher Report (via NFL Game Rewind)

That look, more often than not, is a Cover 3 look with various disguises. Bleacher Report's Matt Bowen explained the ins and outs of the Seahawks' Cover 3 better than any human could ever hope to explain it, but it boils down to this:

"

Cover 3 is a three-deep, four-under zone defense run out of both base and sub-package personnel at the NFL level. ... In the standard three-deep zone shell (rush four, drop seven), both cornerbacks drop to the outside third with the free safety playing the deep middle of the field (or middle third). Underneath, the strong safety and open-side linebacker (or nickel) play the curl-flat drops with two linebackers sinking to the middle hook drops inside.

"

Every defensive look has its weaknesses, and in Cover 3, the weakness is underneath. There will be two players covering the flats and two players covering the middle. Completing short passes underneath will allow the Patriots to gain yards while forcing the Seahawks to swarm to the ball and make the tackle after the fact.

For this reason, look for a big game out of Edelman. The Patriots like to send him on crossing patterns and on stick routes that cut over the middle and stop in front of the coverage. Edelman has become very adept at running these routes and settling into the soft spots in the coverage to allow himself to make the catch.

While there could be opportunities underneath, that cushion is small and the Seahawks defense is adept at closing those gaps in a hurry.

Player	Kam Chancellor	Rob Gronkowski
Height	6'3"	6'6"
Weight	231 lbs.	265 lbs.
Arm length	33"	34.25"
Hand size	9.5"	10.75"

The Seahawks defense is talented at what they do, but if there's one person who can wreck the game plan and force the Seahawks to change their ways, it's tight end Rob Gronkowski.

At the same time, if you could draw up a defender to match up with Gronkowski one-on-one, it would probably look a lot like safety Kam Chancellor, the 6'3", 231-pound heavy-hitter who can match Gronkowski's combination of size, speed and strength.

If the Seahawks match Chancellor up with Gronkowski one-on-one, Brady would be foolish to not at least try to take advantage by getting the ball to the Patriots' best playmaker. The Seahawks could opt to pseudo-double team Gronkowski by having a linebacker chip him off the line of scrimmage, then having Chancellor follow him in coverage. Or they could give him a straight double-team with bracket coverage—one player with deep responsibility, one player with short responsibility and one player shadowing.

Any amount of coverage funnelled toward Gronkowski means coverage going away from the likes of LaFell and Edelman.

As running back LeGarrette Blount said, the Seahawks defense is "not immortal." That being said, it's up to the Patriots to find their Achilles' heel and hit it time after time on their way to a triumph in the Super Bowl.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained via team news release.

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