What You Need to Know About Super Bowl XLIX

Editor’s Note: Information in this article was provided by Patriots Media Relations.

Months of training, a grueling regular season, and testing postseason has come down to one game for the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.

The New England Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl for the eighth time in franchise history, tying Dallas and Pittsburgh for the most Super Bowl berths. The Patriots reached their seventh Super Bowl under the ownership of Robert Kraft, setting a new NFL record for most conference championships as an owner.

Head coach Bill Belichick won his sixth conference title as a head coach, tying Miami’s Don Shula for the most by any coach in NFL history. Tom Brady won his sixth conference championship, passing John Elway (5) for the most conference titles by a starting quarterback.

The Patriots will seek their fourth Super Bowl title when they face off against the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.

Super Bowl XLIX will feature the top two seeded teams for the fifth time since the current playoff format was instituted in 1990 and for the 11th time since playoff seeding was introduced in 1975. It is the second consecutive season that the top two seeds will meet in the Super Bowl and the second time in NFL history that the Super Bowl will feature the top two seeds in back to back seasons. The top two seeds from each conference also met in Super Bowls XXVIII and XIX

To help you get ready for the Super Bowl, here is what you need to know:

Kickoff Time

After hours of pregame coverage and anticipation, Super Bowl XLIX is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.

Broadcast Information

TELEVISION: Super Bowl XLIX will be broadcast by NBC and can be seen locally on WHDH-TV Channel 7 in Boston. Al Michaels will handle play-by-play duties with Cris Collinsworth as the color analyst. Michele Tafoya will work from the sidelines. The game will be produced by Fred Gaudelli and directed by Drew Esocoff.

NATIONAL RADIO: This week’s game will be broadcast to a national audience by Westwood One. Kevin Harlan and Boomer Esiason will call the game with James Lofton providing sideline analysis for the NFC and Mark Malone providing sideline analysis on the AFC team. Local fans looking for the national broadcast can tune to 93.7 FM WEEI.

LOCAL RADIO: 98.5 FM, The Sports Hub, is the flagship station for the Patriots Radio Network. Play-by-play broadcaster Bob Socci will call the action along with former Patriots quarterback Scott Zolak, who will provide color analysis.

Series History

The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks will meet for the 17th time. The teams’ last meeting was on Oct. 14, 2012, at CenturyLink Field with the Seahawks claiming a 24-23 victory to end a two-game New England winning streak.

The Patriots and Seahawks played 12 times in a 14-year span from 1980-93, but have played only three times since then (2004, 2008 and 2012). The 2008 victory pushed the Patriots in front, 8-7, in the all-time series.

Seattle evened the series at 8-8 with their victory in 2012. The Patriots have had the upper hand in road games against the Seahawks as they own a 4-3 record in games played in Seattle. The Patriots were 3-2 at the Kingdome (1976-1993) and are 1-1 at CenturyLink Field (formerly Qwest Field).

New England won six of the first eight games in the series, which began in 1977.

Quick Hits

• The Patriots and Seahawks played 12 times in a 14-year span from 1980- 93, but have played only three times since then (2004, 2008 and 2012).
• The Seahawks are the only non-divisional team that the Patriots have played twice in the regular-season in the same year. That scheduling oddity took place during the 1993 season, the only year in which the league’s 16-game schedule was played over an 18-week span and each team was allotted two bye weeks.

The Patch Perspective

What do the Patriots need to do to earn a trip on the duckboats? Patch blogger and PatsOnTap.com founder Frank Sturm breaks down the matchup.

Patriots on Defense

Shut Down Marshawn Lynch: A lot of responsibility will fall on defensive lineman Rob Ninkovich, Chandler Jones and either safeties Tavon Wilson or Patrick Chung (when the Patriots play nickel or load the box) to contain Lynch. Surprisingly enough, Lynch has done a tremendous amount of damage outside of the tackles. According to Pro Football Focus, Lynch has broken 40 tackles on outside runs and holds a 3.4 yards per carry after contact. The Patriots are one of the best defenses in setting the edge; however, they have one glaring weakness: Rob Ninkovich. Ninkovich shined last week in pressuring Andrew Luck, but he was rarely called upon to set the edge against the run because the Colts lacked a true running game. When asked to set the edge this year, Ninkovich has missed 10 tackles, which is tied for most in the league among 3-4 outside linebackers.

Contain Russell Wilson: Belichick even said it himself: Wilson isn’t a quarterback when he’s running. He’s a running back with the speed of a wide receiver. Wilson was the NFL’s most dangerous running quarterback this season, rushing for 849 yards total and six touchdowns. On the flip side, the Patriots have historically been great at containing running quarterbacks, and this season is more of the same.

Two weeks ago, the Patriots faced Andrew Luck, who can’t run like Wilson, but can still present similar challenges to a defense when he rolls out of the pocket. The Patriots mixed their rushes and coverage’s to confuse Luck and had tremendous success. They often hid their pass rushers, forcing the Colts to identify blitzes after the ball was snapped. Many times, New England blitzed only three to four pass rushers, but to the Colts, it appeared as if the Patriots were sending five or six. Often Jamie Collins or Donte Hightower would crouch to the line of scrimmage, fake rushing the passer and then drop back to spy Andrew Luck. If Luck tried to run outside of the pocket, Collins or Hightower would pursue.

Expect the Patriots to approach Wilson in a similar way. They pressured Luck 18 times (13 hurries and five hits) on 37 drop backs. Luck ran only four times for 18 yards. Back in 2012, the Patriots also held Wilson to only 17 yards on five carries.

Defend The deep pass: Wilson is going to test the Patriots deep. Most quarterbacks this season have, which seems strange giving New England’s disciplined secondary. In fact, opposing quarterbacks have thrown deep on the Patriots 100 times this season, which is the most in the league. New England has responded favorably, surrendering only 33 completions and rank in the top 10 in yards allowed per attempt down field.

Wilson doesn’t have a T.Y. Hilton to throw too. He also doesn’t have someone like the Packers’ Randall Cobb or Jordy Nelson, all receivers the Patriots matched up against this season. However, Wilson does have one of the more underrated downfield receiving corps in the NFL. According to Pro Football Focus, the Seahawks lead the league in yards per attempt on deep throws, and we saw in last week’s NFC Championship game, Wilson isn’t afraid to throw into a tight window. His receivers can make the big play. This is a underrated matchup between one top unit and one under-the-radar top unit.

Patriots on Offense

Torch the Legion of Boom: The Patriots are going to pass and pass and pass...and then probably pass some more. Sound surprising? If we travel back to 2012, you’ll see why this approach isn’t shocking. When the two teams met that season, Brady walloped the young Legion of Boom by completing 36 of 58 passes for 395 yards and two touchdowns. Seattle’s defensive line isn’t as intimidating as it was then, so the Patriots may balance out their attack, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Patriots run/pass ratio sits around 60/40.

Seattle’s defense doesn’t really disguise their defensive looks. This season, they’ve played with a single-high safety (Kam Chancellor) on 84 percent of their defensive snaps and made it blatantly obvious that he was the high safety. On the flip side, the Patriots have torched secondaries that use a single-high safety look, opting to pass the ball 57 percent of the time and gaining 7.7 yards per attempt. According to Pro Football Focus, Brady has also tossed 20 touchdowns to two interceptions while throwing against a single-high safety. Expect Brandon Lafell and Rob Gronkowski to be the beneficiary of this offensive attack.

Protect Brady: Seattle only racked up 36 sacks this season. If an offensive line, which should get starting center Bryan Stork back, can hold up, Brady could light up Seattle’s secondary once again. However, Brady has an unusual problem against an effective four-man pass rush. The Giants had one in both of their Super Bowl wins over the Patriots and the Jets and Ravens have both beat the Patriots in playoff games with four-man rushes. If Seattle’s Michael Bennett can pressure Brady, Seattle can drop more guys into coverage, and watch Brady’s numbers plummet.

Against an effective four-man pass rush, Brady’s completion percentage hovers around 50 percent. Against five or more pass rushers, Brady’s completion percentage spikes to around 75 to 80 percent.

Red zone offense: Take advantage of red-zone opportunities. In their 2012 matchup, Brady threw two second-half interceptions to Sherman and Thomas in the red zone. One interception actually happened in the endzone. In that game, New England had one touchdown in its six redzone trips.

This season, the Patriots ranked first in the league in team red zone touchdowns per game and fifth in red zone touchdown scoring percentage. On the other hand, Seattle was just as good on defense, ranking fifth in team red zone touchdowns per game and second in team opponent red zone scoring attempts per game. In other words, Seattle doesn’t let you get into the redzone and when the Patriots do enter the redzone they typically score touchdowns. One team has to break.