Few teams play situational football better than the Patriots and Seahawks. It starts with how both teams practice.
PHOENIX - The term "situational football" has been floated all season by the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Both talk big about it. Both are here in Super Bowl 49, in part, because both teams are best in the league at it.
On offense, on defense and on special teams, football is myriad of specific and detailed situations.
Situational football is players knowing what to do and executing in the red zone, the two-minute drill, goal line play, short-yardage, backed up near their own goal line, or when there is a sudden change of possession - and so much more.
"There are thousands of different situations that can occur within a game with different variations in those situations," Patriots safety Duron Harmon said. "It's all about recognition and awareness."
Patriots safety Patrick Chung explained: "When opportunity comes, it is too late to prepare. Preparation makes you ready for opportunity."
Dissecting games into specific situations is an art built in emphasis and in teaching. The head coaches of these Super Bowl teams - New England's Bill Belichick and Seattle's Pete Carroll - have made this method a cornerstone of how their coaches coach and how their players practice.
They do not simply run plays in practices.
They focus on situations.
"It's the difference in the game," Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson said. "It's the difference in winning and losing. It's what helps define your team. Knowing exactly what the situation is and what to do in that situation in a football game is how you build consistency. Coach Carroll preaches it from day 1."
Nobody hammers it home more than Belichick.
"Coach Belichick is very detailed in situational football," Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis said. "He gets us to understand each situation. He talks about it all of the time. You can't play this game at a high level unless you have a clear education of what to do in particular game situations. I have played for four NFL head coaches, including Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan and Greg Schiano, before coming here. Coach Belichick is the best I have ever had at coaching situational football."
(Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Seattle practices usually last an hour and a half. They call Wednesday's their "competition" day. Offensively on Wednesdays, they focus on first- and second-down situations. On Thursdays, they review and practice third-down offense. Fridays are reserved more for the passing game emphasis.
"The worst thing you can hear from a player during a game is, `I wasn't expecting that to happen,' or `I was not prepared for that,"' Seahawks quarterbacks coach Carl Smith said. "I spend time with Russell before practice, during practice and sometimes late into the night after practice. We talk all of the time about all kinds of situations. Coach Carroll has a plan that he has implemented starting way back in mini-camps and training camp. Every day is accounted for and every practice is focused on situational football."
It is one thing to have a plan, Seahawks linebacker Ken Norton said. It is another to have the players to execute it.
"You have to understand the situation in order to win the moment," Norton said. "The game has become so detailed now with designated pass rushers and designated run stoppers and the like. We run 10 scripted plays of first-and-10 for our defense. Then the same for third-down defense. Third-and-2 is different from third-and-10. You account for that. How much time you spend on a situation depends sometimes on what your stats say. If you look at the stats and you are weakest in them, say, in red zone defense, you spend more time on that situation in practice. So, the stats can kind of help provide a pecking order.
"Teams have to be smart. Players have to know situations more than ever in the game today. But you have to have good players beyond just the situational knowledge. And as much as that, you have to have hard-working players who are interested in the details of the game and motivated to be great in that."
Both the Seahawks and the Patriots have excelled at building rosters from top to bottom full of such players.
The Patriots' practices usually last two hours. They arrive early for practice and stay late.
"I was with the Miami Dolphins and the Baltimore Ravens before coming here," Patriots running back Jonas Gray said. "We didn't practice situational football there like we do here. We talk about the importance of situational football pre practice and post practice. We practice with wet balls. Balls that have grease on them. We have drills where a partner is constantly trying to strip you of the ball to try to re-create those situations that happen in games. It's that kind of detail that makes a difference in close games."
The Patriots examine first-down offense on Wednesdays. Third-down offense on Thursdays. Red zone offense on Fridays.
"It's focused and it's deep," Patriots receiver Brian Tyms said. "It is so game-like that the actual games are very natural. It is very hard to get 53 guys to understand the same thing and work in concert with each other. But the coaches do it here with the detail. We don't move off something until we have it right. But at any time in practice, coach Belichick might call for a sudden change. A turnover where the offense or the defense has to respond to a sudden change. And that is how things like that also happen in a game."
Last season's Super Bowl MVP, Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith, expects an extreme chess match in all situations with the Patriots in this Super Bowl.
"We're different but we're similar in how we prepare in detail and how we make the game just a bunch of critical situations," Smith said. "In a game like this, anything that helps a player understand how to make the right play in those times is really welcomed."
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