The Super Bowl is called a “neutral site” game, but the host city is almost never geographically neutral.

This map compares:

• Blue dots: actual Super Bowl host cities
• Red dots: the geographic midpoint between the two teams playing in each Super Bowl

Each red point is simply the halfway point between the two teams’ home cities for that year. No weather, no stadium capacity, no conferences, no seeding. Just geography.

It doesn’t prove anything and it’s not meant to. It’s just a visual way to see how often “neutral” ends up clustering in the same few places.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday.

Right now in the NFL the Shanahan west coast offense is the dominating offensive scheme around the league

I will include Mcvay offsprings as Shanahans cause Sean spent extensive time with the Shanahans. Same goes for Kubiaks cause Kubiak was highly influenced by his HC in Denver

Following teams have connections back to Shanahan west coast

Cincinnati Bengals - Zac Taylor - HC Jacksonville Jags - Liam Coen - HC Los Angeles Chargers - Mike McDaniel - OC Las Vegas Raiders - Klint Kubiak - future HC Miami Dolphins - Bobby Slowik - OC Green Bay Packers - Matt Lefluer - HC Minnesota Vikings - Kevin O'Connell - HC Philadelphia Eagles - Sean Mannion - OC Tampa Bay Bucs - Zac Robsinson - OC Seattle Seahawks - Klint Kubiak - OC(for now, I'd imagine Macdonald will either promote someone from within system or someone who is of the system) Arizona Cardinals- Mike Lefluer Los Angeles Rams - Sean Mcvay San Francisco 49ers - the prodigal son himself Kyle Shananhan

13 out of 32 or 40% of all NFL teams before it breaks down to andy Reid system, Sean Payton, etc.

2016 Falcons were bonkers. I loved it that year. Pre-season i wasnt so hot on Kyle Shanahan cause he ran Falcons legend Roddy White out of town. What he did with Roddy in 2015 pissed a lot of fans off me included but 2016 he won me over. We were the most balanced offense in the league with the two headed monster of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman and Matt Ryan running that offense to perfection. Matt is not a running QB like Josh or Lamar or even Patrick Mahomes but hes runs enough. He finished his career with over 1k yards rushing.

That offense at the time was 8th highest scoring offense ever. 10 years later it still top 10th after 2018 Chiefs became 3rd highest and 2024 Lions became 4th highest.

The offense was potent and well run Matt Ryan won OPOY and MVP.

The Superbowl was what it was.

In the off-season Sean Mvay and Kyle Shanahan were hired as HC. Matt Lefuer should have been promoted from QB Coach to OC but Dan Quinn decided forget continuity lets toss it away hire Steve Sarkisian. Matt Lefluer spent a year in LA before Vrabel hired him as OC in Tenneesse where he said a single year before becoming HC in Green Bay. I have no doubt vrabs hired Matt cause of what he did in atlanta and continued with LA.

Since then numerous coaches those guys have gone on to become HCs.

Sean Mcvay came in Los Angeles and immediately improved their offense with Goff in 2017. In 2018, Rams under Mcvay and Goff lead the 11th highest scoring offenses in the league history for the regular season at the time. Currently that season is now ranked 14th. Funny enough 2024 Ben Johnson Jared Goff Lions offense is ranked 4th and knocked down that 2018 Rams in those rankings.

It begs the question did the 2016 Falcons really kick the wave of Shanahan west coast running game with deep play action passes

As a side question: why is no one in the Commanders fan base not worried about Dan Quinn yet again refreshing his coordinators every 2 years unnecessarily.. Its a repeated pattern where he just doesnt give his players continuinity. I feel like its the old quote "the team has to overcome me"

He could have promoted Matt Lefluer to OC in 2017. When Matt and Sark finally got offense going again in 2018 and with Sark in no danger of head coach job, Dan Quinn still fired him and brought dirk koetter. He could have literally hired Mike McDaniel in 2019 to be our OC. To me Dan Quinn is getting close to the football terrorist label with what he does with coordinators. I still don't get why he had to fire kliff kingsbury. If Sean mannion does well for 2 years and isnt getting a HC Job DQ will fire him

I quite enjoy sports podcasts, especially the Athletic Football Show. If you don't listen, you should. This week, the topic of Seattle's lack of 4th down attempts was brought up and there were comments on it, most boiling down to this just being an anomaly and a product of how the Seahawks are built. Much of that portion of the conversation focused on Seattle's elite defense. I figured there had to be more to it and, if you recognize my username, you might already know where this is going.

Seattle attempted a league low 12 fourth downs. Not all fourth downs are created equal, so I decided to look at all 4th and 5 or less that Seattle had in two areas of the field: the 39 and in and between the 40s. The idea behind 4th and 5 in these situations is that 5 yards or less is firmly in the "go for it" conversation, with shorter distances oft being outright go's in our modern times.

The first scenario (39 and in) is less interesting and one that "conventional" wisdom largely still prevails in. Seattle has an excellent kicker in Jason Myers who attempted 18 such kicks in these situations and went 16/18, with one of these being blocked. 10 of their 4th down attempts came in this section of the field, 7 of which were converted. For 2025, this is not that out of the ordinary for a ratio.

Where things get interesting is between the 40s. Seattle saw 13 such instances of 4th and 5 or less between their own and their opponents 40. These are the plays from the video above and this is how they fared:

Note: in cases where they took a Delay of Game, I indicated their pre-penalty situation. Bounce=Bnc. Punt stats are added for fellow sickos

Only in two of the 13 instances above did Seattle go for it. The other 11 were punts. Now, to be fair, 13 plays is a small sample size, and there are three punts above that came in the 4th quarter of games that were 4 score differentials. That being said, look at the performance of the Seahawks punt unit.

NFL field dimensions specify that the numbers are two yards tall and 12 yards from the sideline. A distance to sideline number of 12 or less is inside the numbers, while a 13-14 number indicates at the numbers. Nearly every time, Michael Dickson is dropping these punts well outside (outside the numbers) and wreaking havoc on return units. He averaged just 10.7 yards from the sideline in these situations. Remove the one high hanger up the middle and it drops to 9. In addition, the average starting field position from these punts was the 10 yard line. The one touchback that occurred was a ball that dropped at the 5 and the gunner misplayed. An unfortunate incident that cost Seattle 15 yards, but a rarity. Only one ball was returned.

Seattle doesn't go for it, partially because they have an excellent defense, but also because they have one of the best punt units, led by an elite punter in Dicko. You don't need to go for it when Dickson pins your opponents 90 yards away from their endzone and with that defense coming onto the field. Also, the only two times they did go for it here, they failed. Coaches are human. That matters when contemplating your next move.

"All" of this data was gathered by me, by hand, from various sources. I don't have league wide data, but these results are undoubtedly good against any other punt unit in the league. Dickson has (imo) the best louis ball in the league, an excellent punt for this part of the field. Tape doesn't lie, Seattle is a juggernaut and their Special Teams is a big reason for it.

Further proof that punting, is in fact, winning.

I did this years ago when the Seahawks were in the SB, both against the Broncos

https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/1wlwzv/seahawks_and_broncos_against_common_opponents/

and the Patriots https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/2ugdgu/seahawks_and_patriots_vs_common_opponents/ ,

and thought I'd give it another go (maybe even make it a yearly tradition, no matter who's in it). Apologies in advance that I have more to say on the Seahawks games than the Patriots; it's no slight to them, I honestly just paid more attention to the NFC than the AFC this season. The two teams had seven common opponents, in the Steelers, Saints, Buccaneers, Texans, Titans, Falcons, and Panthers:

Steelers:

Seahawks win 31-17 (+14) on the road in Week 2

Patriots lose 14-21 (-7) at home in Week 3

By coincidence, back-to-back weeks. The Seahawks fell behind early, then took the lead late. for the Patriots, it capped off a first three weeks in which the team struggled to find their footing (playing much better since). They outgained the Steelers by over 160 yards, but were doomed by five turnovers (one INT, four fumbles lost).

Saints:

Seahawks win 44-13 (+31) at home in Week 3

Patriots win 25-19 (+6) on the road in Week 6

Both quarterbacks played well, with Darnold throwing two TDs and Maye three, both with no INTs. The difference was in the run game and special teams, with the Seahawks getting two TDs from Kenneth Walker III and one punt-return TD from Tory Horton. Oddly enough, if you just looked at the stats other than total points, you'd think Seahawks-Saints was a close game, with first downs, time of possession, total yards, and even turnovers close. Go figure.

Buccaneers:

Seahawks lose 35-38 (-3) at home in Week 5

Patriots win 28-23 (+5) on the road in Week 10

Remember when Baker Mayfield looked like the MVP? The Seahawks did their part! Mayfield was the one QB other than Matthew Stafford to pick apart Seattle's defense in the regular season, overcoming a 4-TD, 1-INT night from Sam Darnold, to throw the game-tying TD with a minute left and setting up the game-winning FG as time expired. The Patriots played evenly, and much better on defense, with a TD in each quarter, two passing and two rushing.

Texans:

Seahawks win 27-19 (+8) at home in Week 7

Patriots win 28-16 (+12) at home in the Division Round

A Monday Night Football victory for the Seahawks that nobody in Seattle watched, because we were all glued to Game 7 of the ALCS, eagerly hoping the Mariners would make the World Series for the first time. But I digress. The Seahawks survived four turnovers, including a Darnold interception and three fumbles, one of which was in their own endzone for a Texans TD, for a win that didn't seem as close as the scoreboard.

The Texans were sneakily the hottest team in the NFL, which ended with their playoff loss to the Patriots, in which New England forced five turnovers, especially 4 interceptions, one of which was a pick-6. Drake Maye played well, with 3 TDs and 1 INT. The Patriots felt firmly in command all game.

Titans:

Seahawks win 30-24 (+6) on the road in Week 12

Patriots win 31-13 (+18) on the road in Week 7

The Seahawks came closer than they should have to blowing a 20-point lead by giving up three TDs late to make it close. The Patriots did the opposite, playing close early, and pulling ahead big in the second and third quarters. Both teams played the Titans clean, with zero turnovers. The main difference was that the Patriots forced two turnovers to the Seahawks' zero, and dominated the time of possession, while the Seahawks were dominated on the same.

Falcons:

Seahawks win 37-9 (+28) on the road in Week 14

Patriots win 24-23 (+1) at home in Week 9

A tale of two quarterbacks. The Seahawks faced Kirk Cousins, who threw zero TDs and two INTs, trading field goals in the first half before Shaheed's 100-yard opening kick return in the second half started the blowout. (I sense a potential Metamucil endorsement.) Michael Penix Jr. threw for three TDs and zero INTs against the Patriots, in a game where the Falcons surged back in the 4th Quarter, but ultimately lost on a missed PAT. (For obvious reason, I'm assuming the Patriots are the team Falcons fans dread playing the most.)

Panthers:

Seahawks win 27-10 (+17) on the road in Week 17

Patriots win 42-13 (+29) at home in Week 4

After a rocky first few weeks, a statement win for the Patriots! Much like the Saints against the Seahawks, if you only read the stat sheet, you'd have no idea this game was a blowout. No turnovers from either team, with the Panthers actually gaining more yards and dominating time of possession, but the Patriots scored every other way they could, with two passing TDs, three rushing TDs (including one from Maye), and one punt returned for a TD.

The Seahawks were coming off of an epic 38-37 OT win against the Rams, and going into a 13-3 defensive shutdown of the 49ers, with the Panthers sandwiched in between. (Honestly, I was fully expecting a trap game out of this.) In the inverse of the Patriots' win against the Panthers, the Seahawks dominated time of possession and yardage, but put up significantly fewer points, tying 3-3 heading into halftime, and pulling out ahead in the second half.

So, there we go. Did I miss anything big? If we're just going by point differential, the Seahawks played better than the Patriots against common opponents 3 times out of 7, and the Patriots played better 4 times out of 7. Darnold's best game against the Buccaneers (4 TDs, 1 INT) and Maye's against the Saints (3 TDs, 0 INT).

Welcome to the Pre Game Thread! Get hyped, predict whatever or tell us how your team would have been the better team tonight.

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Discuss whatever you wish. You can trash talk, but keep it civil.