Brady, Branch Ready To Hear The Noise In Seattle
BOSTON (CBS) - Seattle's CenturyLink Field is famous for being one of the loudest in the NFL.
This week, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will finally get to hear what all the hype is about for the first time in his career.
"I think anytime you go on the road, you expect it to be loud," Brady said on Wednesday. "I think what makes it loud is that they're very good. So, when they make plays, the crowd is into it and they get a lot of support. They've certainly been making a lot of them at home. They beat two very good teams at home, Dallas and Green Bay. It's going to be a big challenge for us and I'm excited to go out there and see what we can do."
While Brady has never been to CenturyLink Field, one Patriot is very familiar with the loud crowd they'll be contending with -- in addition to the Seahawks vaunted defense -- on Sunday.
"It's by far the loudest stadium, and it can get louder if things go bad for us on the offensive side of the ball," said Deion Branch, who spent four-plus seasons in Seattle after being traded there by the Patriots in 2006. "The biggest thing for us is to go in and stay focused, try to stay on track... I think overall, we just have to go out and do our job and we can silence them a little bit. Just a little."
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The Pats know they can silence the crowd by finding the end zone early and often.
"There's nothing better than being on the road, like in Buffalo a few weeks ago, there were more of our fans there at the end than their fans," Brady said of turning the crowd. "We've done that in Pittsburgh, we've done that in some very loud environments."
"It's always nice when you take 53 guys on the road and you say, 'This is all we've got and this is all we need and this is what we have to do.' And see 70,000 fans, if you can keep them quiet or turn them on their own team," added Brady. "I think that's an exciting part for road teams, is to see if you can get them booing their own players."
"It's always a good feeling," Branch said of quieting the opponents fans. "I love playing on the road; I love playing at home as well, but you get to see what kind of team you have playing in these games."
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The Patriots will have the music blaring during practice at Gillette this week, most likely Bon Jovi if Bill Belichick picks the playlist, but Brady doesn't think the raucous crowd will have too much of an effect on their fast-paced no-huddle offense.
"I think there are times where we use a lot of words to communicate and there are times when we don't. I think no matter what we do, we have to go out and execute," he said. "I think good offensive football is about execution. It's not about how fast you play or how slow you play; it's about how well you do your job and how well you execute the play that's being called."
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"When you go on the road against a good team, you can't have mental errors, you can't have opportunities that we have and then not take advantage of them. I think this team really doesn't give you a lot of opportunities, so when you get them, you better take advantage of them," added Brady.
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