Ross Tucker played as a centre of the New England Patriots during his seven-year NFL career and was a teammate of Tom Brady. The current expert explained to DAZN in various media what the keys to the Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles at Super Bowl LII will be and what impressions he was able to collect from Bill Belichick and Brady. The game will be available live on Sunday from 11.45 pm on DAZN – either with German or US original commentary!
“The guy is a total psycho,”says Tucker about his former teammate Brady,”and I mean that in the best sense of the word,” Tucker talked to DAZN during the Super Bowl III activities in Minnesota and explained:”He lives every aspect of his life with an incredible intensity. When I played with him as a center, it was almost intimidating when he spoke to me. He demanded nothing less than perfect snaps.”
He doesn’t think about the end of his career with Brady:”He’s the MVP of the league and as long as he doesn’t hurt himself, I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t keep playing for two or three years.”
And Tucker continues:”I entered the league one year after him and stopped seven years later. That was ten years ago and Brady still plays and is still the best. It was truly a great honor to play with him.”
In 2005, Tucker joined the Patriots and was surprised by his first impressions:”New England is a very difficult place for players. Many people don’t know that. There is a negative mood,”Tucker says.
He was really looking forward to joining the team, which “wins the Super Bowl every year” and changed to the coach, from whom he quickly learned that he didn’t forgive any mistakes “. You don’t want to be there!”
At the Super Bowl on Sunday, Tucker believes that challengers Philadelphia can win the Super Bowl, but “the Eagles must dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball” and “protect Nick Foles, because he’s not good at improvising”.
Furthermore, Philadelphia would do well to step on the gas pedal right from the start and “work out the best possible lead up to the fourth quarter”.
The Eagles defensive advises Tucker to give priority to Rob Gronkowski,”He must not be the one to beat you. I’m sure he’ll get his touches, but there’s no way it’s going to happen what happened at the end of the Steelers game when Gronkowski captured three or four passes and marched down the entire field.”
The burden of defending the tight end shouldn’t be on the shoulders of a single person,”Tucker says,” I think they’re putting Malcom Jenkins against him. They just need to prepare a little bit more, because in the one-on-one defense, Jenkins will have big problems against what I think is the best tight end of all time like everyone else.”
The patriots, on the other hand, will have a better end if they “bet on the matchups with Gronkowski and the running backs in the backfield”. He believes defensively, however, that his former coach Belichik is well-prepared:”Ertz won’t be able to catch a lot of passes at Third Down – and the Pats won’t be beaten by RPO-Plays either.”
Tucker doesn’t have a hard time predicting the final, even if he believes in a tight game:”No team will leave and in the end it’s all about a field goal. And then Belichick and Brady will make the right decisions. We have not yet seen Foles in such situations. but I don’t think that’s gonna happen: New England 23, Philadelphia 20!”