By Tom E. Curran
FOXBORO - Tom Brady likes a good road trip.
Believe it or not, the Patriots quarterback has throws more touchdown passes (166-142) on the road than at home, thrown for more yards (21,541 to 19,888), completes passes at a higher rate (64.1 to 63.8) and had a higher yards per attempt (7.72).
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His road record? Absurd. 57-26. Of course, his home record is even more ridiculous - 70-13 - but the point is that, a weekend away from Foxboro is not daunting to Brady.
"(Quieting a crowd is) the fun part about being on the road," Brady said Wednesday. "Theres nothing better than being on the road, like in Buffalo a few weeks ago and there were more of our fans there at the end than their fans. We've done that in Pittsburgh, we've done that in some very loud environments."
Sunday presents Brady's first opportunity to give a warm helping of shut up to the NFL fans in the Pacific Northwest. When the Patriots played at Qwest Field in 2008, Brady's ACL was still torn. But Brady's been given advance scouting about the noise level in Seattle.
"This place will be really loud," Brady predicted. "Deion Branch, who played four seasons in Seattle) said in opening warm-ups, just the way the stadium is built, it feels like theres a lot of energy and a lot of sound. Its going to be fun. It will be fun for us players. ... They have a lot of very talented players and its a challenging place to play. They play well at home.
Having played in the raucous stadiums of the Big Ten while at Michigan, Brady came to the NFL with experience playing in front of - and quieting - big crowds. It speaks to his level of competitiveness that he enjoys the "us against the city" mentality that comes with playing in enemy territory. "
"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. I think thats an exciting part for road teams, is to see if you can get them booing their own players."
The Seahawks are 2-0 at home this season and 5-2 in their last seven at QwestCentury Link (its current name). They've allowed just 31 points so far this season. But if Brady and the Patriots can get things going this weekend, the boos may flow.