Seahawks' Super Bowl dominance proves defense can play a lead role in a box office hit
· Yahoo Sports
Seattle walked into Levi’s Stadium and thoroughly lived up to the expectation that they set for themselves throughout the regular season. There are rarely NFL games that feel over when neither offense can get into the end zone, but as the Seahawks’ offense continued to chip in field goals and slowly build a lead in Super Bowl LX on Sunday, the game quickly fell into doubt for New England.
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Head coach Mike Macdonald’s defense put an emphatic stamp on a dominant season and firmly established themselves as one of the best units in the 21st century. As they repeatedly smothered QB Drake Maye and the Patriots offense, they showed us something that’s often forgotten in the offense-forward nature of football consumption: defense can be box office too.
It was immediately clear who the bully on the block was in this game. Seattle allowed just 39 yards of offense on 13 plays over the Patriots’ first three drives of the game, which took up the entirety of the first quarter. New England averaged -0.32 expected points per play in the first quarter and that actually was some of the best work they were able to manage on the day. In the second and third quarters combined, the Patriots were comprehensively buried before putting together some garbage time drives in the fourth quarter. Over the two middle quarters, the Patriots once again gained 39 yards of offense, but this time on 26 plays. They averaged a brutally low 5.6 yards per drive and only managed two first downs over seven drives in that time frame.
What has to be most frustrating for Patriots fans is that their defense did enough to keep them in the game, but Seattle’s defense was unflappable. The 9-0 halftime lead felt insurmountable and even though it was only 12-0 heading into the fourth quarter, everyone with eyes on the game knew it was over. New England didn’t even reach the red zone until the fourth quarter, and when you throw in all numbers from the first three quarters, they only averaged 7.8 yards per drive.
The numbers paint the picture of a dominant performance, but they don’t tell the whole story of how visually dominant Seattle was as well. The Patriots’ offensive line spent all game getting tossed out of the club, including a truly dreadful performance from rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson on the left side of the offensive line. Meanwhile, Mike Onwenu, New England’s right guard, spent the day giving away plays with his stance. That’s not even a bit, as Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon said after the game that Macdonald noted that the Patriots’ were giving away what play they were running frequently based on the stances and angles of their offensive line pre-play — and it certainly felt like it.
Witherspoon was a nuisance for the Patriots’ offense, breaking through the front with ease and even beating blocks from offensive linemen. And even that was just a fraction of the carnage that Seattle unleashed on New England. Derick Hall, Boye Mafe, Byron Murphy II, Uchenna Nwosu and DeMarcus Lawrence all had pressure rates over 12%, according to TruMedia, and Leonard Williams chipped in with a solid 8.1% pressure rate. Those six, along with Witherspoon, had three pressures a piece as they just diced through the Patriots’ front over and over and over again.
It wasn’t just the physical beatdown in the trenches, it was also the clear coaching mismatch between the two sides, with Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels being unable to keep pace with Macdonald’s aggressive plan of attack. New England head coach Mike Vrabel took two timeouts into halftime, and when they came out from the halftime break they were just beat with more of the same. The play-calling wasn’t helpful, the game management was poor and Macdonald took extreme advantage of that fact. For the NFL Coach and Assistant Coach of the Year, it was hard to tell who actually won those awards when the game was in action. They had no answers at all.
Dominance is fun, even when it leads to a low-scoring game. There aren’t many defenses that feel like must-see television, but the Seahawks had that appeal this season and proved it by hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Sam Darnold will be the main focus of the remaining coverage of this game because quarterbacks rule all, but this team should forever be remembered for what got them here: one of the best defenses in the history of the league.