SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Garrett Bradbury tried to keep his emotions in check, but his tear ducts betrayed the resolve of a hardened pro who just saw his seventh and most successful season come to an end in the NFL’s biggest game.
“You can’t,” he said when I asked if he could put into words this remarkable journey. “You can’t.”
Bradbury wasn’t the only Patriot struggling with the finality of this season. Stefon Diggs went around a quiet locker room, sharing hugs with teammates, his eyes glassy. Will Campbell and Morgan Moses engaged in quiet conversation, with the sage veteran grasping the rookie’s arm and offering encouragement. And when Drake Maye emerged from his postgame press conference looking drained – heavy is the head that wears the crown – it was Campbell who brought a smile to his face.
There was something magical about what this team accomplished. What began as a fresh start and hope brought by a new regime grew into something far bigger as the year progressed. But the Seahawks had a magical season of their own, and that defense of theirs – number one or two in just about every meaningful category – did not care about Maye’s near MVP season, nor this team that came from the bottom and rose to the top of the AFC. No, what Seattle did was slowly, steadily, and systematically dismantle a Patriots offense that, for reasons we’re about to get into, had no answers.
“Things kind of happened fast,” Diggs told me. “We couldn’t get things rolling. It’s not on one person. Everybody played a part. So I was definitely surprised.”
After a week-plus of speculation and questions about his injured right shoulder, Maye admitted he had to take an injection in the area prior to the game. He went into no further detail on that front, telling reporters it had no impact on his performance. Witnessing what we did on Sunday night in Santa Clara, I won’t argue with him.
Maye was discombobulated almost from the jump. His feet were pitter-pattering and even some of his early completions – and there weren’t many – lacked the precision and accuracy that defined his regular season but helped define his postseason.
After recording two first downs on their opening possession and another to begin the second, Maye and this offense didn’t get another first down until their second series of the third quarter. That’s no way to win a football game, even with a defense doing just about everything it could to keep the game close.
“There are plays in the first half where I feel like I could have made a better throw or made a better decision,” Maye said. “It really comes down to who makes the plays and who doesn’t, and they made the plays tonight.”
“We came up short today,” Kayshon Boutte said. “I would say that truthfully, you know, defense played their ass off, but the offense we went out there and didn’t do shit, for real.”
Pressure was a problem from the beginning, with Maye taking the first of his six sacks to derail a semi-promising drive. The Seahawks weren’t doing it by being overly aggressive – they blitzed just 26% of the time in the first half (Per Sumer Sports) – but when they did, those seemed to land far more than they didn’t. When the half was all said and done, Seattle had a pressure rate of nearly 47%. That’s not a number you can win with.
“They were blitzing a lot, doing a lot of movement with the front and blitzing a lot too, from the side, stuff like that,” Mike Onwenu said. “A couple of times it was just – we couldn’t block it. They brought more than we could block. That’s football for you.
“I think they had good disguise too. A couple of times with the secondary – the secondary was playing way off, and they were still blitzing the corners and stuff like that. You don’t see until it happens, and now you’ve got to play with that game speed.”
“We knew they had it,” Bradbury said, referencing some of the overload blitzes. “They pressured at a high clip in the first half, and they had a good plan. They’re good defense. Certainly give them credit.”
Maye could have used some help from
