SANTA CLARA, Calif. — There will be a lot of disappointment, anger, and venting in New England this morning over the Patriots’ 29-13 loss to the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX — and it wasn’t nearly that close.
Scapegoats will be sought out. Will Campbell needs to go to guard. Josh McDaniels is overrated and should be fired. Drake Maye turned into a pumpkin in the playoffs, and maybe he was really hurt (he wasn’t). Stefon Diggs disappeared.
That will burn out, in all likelihood, after a few days. At some point, everyone needs to accept reality, which should have slapped you hard in the face watching on Sunday night: the Patriots were outclassed talent-wise in all three phases by the Seahawks. Period.
“That’s the best team we’ve faced, obviously, this year,” Mike Vrabel said.
“We couldn’t gain any rhythm and field position. We got to get in the drives better offensively. Defensively, we have been really good against the run lately, and we weren’t, and we were just playing catch-up, and we did a great job in the redzone, and we competed, but unfortunately, I think the turnovers ultimately cost us, and appreciate the way the guys offensively battled and competed, but just not enough consistent execution.”
To win the biggest game against the best teams, you need your best players to play their best. You could list about 15 Seahawks, including their kicker and punter. For the Patriots, it was Christian Gonzalez, some Milton Williams (though he missed a couple of point-blank sacks that would have been nice) and … that’s the end of the list. When rookie Craig Woodson is one of your best players, and making a team-high 10 tackles from the safety spot, it’s not a great sign.
The Super Bowl was just more of the same from the entire postseason run for the Patriots, namely the offense. The Patriots’ defense balled out and got turnovers (eight in three games) against the Chargers, Texans and Broncos, yet the offense couldn’t put any of those teams away. If CJ Stroud wasn’t a puddle, the Patriots’ run could have ended at home in the divisional round. If the Broncos weren’t forced to turn to backup Jarrett Stidham, and if he didn’t freak out deep in his own territory, Denver might have been in the Super Bowl.
Why? Because the shortcomings of Maye and the Patriots’ offense got exposed against the best defenses they faced this season. Yes, Maye was magical most of the season, but he did face the 32nd most difficult offensive schedule. Against four top-notch defenses in the postseason, he completed 58 percent of his passes. That’s not all his fault, though he needed to take care of the ball better (he finished the postseason with seven fumbles and four interceptions; in the postseason, Maye committed five turnovers under pressure, including three-strip-sacks and two interceptions, after committing just six such turnovers during the regular season).
One of the paths for the Patriots to win this game, which has been the formula for much of the season, was for Maye to take care of the ball, play efficiently, and make 4-5 special plays in the game. Didn’t happen.
Of course, his protection got overwhelmed in the playoffs. And with two weeks to prepare for this game, the Seahawks were unrelenting. According to Next Gen Stats, the Seahawks, who did not yield an explosive designed run, hit the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage on 53.8% of designed rushes (second-highest for the team this season) while generating a 52.8% pressure rate (second-highest for the team this season, highest of any defense this postseason, fourth-highest in postseason since 2019) despite blitzing on just 13.2% of plays (third-lowest for any defense this postseason).
“As humble as I can say this, watching film, I was thinking, ‘We have too much for them,’” safety Nick Emmanwori said. “‘We’re going to overwhelm them. We have too much.’ A lot of respect to them because we still had to face them, and they had a great team, great scheme. But I knew we had too much. We just have too much as a defense.”
DeMarcus Lawrence and Derick Hall tied their season-highs in pressures (seven and six, respectively), while Hall and Byron Murphy II sacked the quarterback twice each. The Seahawks’ defense recorded six sacks that led to two turnovers, setting up 14 points – first on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to A.J. Barner at the beginning of the fourth quarter, followed by a pick-six by Uchenna Nwosu that put Seattle up by three possessions with 5 minutes left in the game.
“No surprise. No. I mean, you watch the film,” said Seahawks LB Earnest Jones. “I think you can get misconstrued a lot of times. What you see on film is truly what a team is, but I think with us, man, once we get in front of you, we’re a different group, so we were able to get out there, get pressure, and get after the quarterback. It’s what I expected from us. We’ve been doing this all year. We’ve been battle-tested. This was nothing.”
Will Campbell allowed a career-high 14 pressures — 14! — in the Super Bowl (26.9% pressure rate), tied for the most by an offensive lineman in a playoff game since 2018. This also marked the most pressures allowed by a Patriots offensive lineman in any regular season or postseason game since 2018. Across the entire postseason, Campbell allowed 29 pressures, the most pressures allowed in a postseason across the NGS era and over half of his regular-season total (51). He declined to talk to the media after the game.
“(Seattle) just made everything mano a mano and they couldn’t handle that,” an AFC offensive coordinator texted after the game. “They got their ass kicked up front. You can’t
