You saw the Seattle Seahawks wholly dominate the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX to the tune of 29-13. You saw Drake Maye struggle \u2014 and look like the second-youngest quarterback to play in the Super Bowl. You saw the Bad Bunny concert \u2014 and perhaps you noticed the musical artist carrying the ball into the end zone for a touchdown before any of the Seahawks or Patriots players. The defenses were that good. But let’s try to spin it forward, dive deeper and think outside the box about what we witnessed. This is “Sound Smart,” where we prepare you for Monday morning with observations from the Super Bowl. If I do my job, you\u2019ll be fluent in the\u00a0NFL\u2019s grand finale. 1. IF THERE\u2019S ONE THING YOU SHOULD KNOW Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald just delivered his magnum opus with that defensive game plan. There were points where Sam Darnold looked frantic. Totally out of control. And there were points where it nearly played right into the hands of the Patriots’ defenders, quite literally. With hindsight, it was all so unnecessary. Darnold didn\u2019t have to do \u2026 anything. If he\u2019d wanted, the Seahawks could\u2019ve handed off the ball to Kenneth Walker III from start to finish. The Seahawks relied mostly on Jason Meyers\u2019 leg for the first three quarters and its defense for \u2026 the entire season. Man,\u00a0that Seahawks defense. “We were mad that they scored points at all,” Leonard Williams said postgame on NFL Network. It was so good that it must\u2019ve ruined most Super Bowl parties. How many people thought about turning off the game in the fourth quarter? How many did? And I hope that comes across as a compliment to Seattle, because even the most fair-weather of NFL fans could\u2019ve seen that the Seahawks had this game under control. They\u2019d rendered it boring at a level that they should take pride in. “I would like to put the focus on the defense,” Walker said on NFL Network, despite winning Super Bowl MVP honors himself. “We wouldn’t be able to get this far without those guys. They call themselves \u2018the darkside,\u2019 and the darkside came out to play.” The Seahawks held the Patriots to 13 points. Seattle didn\u2019t allow New England into the red zone \u2014 let alone the end zone \u2014 until the fourth quarter. It was Maye \u2014 not Darnold \u2014 who appeared to be seeing ghosts. It was probably the worst performance of Maye\u2019s NFL career, which includes a deeply forgettable rookie season when he and the Patriots went 3-9 in his starts. Maye simply couldn\u2019t anticipate any of Seattle\u2019s savvy blitzes, particularly those from cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who finished with four pressures and one sack on his six blitzes. Yes, Witherspoon is a defensive back, which speaks to the unusual and tricky game plan that Mike Macdonald had for Maye. The young QB was helpless, not getting accurate passes to his open players \u2014 and, in some cases, not even seeing them when they got open. Maye threw two interceptions, took six sacks (and 11 QB hits), and saw six pass deflections. The Seahawks scored 17 points off three Maye turnovers (2 INTs, 1 fumble). Macdonald absolutely stuck it to the Patriots, using their young MVP finalist against them. “DeMarcus Lawrence was joking with the team about needing a Harvard education to play in this defense, because there\u2019s so many blitzes and pressures,” Williams told NFL Network. “We\u2019re constantly making adjustments based on what the offense is doing. We want to make the last call and make the last move.” For all the hype that Mike Vrabel was the second coming of Bill Belichick from an X\u2019s and O\u2019s standpoint, it was actually Macdonald who delivered the Super Bowl masterclass in coaching, reminiscent of what Belichick once did. 2. PEELING BACK THE CURTAIN So, what went\u00a0so wrong for Maye? This wasn\u2019t the Maye that we\u2019d seen in the regular season \u2014 the guy who nearly won MVP. This wasn\u2019t even the Maye that we\u2019d seen in the postseason \u2014 the guy who relied upon his defense and did\u00a0just enough to get by. His poor play on the biggest stage will inevitably lend itself to outlandish takes. But Maye wasn\u2019t a fraud. There will be people \u2014 who didn\u2019t watch him in his other 20 games this year \u2014 who claim that he was never as good as his statistics made him out to be. Don\u2019t buy it. He beat out a great number of good defenses. But this one broke him. “We couldn\u2019t gain any rhythm [or] field position. We\u2019ve got to get into better drives offensively,”\u00a0Vrabel told reporters afterward. “We were just playing catch-up. \u2026 But ultimately, turnovers cost us.” Vrabel refused to call out his quarterback. “We can sit here and put it all on one guy, but you’ll be disappointed because that won’t happen,” Vrabel added. “It’s starts with the coaching staff.” The Seahawks only blitzed on 13.2% percentage of Maye\u2019s dropbacks, and against those blitzes, he was 3 of 6 for 18 yards, an interception and a sack, per Next Gen Stats. He also saw six pressures at an 85.7% pressure rate. When Seattle sent an extra rusher, it got to Maye. And most of the time, he didn\u2019t know it was coming, unable to read the defense pre-snap. But those blitzes were the exception. Seattle\u00a0didn\u2019t blitz on 86.8% of Maye\u2019s dropbacks. They didn\u2019t need to. Between all of Maye\u2019s dropbacks, he faced pressure 52.8% of the time. And he threw both of his interceptions against pressure. His protection let him down. And then, even when the line improved, he was rushing and missing easy throws. “What [plays] would I like to have back? Go back to the beginning. Redo it,”\u00a0Maye told reporters after the game. “Too many plays in the first half, there were plays where I could\u2019ve made a better throw or a better decision.” It\u2019s uncharacteristic of Maye\u2019s game that he couldn\u2019t beat the Seahawks\u2019 pressure. In the Pats’ 20games leading up to the Super Bowl, he ‘d completed 115 of 193 passes for 1,677 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions against pressure. What the Seahawks did was different. What the Seahawks did was a whole lot better than anything he\u2019d seen. “If you don\u2019t make plays, you\u2019re sitting at a podium crying,”\u00a0said Maye, who was teary-eyed for much of his postgame interviews. In the Super Bowl, Maye\u2019s final stats (27-43, 295 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions) don’t reflect all the times that he missed straightforward throws. They don’t show the disappointing moments when he failed to do what had been so simple for him in the five months that got him to the Super Bowl in the first place. I\u2019ll list a few: There were simple slant and seam routes where Maye threw behind Hunter Henry and Stefon Diggs; there were back-shoulder throws where Maye didn\u2019t put the ball on frame for Demario Douglas and Henry; there was a moment where Diggs found himself wide open on third down and Maye couldn\u2019t keep his eyes downfield; there was the overthrow when Austin Hooper sprung open in the fourth quarter. Most inexplicable: There was the final interception to safety Julian Love. The throw looked unlike anything we\u2019d seen from Maye all year. And it was on a deep pass, where Maye had established himself as one of the league\u2019s most remarkable talents. 3. THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY For the Seahawks (who deserve the adlibs below) \u2026 The Real MVP:\u00a0CB Devon Witherspoon \u2014\u00a0In coverage, he allowed just two catches on two targets for 16 yards. He was a shutdown corner. And that could\u2019ve been enough. But Macdonald had bigger plans. The coach sent Witherspoon after Maye on six different blitzes. Witherspoon had one sack and four pressures. Maye never seemed to see Witherspoon coming. Really good:\u00a0Kenneth Walker \u2014\u00a0His performance didn\u2019t just fuel the Seahawks offense. It also put money in the bank for Walker, who is a pending free agent. He was the only explosive player on the Seahawks offense. And as it turned out, he was all they needed: 27 carries and 135 rushing yards. Good: Special teams \u2014 Yeah, it was that kind of Super Bowl, where we\u2019re praising the third and often-forgotten phase. Kicker Jason Meyers was 5 of 5 on field goals and 2 of 2 on extra points \u2014 which made him the runaway leading point scorer (17). Punter Michael Dickson managed to boom his punts for 47.9 yards per punt, which included three punts inside the 20-yard line. And the team contained an elite punt returner in Marcus Jones to just two returns for four yards. Bad:\u00a0Sam Darnold \u2014 The team carried him and gently pushed him aside as the Seahawks took more and more control of the game through their defense. They simply needed him not to give away the game, which (to his credit) he quickly realized \u2014 and complied. He completed just 50% of his passes for 202 yards and a touchdown and took one sack. His completion percentage over expected was -9.4%, and he struggled significantly against pressure. The biggest credit to Darnold was that none of his mistakes cost the team \u2014 but there were plenty that could and probably should have. Ugly:\u00a0Jaxon Smith-Njigba \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s almost ungenerous to classify him as the ugly duckling, in part because he missed a portion of the game while doctors evaluated him for a concussion. But he didn\u2019t have that typical novocaine presence. (Like Denzel Washington said in\u00a0Remember the Titans: “Like novocaine \u2014 just give it time. Always works.”) No, Smith-Njigba finished with four catches on 10 targets for 27 yards. He was supposed to be the best player on the field, and he basically no-showed despite playing 70.4% of the Seahawks\u2019 offensive snaps. For the Patriots \u2026 Good:\u00a0CB Christian Gonzalez \u2014 the Patriots CB was outstanding, spending most of his time in coverage against the best receiver in the NFL, Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Gonzalez nearly intercepted a pass to Smith-Njigba at the end of the first half to hold the Seahawks to a field goal. And Gonzalez also laid out for a nicely-thrown ball to Rashid Shaheed over the middle of the field at the beginning of the second quarter. He was New England\u2019s most dominant player. Bad:\u00a0OC Josh McDaniels \u2014 We dove into Maye\u2019s significant shortcomings, so let\u2019s use this opportunity to talk about McDaniels\u2019 struggles. He couldn\u2019t figure out how to get his quarterback to settle in against this defense \u2014 nor could he figure out how to get his QB ready for the pre-snap complications. We didn\u2019t see anything special from McDaniels. No trick plays. And we didn\u2019t see any of McDaniels\u2019 signature screen passes, which might have helped to neutralize the pass-rush. His quarterback wasn\u2019t good at the beginning. But he went from bad to worse as Macdonald gained a bigger and bigger advantage over McDaniels. Ugly:\u00a0LT Will Campbell \u2014 It was just a devastatingly tough game for the rookie, who finished with one sack allowed and a game-high 14 pressures, per Next Gen Stats. He allowed pressure on 26.4% of the Patriots\u2019 dropbacks. He also had a false start where he got absolutely pummeled after the whistle. In\u00a0Sound Smart, we’re diving deeper and thinking outside the box about the week that was in NFL action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You saw the Seattle Seahawks wholly dominate the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX to the tune of 29-13. You saw Drake Maye struggle \u2014 and look like the second-youngest quarterback to play in the Super Bowl. You saw the Bad Bunny concert \u2014 and perhaps you noticed the musical artist carrying the ball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}