With all the lead-up talk revolving around Sam Darnold and whether he had that 'it' factor to win the big game, Mike Macdonald's team relied on the defense to get the job done. The Seattle Seahawks attacked from day one, and that aggressiveness was just too much for the New England Patriots' once-explosive offense.
Coach Macdonald and defensive coordinator Aden Durde cooked up a perfect defensive game plan for this game. They never allowed Drake Maye to set up his feet, they limited his scrambling opportunities, and they didn't give any of his targets an inch of space.
Considering that, former quarterback Dan Orlovsky had an interesting analogy to describe what he felt watching that defensive clinic. Talking on ESPN's Get Up, he tipped his hat to the Seahawks' uber-aggressive defense.
Dan Orlovsky describes the Seattle Seahawks' defense with a perfect analogy
"This was almost like watching the walls closing in," Orlovsky said. "There was just nothing that you could do. It was this suffocating element. And I think what happened with Josh McDaniels in New England was, instead of -- Josh is one of the great sequencers in the NFL. He calls this play to set up this play so he's always on the attack. Immediately, he got on the defensive."
Josh McDaniels hasn't found much success in his two stints as head coach, but he has a strong case to be one of the greatest offensive coordinators in NFL history. However, the Seahawks' playmaking and hard-hitting defense made him way too conservative, even when his team's back was against the wall.
The Seahawks shut the Patriots down for the first three quarters of the season. It took two explosive plays for them to get on the board with 12:27 left, and it felt like the game was out of reach even at 9-0.
The Patriots finished the game with just 331 total yards, turned the ball over three times, and punted eight times. They turned 26:49 minutes of possession into 13 points, all of which came when it was too late already.
The 'Dark Side' defense sacked Drake Maye a career-high-tying six times for a loss of 43 yards. They held Stefon Diggs to three receptions on as many targets for 37 yards, and only one Patriots player managed to get more than 50 passing yards.
Drake Maye entered the fourth quarter with a grand total of 65 passing yards, and he was responsible for 37 of his team's 76 rushing yards. It was just hard hit after hard hit, incompletion after incompletion, covered receiver after covered receiver. It was asphyxiating.
The Seahawks rallied behind their defense to win ten games in a row. And even though Klint Kubiak's offense was also explosive and creative, they proved that they had way too many times to beat anybody with these playoff performances.