Ndamukong Suh was once again spot-on while commenting on the NFL playoffs for Sky Sports. This time, though, Suh was watching the Seattle Seahawks defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, and was seeing what lots of other people were, too. The difference was that Suh's insight was probably more keen.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye struggled mightily for the first three quarters of the game. His offense line was a sieve, and his running game was consistently shut down. What made matters worse for Maye is that Seattle's defensive backs were better than his wide receivers.
The New England quarterback said after the game that he wished he could start the game all over again. Everyone watching likely knew the outcome would have been no different. Suh likely thought so.
Ndamukong Suh knew Patriots' Drake Maye's risk wasn't worth it against the Seattle Seahawks
But the former All-Pro also knew that Maye wasn't trying to be afraid to do much against the Seahawks' elite defense; he simply couldn't. Even when he finally took a chance, it failed to pay off. Few things New England tried worked, and it was unlikely anything would have.
In the fourth quarter, with his team down 19-7 with a bit under nine minutes left, Maye tried to make anything happen. The Seahawks seemed safely in the lead, but a touchdown might change the narrative of the game.
The quarterback dropped back to pass, thought he saw something over the middle distance of the field that wasn't there, and bad things happened. Julian Love intercepted the ball.
“This Seahawks defense has done an amazing job," Suh said while commenting for Sky Sports, "and now they’re capitalizing with the turnover. All that pressure. (Maye is) not gun-shy, he’s letting it loose. But one time doing that, it’s a big mistake.”
That last part was key. The New England Patriots, mostly due to the poor offensive line, tried to take many chances, especially through the first three quarters. The Pats did get 13 points in the fourth quarter, but the game was out of hand, and Seattle was simply trying to kill time. New England never had a real chance of coming back.
In fact, Drake Maye didn't play horribly, though he wasn't overly sharp either. The issue was that his offense was simply overwhelmed by a much better Seattle Seahawks defense. If the teams had played 10 more times, maybe the Patriots would have won once. Seattle was simply better.
Ndamukong Suh certainly knew that, as did anyone watching or streaming the game. The Seattle Seahawks deserved to be the Super Bowl champions, and their defense made sure of that.