Coming into Tremendous Bowl LX, the New England Patriots seemingly confronted a slender path to a win over the Seattle Seahawks.
Each one in all which began the identical means.
Drive the unhealthy Sam Darnold recreation.
With Seattle’s defensive prowess, and New England’s struggles on offense in the course of the postseason towards different elite defenses, it regarded as if the one means the Patriots had been going to drag off the upset was by their protection. And that concept began with forcing errors from Darnold, probably by using stress. As we famous forward of Tremendous Bowl LX, when pressured this season Darnold threw a league-leading eight interceptions, with six of these coming when he was blitzed.
Merely put, the workforce that pressured Darnold to “see ghosts” years in the past wanted to do it once more.
New England actually tried to conjure the ghosts on Sunday evening, utilizing aggression each up entrance, and within the secondary. By my very own charting the Patriots introduced 5 or extra move rushers after Darnold on 22 of his 38 passing makes an attempt, or on 58% of these snaps. ESPN had that quantity at “practically 57%” following Tremendous Bowl LX.
However behind that move rush, New England’s defensive backs tried to leap each throw they may, aiming to pressure the important interception out of Darnold’s hand.
However Seattle’s passer completed the sport having accomplished 19-of-38 passes for 202 yards and a landing. It was not a flawless efficiency however extra importantly, there have been no interceptions and no turnovers.
And never a ghost to be discovered.
Darnold discovered moments all through the evening to keep away from stress, frustrate New England move rushers, and keep away from the large mistake. On a few of these moments he picked up yardage along with his legs, and on different moments Darnold discovered receivers downfield late within the down.
On this play from the primary quarter, New England brings 5 after Darnold, however the pocket holds up, and the Seattle quarterback is content material to verify the ball all the way down to tight finish AJ Barner to maneuver the sticks on third down:
Early within the third quarter, New England introduced six after Darnold, with Seattle working deep in their very own territory. Seattle’s quarterback was greater than keen to hold within the pocket within the face of the stress, connecting with Rashid Shaheed to maneuver the chains:
As famous above, Darnold even discovered methods to make performs along with his legs, as he did on this play within the second half:
On that play New England generated stress with simply 4 — taking a web page out of Seattle’s playbook — however Darnold turned what may have been the break the Patriots had been in search of into one other massive play for the Seahawks offense.
When Seattle lastly reached the tip zone, it got here with New England bringing stress and Darnold dealing with it to perfection:
And even when he missed on throws within the face of stress, drives resulted in punts or area targets, moderately than turnovers. Which, given how effectively Seattle’s protection was taking part in, was precisely what Mike Macdonald hoped for. Take this instance from early within the recreation, the place it regarded as if New England was going to pressure the primary massive mistake from Darnold:
Darnold manages to keep away from what may have been a pricey sack — or worse — and whereas he misses Jaxon Smith-Njigba downfield, punter Michael Dickson comes onto the sphere for the following snap, and never the New England offense.
Once more, it was not a flawless efficiency from Darnold on Sunday evening. The quarterback admitted it himself after he received the possibility to carry the Lombardi Trophy aloft at Levi’s Stadium. “I didn’t have my finest stuff at present, however the workforce had my again,” Darnold stated. “The protection and particular groups had our again, and we simply performed the way in which we all the time play.”
New England had one pathway to drag off the upset in Tremendous Bowl LX.
Sam Darnold did every little thing he wanted to to dam that path.
