Wait. Maybe that isn’t the best title for this. I hope nobody is expecting an nsfw post based on that title.
I just mean that the game was awesome if you are fan of defensive football… which I happen to be.
First, I don’t really consider this a 16 point win. It was complete domination by the Seahawks defense and New England happened to hit on some big gambles well after the game was decided.
Most of what I will write here is based on the game being 19-0 early in the 4th quarter. That’s exciting is really when the game was decided. Anything after that was window dressing for both teams.
While many people might argue that a 19-0 blowout is incredibly boring. I was enthralled by the game I could not look away. This was not a case of an offense just being so inept they couldn’t do anything. After all, the Patriots scored the second most points in the NFL this year. They have a good offense. But Seattle just had a better defense. And I mean a MUCH better defense. It was basically flawless all year and continued that in the playoffs.
When I watch a championship game in any sport, I expect to see excellence. That is exactly what I saw on Sunday. The Seahawks defense was something to behold. It wasn’t just that they sacked Patriots QB Drake Maye seven times, it’s that they destroyed the Patriots line and pressured Maye on what seemed like every pass. On the rare occasion the Seahawks were not directly terrorizing him, Maye was running from ghosts from the previous play. He was terrified. It resulted in his inability to complete even the easiest passes when he actually had time to breathe.
And this isn’t even counting what the Seahawks did to the run. The Patriots Simply could not run and were forced to abandon even the idea of trying it before the second quarter was even over.
It has been a long time since I have seen a defense dominate like that. Because this Seahawks team lacks star power and household names, the defense will not go down in history as one of the best. But what this team had was a solid, excellent player at every position. They had no superstars but they also had no weak links. It was truly remarkable.
When I previewed the game, I said that although the Seahawks were better in paper, the fact that Sam Darnold could very likely crap down his leg meant that this game could go either way. I never considered that the Seahawks defense would simply take that right off the table. “Take the game off Sam, we got this.” The Seahawks just needed to run the ball enough to kick five field goals. Just to make sure Darnold would not have to do anything stupid, the defense decided to score a touchdown of their own so that Darnold would not factor into the win in any way. I didn’t even know that was possible in today’s NFL.
So Seattle’s display if defensive excellence made me watch every play of the game. How about you?