Patriots Squandered Exceptional Defensive Effort Vs. Seahawks In Super Bowl
New England's offense let its defense down
The New England Patriots’ defense did its job against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. Unfortunately for them, the Patriots’ offense did not.
While Drake Maye and New England’s offense sputtered through a historically bad postseason, the team’s defense carried it to the Super Bowl with a historically great one.
The Patriots’ defense delivered another outstanding performance in the Super Bowl, holding the Seahawks to a paltry 32.4% offensive success rate, per ESPN’s Ben Solak. That was the lowest mark in any game this season for an elite offense that ranked third in scoring and eighth in yardage during the regular season.
New England’s defense bottled them up for as long as it could, not allowing a touchdown until the fourth quarter. The Patriots blitzed Sam Darnold early and often, limiting him to a meager 50% completion rate and 202 passing yards.
Unfortunately for New England, its offense didn’t show up until the fourth quarter. The Patriots were shut out until then, managing only 78 yards of offense through the first three quarters.
The defense kept New England in the game for as long as it could, only to watch the offense keep punting the ball away and turning it over. Maye committed three turnovers in the second half and Seattle immediately scored after all of them, accounting for 17 of its 29 points.
There’s a lot of blame to go around for the Patriots’ ugly 29-13 loss, but almost all of it falls on the offense. From Maye’s costly mistakes and the porous offensive line to questionable coaching decisions by Josh McDaniels and Mike Vrabel, New England failed on that side of the ball.
The defense stepped up and played well enough to win, as it has all season. But it needed some help, and in the end, the offense didn’t provide nearly enough.
