Patriots-Seahawks Preview: Old-school game will be won by defense originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
FOXBORO — What The Bengals’ offense had a week 1 was a wave of Patriots tacklers who choke them into submission.
It was by design. You can catch the ball on us, DeMarcus Covington’s defense seemed to be saying, but you won’t get very far afterward. The Patriots had the third-best yards after the catch in the NFL’s opening week (3.4 yards) with a huddle-to-the-ball mentality that included big plays from players across their defense.
As much as their willingness to use an extra offensive lineman and run the ball has defined what head coach Jerod Mayo wants the Patriots to be — a team that wins with physicality and fundamentals — on the other side of the ball, New EnglandThe tackle did the same thing. Pro Football Focus ranks the Patriots as the second-best tackling group in Week 1, behind the Lions.
Against the The Seahawkswho has a talented group of receivers and a speedy quarterback Geno Smith (According to Next Gen Stats, he averaged his third-fastest throw time since 2019 in Week 1), tackling will once again be paramount for the Patriots.
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“I think (against the Bengals) you saw aggressive play, physical play, physical tackling, pushing back, winning at the line of scrimmage,” Covington said this week. “You saw good fundamentals. You saw us take the ball. When you turn on the tape, you want to see that every week.”
It started early with the beatings. Jahlani Tavai and Ja’Whaun Bentley at linebacker quickly closed in on the running backs. Keion White was a force. Jabrill Peppers And Kyle Dugger They still embody a physical style of play. And some of the smaller players on the team haven’t been left out.
Marcus Jones helped set the tone with two tackles on third down that helped force punts, and the biggest play of the day was a kamikaze-style collision by Jonathan Jones which forced a turnover on downs in the third quarter.
“The size of the dog doesn’t matter, right?” Covington said of his smaller defensive backs. “What really matters is the heart of the player. They’re not afraid of anything or anyone. And they do that in practice.”
“I’ve always prided myself on my tackling ability,” said Marcus Jones, who stands 5’8”, 185 pounds. “A lot of the time when you’re a little kid, people are looking to see if you can make tackles. But I enjoy being a part of this organization, just because we pride ourselves on making plays and tackling. We do it a lot in season and in practice. It helps a lot.”
In a matchup between two of the best defenses in Week 1, between two 30-something coaches who spent their careers on defense, the Patriots can hope that the defense that shines brighter and tackles better Sunday at Gillette Stadium can come away with a second victory in as many weeks. While Mayo’s team has excelled in that department to start the season, Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks missed 11 tackles in their win over the Miami Seahawks. Denver.
Let’s take a closer look at the matchups that will determine how Week 2 unfolds for New England…
Ma catchup that will determine the outcome
Geno Smith vs DeMarcus Covington
The Seahawks Looks like they’ll be without Kenneth Walker IIIwho is uncertain due to an oblique injury. They appear to have to deal with their third right tackle, Forsythe stonedue to an injury to George Fant. This game will come down to Geno Smith’s ability to handle coverage changes and unexpected pressures from DeMarcus Covington.
Based on recent history, these situations should be dominated by Covington’s unit, whose defensive focus is to generate “controlled chaos” put the quarterbacks in a blender.
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Last season, Smith was the 10th most likely player to drop the ball when pressured, and he ranked 28th in the league in yards per attempt when pressured. Last week, in 11 dropbacks under pressure, he completed 44 percent of his passes and earned a quarterback rating of 64.8.
I expect Keion White to be moved all over the defensive front, like he was a week ago against Cincinnatiand when he gets the chance to get going on the right side, he’ll make one or two moves that will change the game.
Ma catchup that will surprise you
Patriots game screen against Seahawks defense
The reason Macdonald was a highly coveted head coaching candidate this past offseason was because he was the mastermind behind the philosophy changes in Baltimore which resulted in the best defense in football.
They went from a man-to-man system that blitzed more than any football team under Wink Martindale to a shifting defense that used a multitude of coverages and deceptions — not a crushing defense. number rushers – to generate pressure.
In his second season with the Ravens, Macdonald built an elite unit that ranked first in points allowed per game, second in EPA per play and sixth in success rate. They were third in yards per snap in coverage against play-action passes, sixth in quarterback pressures and were first in Sports Info Solutions’ “points saved” metric against direct passes, play-action routes, fades and double-motion deep shots.
One area the Ravens were not special? Screen defense. In 2023, they were 15th in quarterback rating and EPA per play allowed when defending screens. The Patriots, meanwhile, have been very open about the fact that they want screens to be a major part of their offense. JaMycal Hasty told reporters during training camp that offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt told players he wanted them to be “the best screening team in the league.”
This type of play was definitely not part of their plan against the Bengals in Week 1 (Jacoby Brissett threw only one and the Patriots lost three yards). But with capable receivers at running back in Rhamondre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson and Hasty — and against a Macdonald scheme that last year in Baltimore proved to be top-notch against just about every other concept — the Patriots could turn to their screen game to try to generate offense Sunday.
Msomething that will make you lose years of life
Boye Mafe against. Vederian Lowe
NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, a former scout for the Ravens, Eagles and Browns, is a fan of the personnel playing defensive end in Seattle. But third-year pass rusher Boye Mafe, a second-round pick from Minnesota in 2022 – ranks at the very top of the list.
“I would like to buy all the Boye Mafe shares available,” Jeremiah said. Published Monday on Twitter/X“He’s on the verge of becoming a superstar. He plays at a different pace and he’s starting to learn how to rush the passer.”
Mafe was one of the best athletes to enter the league as a rookie two years ago. At 6-foot-4, 260 pounds, he clocked a 4.53-second 40-yard dash (98th percentile among defensive ends over the last two decades), as well as a 38-inch vertical jump (91st percentile) and a 10-foot broad jump (92nd percentile). He appeared to start tapping into those gifts last week, generating nine pressures in his team’s win over the Broncos.
Lowe will have an advantage over Mafe when it comes to length. His 35.5-inch arms (versus Mafe’s 32.5-inch arms) could help the Patriots’ expected starting left tackle — who replaced by Chukwuma Okorafor in the first quarter of week 1 — to get an initial shot in pass protection. Lowe has the ability to use what offensive line coach Scott Peters calls a “zero strike,” hitting around the collar of an incoming rusher to shake the opponent back, and he used it effectively at times in one-on-one situations during training camp.
But Mafe’s combination of size and speed on the edge could make him a handful for any tackle, and with the Patriots’ passing game looking like it needs more time than it did a week ago (more than 40 percent of dropbacks resulted in pressure for Brissett), he might not let that happen.
That doesn’t mean the Patriots can’t win. But it doesn’t appear this is the week their passing game is going to take off.
