On Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks said to the New England Patriots, “Y’all don’t belong here.”
Behind Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III and star corner Devon Witherspoon, Seattle slowly dominated New England by forcing punts, moving the ball and taking three points as they built their lead with five Jason Myers field goals.
After being -3 in turnover differential in the regular season, Seattle never gave the ball away in the postseason and forced seven turnovers.
The film displays Walker taking over, Witherspoon’s masterclass and Seattle’s punt unit putting on a clinic.
Walker III Steps Up on the Biggest Stage
Walker had two games of 100+ rushing yards in the regular season. He had two such games in the playoffs, including a season-high 135 rushing yards in the Super Bowl.
Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak quite literally emptied the tank on Walker — giving him a season-high 27 touches. Walker had no regular-season games of more than 20 carries.
Here are two of the top rushing plays that Walker had:
Seattle goes with a bunch right formation with the receivers condensed inside the numbers. The key for Walker is to find grass because there’s nobody outside the numbers.
They run the concept “HB off-tackle” where the pulling guard kicks out to block the defensive end.
On this play, the pulling guard, Grey Zabel (#76) makes the key block on the defensive end. Because of the condensed formation lined up on the right side, Walker just needs Zabel’s block to turn the corner and get up field for a first down.
Seattle calls another run play — outside zone — a concept that stretches the defense horizontally.
Both guards, Zabel and Anthony Bradford (No. 75) make release blocks — where they immediately get up to the second level to block the linebackers. This means that every offensive lineman is one-on-one and must win their matchup to create a rushing lane.
Walker makes a terrific cutback into the “A gap” and the center, Jalen Sundell (No. 61) has a good feel to let go of his man to avoid a holding call. Walker goes 29 yards untouched before being forced out of bounds.
It was Walker’s vision and the offensive linemen executing the key blocks in each run concept that helped them crush New England in the trenches.
Witherspoon Flew Off the Slot Like a Seahawk
Devon Witherspoon was the MVP on defense; he had one sack and three quarterback hits. While Drake Maye is not a quarterback you want to blitz — Seattle’s aggressiveness paid off with their corner blitzes.
Seattle calls a variation of “Cover 1 hole” — one deep safety and a linebacker drops to cover the middle of the field.
Witherspoon blitzes from the slot and the key is if he engages with the right tackle. If he does, it’s a mismatch and the right tackle will just push him down.
Since Witherspoon navigates his way around with his speed, he gets home to Maye for a drive-killing play.
Here’s another blitz concept — “Nickel 2 trap” — two corners blitz while two linebackers drop into zone coverage. It’s also cover two — two deep safeties.
Seattle plays both safeties deep while the two linebackers bail out of the blitz. Witherspoon again flies off the slot corner and forces Maye to throw it away.
From New England’s perspective, pass protection simply isn’t set correctly. There’s no work for the right guard (No. 71) when he sees the linebacker drop back into coverage.
But that wasn’t the only issue.
Maye didn’t make his hot read. With the safety replacing the blitzing Witherspoon , Maye has DeMario Douglas (No. 3) open for a quick catch-and-turn. The ball has to come out quick and Maye didn’t take advantage that the safety was playing ten yards off Douglas because he didn’t expect Witherspoon to blitz.
Seattle’s aggressiveness to blitz arguably the best quarterback against the blitz worked to their advantage.
Seattle’s Disguise of the Night
In the middle of the fourth quarter, New England was threating to cut into Seattle’s 19-7 before Julian Love caught a routine ball for an interception.
On the pre-snap, Seattle presents Cover 2 man with their two deep safeties. Watch Witherspoon in the slot on Stefon Diggs (No. 8). He initially cover Diggs before passing it off to the strong safety. It’s a unique coverage because Witherspoon drops back to play safety while the unit stays in man coverage.
The execution of the coverage was critical as the play swung momentum back into Seattle and gave one less opportunity for New England to make a comeback.
Punting Clinic for Field Position
In our Super Bowl preview, we talked about the kick return game being a major character. On Sunday, it was the punters that helped decide the game.
Michael Dickson punted seven times and landed three punts inside the 20-yard line while Bryce Baringer punted eight times and landed half of them inside the 20-yard line.
While this is not a heavy rush by the Patriots, it’s a difficult punt for Dickson because punting on New England’s 42-yard line means he has to lightly punt it so the ball has a chance to be downed inside the 5-yard line. Dickson pins New England on its own two yard line.
Conversely, on this punt from his own 41-yard line, Dickson has to boom this punt.
The punt takes its first bounce on the Patriots’ 20-yard line before the punt coverage team pins New England inside the five yet again.
Final Thoughts
Seattle dominated in all three phrases. Their rushing attack carried the offense through the night. The blitzes proved to be a nightmare for Maye to handle. Seattle’s punting unit crushed New England’s hopes of any field position to help their woeful offense.
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