Patriots-Seahawks preview: Previous-school matchup might be received with protection

Patriots-Seahawks preview: Old-school matchup will be won with defense initially appeared on NBC Sports Boston

FOXBORO — What the Bengals offense experienced in Week 1 was a wave of Patriots tacklers smothering them into submission.

That was by design. Chances are you’ll catch the soccer on us, DeMarcus Covington’s protection appeared to say, however you will not be getting far after the very fact. The Patriots had the third-best yards-after-catch determine allowed within the NFL’s season-opening week (3.4 yards) with a rally-to-the-ball mindset that featured huge hits from gamers throughout their protection.

As a lot as their willingness to make use of an additional offensive lineman and run the soccer outlined what head coach Jerod Mayo desires the Patriots to be — a staff that wins with physicality and fundamentals — on the opposite aspect of the ball, New England‘s tackling did the identical. Pro Football Focus ranked the Patriots because the second-best tackling group in Week 1 behind solely the Lions.

Towards the Seahawks, who function a gifted group of receivers and a quick-trigger quarterback in Geno Smith (in response to Subsequent Gen Stats, he averaged his third-quickest time to throw since 2019 in Week 1), tackling might be paramount for the Patriots but once more.

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“I feel (towards the Bengals) you noticed aggressive play, you noticed bodily play, bodily tackling, knocking guys again, profitable the road of scrimmage,” Covington stated this week. “You noticed good fundamentals. You noticed us taking the ball away. If you activate the tape, you wish to see that each single week.”

It began early with the hitting. Jahlani Tavai and Ja’Whaun Bentley on the linebacker stage closed on ball-carriers rapidly. Keion White was a power. Jabrill Peppers and Kyle Dugger at all times embody a bodily type of play. And among the staff’s smaller gamers weren’t unnoticed of the combo.

Marcus Jones helped set up a tone with two third-down tackles that helped power punts, and the largest hit of the day was a kamikaze-style collision from Jonathan Jones that compelled a turnover on downs within the third quarter.

“It do not matter in regards to the measurement of the canine, proper?” Covington stated of his extra undersized defensive backs. “It is actually in regards to the coronary heart of the participant. They are not petrified of something or anyone. And so they do it in observe.”

“I’ve at all times prided myself on tackling,” stated Marcus Jones, listed at 5-foot-8, 188 kilos. “More often than not, everytime you’re small on the market, folks attempt to see if you cannot make tackles. However I admire being a part of this group, simply based mostly on the truth that we take delight in making performs and tackling. We do it loads in season and in observe. It helps out loads.”

In a matchup between two of one of the best defenses in Week 1, between the 2 30-something head coaches who’ve spent their careers on the defensive aspect of the ball, the Patriots could hope that whichever protection shines brightest — and tackles greatest — on Sunday at Gillette Stadium will come away with a second win in as many weeks. Whereas Mayo’s staff excelled in that space to start out the season, Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks missed 11 tackles of their win over Denver.

Let’s a bit dig deeper into the matchups that can decide how Week 2 performs out for New England…

Matchup that can decide the result

Geno Smith vs. DeMarcus Covington

The Seahawks look like they’ll be without Kenneth Walker III, who’s uncertain with an indirect harm. They appear like they’re going to be onto their third proper sort out, Stone Forsythe, due to an harm to George Fant. This recreation will come down as to if or not Geno Smith can deal with DeMarcus Covington’s altering coverages and surprising strain packages.

Based mostly on current historical past, these conditions needs to be dominated by Covington’s unit, whose purpose defensively is to generate “controlled chaos” to place quarterbacks in a blender.

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Final season, Smith had the Tenth-most turnover-worthy performs when below strain, and he ranked twenty eighth within the league in yards per try when pressured. Final week, in 11 pressured dropbacks, he accomplished 44 p.c of his passes and had a quarterback ranking of 64.8.

I might anticipate Keion White to be moved all alongside the defensive entrance, as he was per week in the past towards Cincinnati, and when he will get a chance to hurry off the proper edge he’ll flip in a game-changing play or two.

Matchup that can shock you

Patriots display recreation vs. Seahawks protection

The rationale Macdonald was such a highly-coveted head-coaching candidate this previous offseason was as a result of he was the mastermind behind the shifts in philosophy in Baltimore that yielded one of the best protection in soccer.

They went from a man-to-man-heavy scheme that blitzed greater than any staff in soccer below Wink Martindale to a shape-shifting protection that used a large number of coverages and deception — not an amazing quantity of rushers — to generate strain.

In Macdonald’s second season with the Ravens, he’d constructed an elite-across-the-board unit that ranked first in factors allowed per recreation, second in EPA per play and sixth in success charge. They had been third in yards per protection snap towards play-action passes, sixth in quarterback pressures, and so they had been first in Sports activities Data Options’ “factors saved” metric towards posts, go routes, fade and double-move deep photographs.

One space the place the Ravens weren’t particular? Defending screens. In 2023, they had been fifteenth in quarterback ranking and EPA per play allowed when defending screens. The Patriots, in the meantime, have been very open about wanting screens to be a big a part of their offense. Working again JaMycal Hasty informed reporters throughout coaching camp that offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt has relayed to gamers that he desires them to be “one of the best display staff within the league.”

That kind of play was actually not a part of their plan towards the Bengals in Week 1 (Jacoby Brissett threw only one and the Patriots misplaced three yards). However with succesful receivers on the working again place in Rhamondre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson and Hasty — and towards a Macdonald scheme that final 12 months in Baltimore proved to be top-tier towards nearly each different idea — the Patriots may flip to their display recreation to attempt to generate offense on Sunday.

Matchup that can take years off your life

Boye Mafe vs. Vederian Lowe

NFL Community’s Daniel Jeremiah, former scout for the Ravens, Eagles and Browns, is a fan of the personnel taking part in on the defensive aspect in Seattle. However third-year pass-rusher Boye Mafe — a second-round select of Minnesota in 2022 — ranks proper on the prime of the listing.

“I might like to purchase all the Boye Mafe inventory that is accessible,” Jeremiah posted Monday on Twitter/X. “He is on the cusp of being a famous person. He performs at a special pace, and he is beginning to learn to rush the passer.”

Mafe was among the best athletes to enter the league as a rookie two years in the past. At 6-foot-4, 261 kilos, he clocked a 4.53-second 40 time (98th percentile amongst defensive ends over the past 20 years), to go together with a 38-inch vertical (91st percentile) and a 10-foot-5 broad bounce (92nd percentile). It seemed like he started to faucet into these items final week, producing a whopping 9 pressures in his staff’s win over the Broncos.

Lowe may have a bonus over Mafe in the case of size. His 35.5-inch arms (versus Mafe’s 32.5-inch arms) may assist the anticipated beginning left sort out for the Patriots — who subbed in for Chukwuma Okorafor in the first quarter of Week 1 — to get an preliminary punch in pass-protection. Lowe has a capability to make use of what offensive line coach Scott Peters calls a “zero strike,” punching across the collar of an on-coming rusher to jolt the opponent backward, and he used it successfully at occasions in one-on-one conditions in coaching camp.

However Mafe’s mixture of measurement and pace off the sting may make him a handful for any sort out, and with the Patriots passing recreation trying prefer it’ll want extra time than it had per week in the past (over 40 p.c of dropbacks resulted in strain for Brissett), he could not permit for that to occur.

Doesn’t suggest the Patriots cannot win. However would not really feel like this would be the week the place their passing recreation will get going.

Prediction: Patriots 13, Seahawks 12