A Final Salute to the Seahawks with Mina Kimes

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2:35Mina Kimes:Welcome to NFL Daily, where Mina Kimes and her Seahawks got revenge 11 years later. I'm Greg Rosenthal. It's NFL Daily, our first show after the Super Bowl. And this is going to be a tradition, Nina. We had Bo Wolfe on the first show after the Eagles won last year. And I want to have someone who can just revel in their team winning the Super Bowl and provide great analysis. Thank you for coming on during a time of the year. I'm sure you're ready to go hibernate.

3:07Gregg Rosenthal:That's okay. Glad to be here. I was at Disneyland all day yesterday yes which was really fun actually because I'd never seen the whole MVP parade moment and they we were on set like on Main Street and the parade float was like literally coming up to our set which was a very cool experience and then Darnold and Kenneth Walker who was the actual MVP joined the show and so that was a very special moment that I was excited to see firsthand but I am also excited to just kind of to revel in it because I really because I went live right after the game and Ben and I were trying to break down everything that happened but I haven't had a chance to like take it all in

3:46Mina Kimes:yeah I I wanted I wanted to start there at Disneyland I I should have said that yeah this this show maybe the Chris Wessling podcast studio which you taped from on Sunday night uh we'll get to that maybe that was the happiest place on on earth Sunday night I guess not though because it's a different vibe when you have to work right afterwards but what what is that like what was it like for you at Disneyland? Because you're there in a professional capacity, but it's also like your team, and it's Darnold, and it's Walker. It's a cool moment professionally, and as a fan, I would imagine.

4:21Gregg Rosenthal:My kid was also there for the first time. Wow. I came by and actually met my teammate, like my NFL Live cast members, which was a very, that was actually probably the coolest moment of the day for me personally. But it was cool. The other thing I'll say is there was just so many Seahawks fans there. I always wondered about how that works per se right like if you're a fan of a team when do you decide to go to disneyland because you're not booking that trip like that feels like hubris um i enjoy so and and yeah it was very overrun i felt like you could speak to this too san francisco was just overwhelmingly seahawks fans and obviously it's seattle seattle is pretty close to san francisco and that makes a difference But all week long, we were at the pier and it felt like an 80 to 20 Seahawks to Patriots ratio behind us.

5:11Mina Kimes:I didn't feel it during the week as much, maybe just because of where we were downtown. Like it just seemed like there was plenty of both. But I cannot remember a stadium for the postgame MVP and Lombardi presentation that was that packed and that loud. It felt like no one had left, especially at the ends of the stadium. It was like three quarters still full. And you've been there, I believe, for various Super Bowls afterwards. Usually that thing clears out so much. And it's just like the bottom bowl and the diehards. But everyone was reveling in it. And it was obvious, I'm sure, from the TV copy, how it was just all Seahawks fans at the game.

5:56Mina Kimes:It was the saddest Super Bowl. I mean the saddest touchdown maybe in NFL history my wife Emeka who was there was that Ramondre touchdown at the end because like the Seahawks fans didn't didn't care by the end but no Patriots fans that were even still left I saw some leaving were cheering so it was just like a totally silent terrible touchdown moment um the yeah the touchdown it's funny because people have been asking me like

6:21Gregg Rosenthal:when did you know and I've been giving like like actually really early in the game yeah but I mean disrespectful it was pretty obvious but um the other thing i've been asked is like did you get nervous at all when they scored and i was like well after mike brabel didn't go for two i thought no uh just kidding but um it was in it was such an interesting drive right greg because greg derek may hit like the two best throws of the entire game by either quarterback on that drive and then he comes back out. And there was a small part of me that thought if May scores again here and he's actually like, they've like turned it up, he could be a legend.

7:02Gregg Rosenthal:Like, that'd be crazy comeback. But I also thought those were both two pretty low percentage throws. One was into like Traffler, like five guys in the middle of the field and he hits Hollins on the in-breaker. And then the other one was just a go ball, right? Against Woolen. but it was a great throw great catch contested whatnot i just thought the likelihood of them doing it again was very low and that proved to be the case because he turned it over that next drive right i'm gonna try in the same to hit the same part of the field too you know i wanted to i want

7:31Mina Kimes:to get into the the game of it all like was it a good game that is interesting because it was definitely my fandom that probably made me feel differently that since it just kept being two scores and the Patriots defense kept playing so well. I just kept thinking I've watched enough games where it's like two scores in the team that should be winning by 40. Like often let the other team come back.

7:57Gregg Rosenthal:You know, went through my head because I was, I covered the Falcons Pat Superbowl, and I was in a press box for that game planning on like what piece I would write and, you know, staying till the end. And when the Patriots started coming back in that game, one of the things that made me think it was possible was how much Atlanta's defense had been on the field. For a very, because hilariously, not hilariously if you're a Falcons fan, I'm sorry. You're like, why the hell are you bringing this up? The Falcons scored too fast in those games and the time of possession, I remember checking the time of possession and thinking like, that's not good.

8:38Gregg Rosenthal:right like this is a tired defense whereas Seattle while the offense it was not their best day particularly the passing attack of course they were able to put together some drives and Seattle was just getting off the field so quickly every time that I thought okay they're still fresh the other thing about the Seahawks pass rush is that they've got waves of guys so you know you're you're able to mix it up and and substitute and um i just didn't feel that same panic about the defense that i did obviously it's also a much better defense in atlanta but yeah i think just that that was something that occurred to me watching the game i don't think i checked the time possession but i remember thinking like i don't think they're tired right

9:21Mina Kimes:now they were winning the total plays battle too which to me is even more telling than time of possession pretty significantly even at halftime and then it got worse you're right I really felt it like the punt on fourth and one and really just the three and out to start the second half even though I was holding out hope like still while like it stayed two scores until like basically the moment may fumbled at 12 nothing and then they cashed that in I was still holding out hope when they came out of halftime and just went three and out I was like okay it's probably not happening i sort of convinced myself like maybe they come out in the second half and it's going to be different and it brings up a larger question i've heard a lot of kind of casual fans and and maybe some big fans that they want a better game just talking about what a bad super bowl it was and maybe it's just being there and maybe it's just like i like different types of games because it's the super bowl that adds so much weight to it and i was enjoying their defense just dominate and I was enjoying like the Patriots just scratching and clawing on defense and holding on for dear life and kind of the game theory and everything else that was going on.

10:31Mina Kimes:And it looked different that I was like, OK, this is a different sort of Super Bowl. And it would have needed the Patriots to come back a little and more to happen for it to be like a great Super Bowl. But I thought people are being too hard in the game. Like I like a little bit of a different style of game. And it was very typical Seahawks game for this season. I ran through all the games that were like this for them, whether it was the Panthers or the Falcons. There was like two more where it was just like this kind of like the Colts game, like where it kind of looked like a Seahawks game. And like, I didn't hate it.

11:04Mina Kimes:I thought people were being too hard on it. And ultimately the Seahawks team was just so badass that it's hard not to appreciate.

11:09Gregg Rosenthal:I think people's understanding of the Seahawks is pretty worked by the NFC championship too. Like you said, this is how they won a lot of games this season, leaning very heavily on the defense and the offense kind of just doing enough. and so people watched the NFC Championship and thought ooh like bombs away Seattle the offense is like you know we should get like this great performance on both sides of the ball and that this game was very indicative of who they were for the second half of the season the difference being I would say Sam Darnold protected football and mitigated pressure better than he did in the second half of the season which he deserves a ton of credit for that in my mind the one thing I'll say about like was this a good game I would argue this was a much better setting aside my own personal enjoyment and feeling pretty chill as evidenced by the fact I told you, I thought it was over early.

11:57Gregg Rosenthal:I think this is a lot better than the 40, the, um, the Broncos Superbowl 48.

12:03Mina Kimes:Yes.

12:03Gregg Rosenthal:Uh, because you know, that one, it just didn't feel like Denver put up a fight. And to your point, uh, the Patriots defense really put up a fight in this and, and made some impressive plays. And also that Broncos offense was just so outmatched. Not that the, obviously the Patriots offense was very outmatched, but I wasn't watching this game thinking like, wow, this Patriots offense stinks. I know that's how everybody is talking about it. I was watching most of the game thinking like, this is how good Seattle's defense is. And again, I think that was affected by the NFC championship because people kind of misunderstood how the Seattle defense had looked all season long after watching Matthew Stafford and the Rams who were able to, I think, tear it up for some reasons that are a little bit more complicated than Matthew Stafford is just, you know, an amazing, incredible older quarterback who's experienced.

13:02Yeah.

13:03Mina Kimes:I mean, the receivers, the familiarity and his ability to hit some of those throws, like the, the throw that may had to Hollins. I was so glad he had those two throws in a row just as a Drake McGinn just to have just to have something positive out of just a miserable

13:17Gregg Rosenthal:postseason for him well I think Kyle Shanahan put it best at Super Bowl week when he said you know because the Seahawks have completely demolished his offense which by the way outside of the Seahawks game was a top five offense in football this year and the Seahawks blanked them shut him down right but Kyle said I saw a great quote like look if you can't run on there too high you got no chance and going back and watching I wish I had emphasized this a little bit more going into the game the Rams a lot of those big Stafford lit them up with play action in that game and most of those throws because I was going back and I watched them all to try to be like can the Patriots approximate this to any degree a lot of them the Seahawks would show too high but then rotate the safety down very quickly And so he was able to get the same.

14:05Gregg Rosenthal:The Pseus just had zero respect for new England's run game. And I think if I would go back and like kind of rethink this, you know, I, you know, I picked Seattle to win obviously like everybody else. But I think the thing that was very clear in this very early is if you can't run on this defense, you are dead in the water and Patriots were dead in the water.

14:27Mina Kimes:And I thought, yeah, I thought they, they should have been a little more patient or tried it more even to start the second half it's like the first run that they have they they pop for what was it it was like a six yard run on on second and 10 and that's the only run that drive and then the next the next drive they get nine on first down and they can't pick up first down on a second and one with travion and they throw on third and one and then at that point like the running game was was over for the rest of the day then again you're trying to run on byron murphy who we had on after the show and leonard williams and it's just like there were mismatches all around so i i i think We didn't emphasize this enough that I think it was a bad Patriots coaching performance.

15:07Gregg Rosenthal:Oh, that was I went hard on McDaniels after the game. Also, like. Why wait so long to start tossing it to Henderson? Like that was something I thought they would do. There were a couple of things I thought they would do in this game. One was the jumbo, the six offensive line, which they did once and hit a 21 yard pass to booty and then never went back to it. The tosses to Henderson. I thought we would see a lot of pony, which is funny because it goes back to the last Patriots iteration, the team that played the Seahawks the last time. That was the big pony personnel team. Barely. There was like 11, I think 80 % of the time, May in the gun.

15:47Mina Kimes:More than any game all season.

15:48Gregg Rosenthal:Didn't move him around by design. I did not understand the game plan. I thought Josh McDaniels really struggled in this one.

15:55Mina Kimes:I think they would have had to play well and had the right game plan to make it competitive and they probably still would have lose we find out afterwards may get to pain killing injection i had heard after the afc championship like that was a little more of a thing i believe that he got an mri on it which i don't know if it ever like got out there but you know he he was playing but for him to end up with the worst epa since they started keeping track of

16:22Gregg Rosenthal:worse yeah i don't mean like if mcgan's than manning yeah for a playoff run it's a tough way

16:28Mina Kimes:it's a tough way for it to end and there's no promise that you get back there ollie connelly points out that only one quarterback has ever won the super bowl after like losing the first super bowl he went to although that's how many quarterbacks have been back to the super right probably not not not probably not that that many obviously playing jim kelly you know stands out as one who kept getting back and back but jalen hurts did it did it one time i i do want to get into the fan of it all because like I said, this is a tradition. We're going to do this show hopefully after every Super Bowl. One of my least favorite parts of Top Chef, and we both love Top Chef, Mina, is they move on so fast, right?

17:04Mina Kimes:The season ends. It's this big culmination and they win and we got like one minute of them drinking champagne afterwards and celebrating. It's like, I need a whole postgame show. I want like a half hour of them talking about it. And so that's this version of the show. And so I'm going to have you relive the end of this game. Let's actually listen to Steve Rabel, the K-I-R-O announcer, calling the end of the Seahawks game. Three, two, one. The Seahawks, they're bringing it home again for the second time in less than 12 years. The Seahawks win Super Bowl 60. They are bringing the Lombardis back to the Northwest.

17:50Mina Kimes:And the party begins at Levi's Stadium and in Seattle. And it won't stop for days. I love that shot of Mike McDonald just looking up into the sky. Give me a little bit of how you felt at that moment and then just how this team, Mike McDonald, makes you feel as someone who's rooting for the Seahawks your whole life.

18:16Gregg Rosenthal:I just love that the team won in a way that was so representative of their identity and their coach. Right. Um, you know, he, I voted for him coach of the year.

18:29Mina Kimes:I didn't have a vote, but I, he was my big, I mean,

18:33Gregg Rosenthal:the turnaround he's done with this defense is remarkable. People forget how bad the defense was the year before he became the head coach. It was 28th to go from that to the, not only the best in the NFL, but to win in dominant fashion, to be the story of the Super Bowl, is just a testament to his coaching. I thought he had some brilliant calls in this game, but also when you watch all these players, and look, Schneider's done a fantastic job of not just drafting guys, but the free agents they've signed have been really impactful. I've mentioned the trade for Ernest Jones, all of the pieces coming together.

19:11Gregg Rosenthal:but um you know to see how much these players have developed and how well they fit and how well they played together i think that was the big takeaway watching them all game the way i would describe this seahawks defense is watching it makes this this version watching it makes me feel like i do when i watch the shanahan mcveigh offenses where you feel one, they're completely dictating to offenses and confusing them and attacking tendencies, protection lapses. But the way they all play together, I thought it was just so on display in this game. The way the pressures are so coordinated. They're like this beautiful ballet, right?