Seahawks-Patriots Kickoff Recap!

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2:32Shotgun snap. Looks to the end zone. Now he wants to throw it up for grabs. He does. It's intercepted. Did he keep his toes in? Did he keep his toes in? He did. It's intercepted in the end zone.

2:44Jourdan Rodrigue:Holy catfish. The third pick of the night by the Seahawks. And it's Josh Jobe. He ran a better route than the receiver. Tippy-toed on the end line. Kept his feet in and keeps the Patriots out of the end zone. The coaches are going absolutely nuts in the booth next to us.

3:13Welcome to NFL Daily. That was Steve Rabel. That was the Seattle Seahawks winning the kickoff game in very similar fashion to the way they ended last season, at least giving Steve Rabel a holy catfish call at the end, dominating on defense, not so much on offense because they had lost their quarterback, Sam Darnold, earlier in the game. But I'm with Jordan Roderick. We are talking about a regular season football game, and we are still talking about this Seattle defense. We'll get to the Darnold of it all and Drake May going interception, interception, interception in the fourth quarter. And what a disastrous loss it is for New England.

3:55But I know you, Jordan, and I know you just want to start by giving some flowers to the defense that won them the Super Bowl a year ago.

4:05Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah, absolutely. Notable about Drake May's three interceptions was per next gen, all of them were on pass attempts of 15 plus yards. And otherwise when he threw underneath, which was really the only thing that was, that was working against this Seattle defense, the way that they played, he was 22 for 25, 159 yards and a touchdown. So throwing middle to deep did not work for Drake May because that's just what this Seahawks defense does. Greg, I showed you my sheet. I saved a card, a card entirely for Seattle's defense tonight to see, to fill it up with moments where they were simply exceptional.

4:42Jourdan Rodrigue:And I had one space left and we were on the live stream getting ready. And I said, Greg, I've got, it's a final drive for the Patriots. I've got one spot left at the bottom of my card. And look what happens, Josh Jobe, just exceptional body control to toe tap that in and come up with the interception that sealed the game. Yeah, I think so many things about this game. It was fascinating for the Patriots to be up 10 points with Sam Darnold going out on the fifth play for the Seahawks offense with a hip injury. He did not return. We'll break down what that could mean long term for the Seahawks later.

5:17We'll see what they say postgame. We're taping this right after the game. They have a touchdown lead with the ball driving in the fourth quarter to start. And that's when the interceptions happen. But I want you to go through one or two of those plays as we go. But I do think it's worth mentioning, like, the first interception, the Nehemiah Pritchett interception is an absolutely incredible individual play, where Romeo Dobbs, who was a disaster tonight for the Patriots, didn't make a great effort on it. The Julian Love interception was an absolutely great play. And then that last interception, it's one thing to run the route like the receiver.

5:59It's another thing to go high point the ball, get your feet down. Like these guys, even the third, fourth guys that you think of when you think about this defense like Job and Pritchard, get it done. In fact, you know, we're the only show here that can go and give highlights right off the bat. I want to actually hear that Julian Love interception, taking it back to the fourth quarter. Actually, I'm going to switch that up. Let's go to the Naramaya Pritchett interception because that brings us to the start of the fourth quarter. The Patriots are driving, and this is really where the beginning of the end for this Patriots offense and Drake May's night starts.

6:35Let's hear that Pritchett interception.

6:37Jourdan Rodrigue:May under center. Play fake to Kiner this time. May hits his back foot. He's going to let it fly down the near side. Reaching up, tipping it up, intercepting it. Coming back to the near side. It's Pritchett coming up the near side.

6:53Jourdan Rodrigue:I love that. And it's funny to think where we were at the beginning of the fourth quarter when we're like, we have no highlights to this game. And it did end in very Seattle fashion. Like what got you going watching this secondary do their thing late in the game? Just the control, the body control, the hand-eye coordination at full speed. That was a rule of cool interception as well as just a really, really sick, awesome play. Truly. I mean, it was to me when we talk a lot about really good defense as we talk about to me how in control they can keep their bodies when they're going at full speed and when their brains are moving a million miles an hour diagnosing things.

7:38Jourdan Rodrigue:The Seahawks did a lot of different things tonight with pressure. They had to, you know, try to just confuse and mix up Drake May. They were playing some cloudier coverages at times. They were rotating players. And they were relying on deeper reserve guys because Nick Imanwari was injured. And so this, to me, was an example of just really talent and depth and really good coaching of technique and just a really, really solid, just relentless effort because it really wasn't like this for a while in this game. And then these defensive backs just started really showing up. And Drake May was testing them and did not pass the test there.

8:14No, he did not. that I think all three were bad decisions. The first one's a jump ball to Romeo Dobbs. The third is a disastrous decision. Julian Love made a nice play on the second one, but maybe got confused and Douglas fell on the play.

8:31Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah, I might argue with you on the second one because I think all the pressure they had been sending sort of almost made some of the drop, like some of the maybe faux pressure, body positioning of the DBs a little bit confusing for him. It looked like that was like set up by earlier plays that they baited him into that. So but yes, continue. I interrupted you. I was no, no, you're absolutely right. I was saying like the first and third were bad decisions. The third was like he got fooled. It's going to happen. And it was a great play by Julian Love. It's a reminder like how this team has put their secondary together.

9:03It's like you watch Reek Willen leave. You don't have Nick Imanwari and they coach up these guys like Naramaya Pritchett and they bring in a guy like Josh Dove from Philadelphia and he makes it happen. What the heck? I want to see highlights. We've been waiting so long for actual game highlights. Let's see that Julian Love interception in the fourth quarter.

9:43Jourdan Rodrigue:an absolute thorn in Drake Mays behind. And that time, the second pick of the night for the Seattle defense. Yeah, Greg, it's cool because that was his biggest splash play, I would say, that we were using in the highlight. But one thing that Julian Love really embodied for this team tonight, and Nehemiah Pritchett did as well with a big stop for no gain late in the game, was how well they tackle. and Julian Love added a few tackles for loss and a couple of run stuffs, was getting into the backfield, was playing everywhere, was really just marshalling everything, keeping everything organized, but also very cloudy at times too for the quarterback.

10:24Jourdan Rodrigue:And that's part of it is even when the Patriots were moving the ball and with some of those like swing passes that they hit and some of the short stuff that they were trying to go into, get into a rhythm with and mitigate pressure a little bit, which they did well through most of the first three quarters of the game and into the fourth quarter, they the Seahawks didn't make anything easy for them because they tackle so well and because they can move these players and get them into the backfield so often. And it's not just the DBs. It's the it's the big guys, too. And I thought the Patriots did a better job than the Super Bowl, recognizing blitzes and pass protecting for the most part.

11:03But Chris Collinsworth was going nuts about how the offensive line was better. And it was bad. Like their running game was a disaster. They stuck with it the whole game. Their offense wasn't much better than the Super Bowl, if it was at all. These were actually the two worst games by EPA per play of the entire Mike Vrabel era. The last two against the Seahawks. Now that's heavily weighted towards the last three drives. But they had 10 points before those three drives. They wasted opportunities. They didn't really move the ball. The Seahawks withdrew lock at quarterback ended up with more yards than the Patriots, despite the Patriots finally putting together a good drive in the fourth quarter.

11:39And before we kind of get to like the larger picture, I do kind of want to start with the end of the game. It was fascinating because on so many ways, in so many ways, this was a week one game. Both teams look sloppy. The Seahawks were kind of a disaster in terms of their operation. Tons of pre-snap penalties, two personal foul calls. At one time, I think they had five penalties before the play started and two 15-yard penalties. And they also blew their timeouts early in the second half. So when that final interception happened, Jordan, it was setting up for, wow, the Patriots handled the end of the game sequence incredibly well.

12:17And Drake May overcomes these mistakes to beat the vaunted Seahawks defense at the end of the game. On that drive, they go for a fourth and two inside their own 35. Drake May runs for the first time, as you pointed out to me, in the first half on that play. He gets it. He runs a couple other times just trying to buy time on that drive. He overcomes a third and 19, hits Hunter Henry for 10 yards, and then a fourth and nine, getting it to Matt Collins. He gets them in easy field goal position to possibly win the game before they start getting penalties. And that's why I have a little problem with Collinsworth saying the offensive line was playing well because they had penalty after penalty from the Patriots offensive line.

12:58Will Campbell had a couple. They had more down the stretch. And it was kind of a mistake off and like whose best is going to win and whose best was the Seahawks defense. They're just like the best group in this game. So I give you the choice of your on your list. Like what is one of the cool plays you want to highlight about the Seahawks team? I'm putting you on the spot, but yeah.

13:19Jourdan Rodrigue:Cheninuosu jumps a screen on second down in the third quarter. That was sick. okay okay uh oh uh chenna no so had a really great game first quarter he totally bricks the rookie tight end eli raritan who did have the the first touchdown of the nfl season so good for him and he's a rookie tight end for new england um and then that's when that was the sequence that set up witherspoon on the corner blitz too and for me that was like them trying to set the tone and and make a statement of intent. And the sequence itself was so, I guess, new vintage of what the Seahawks, the Seahawks group is. I really appreciated the sequence after a totally disastrous four play, 14 net yards possession in the third quarter by Drew Locke in the Seattle offense, where it was a tackle for loss by Julian Love.

14:14Jourdan Rodrigue:It was a one yard stop, another third down stop. And then on the punt team, Jay Harbaugh says, I'm the OG special teams guy. I'm from that family. Oh, come on. Say it with your chest. You're sending me texts. You are so fired up. I'm the hardball here. I sent you a rude text. And they sort of scared the Patriots into taking a penalty there that was really bad. For me, that was like the two phases that we know Seattle really finds its edges in, showing up in a big way and lifting the floor for a pretty struggling offense. And I'm not saying Drew Locke played poorly. There was some situational stuff that was really, really bad.

14:55Jourdan Rodrigue:Some of the pressure pickups were just failure. Like he's going to want back the times where he was staring at his wristband like seven times and delay of games. And some of the pressure calls, they'll probably change some of the pressure call assignments to somebody else because clearly he was not in charge of executing them. And a couple of those, like the Yakis play, like a couple of those plays really got blown up and someone should have picked up that pressure and adjusted beforehand. But these two phases are what makes Seattle special. I think it sounds so cheesy, I know, but I would bet that that's the group they wanted on the field at the end of the game was the defense.

15:29It's absolutely true. And Drew Locke did not have a turnover in this game. In the end, if you just looked at the box score, he's 16 for 22 for 187 yards and a touchdown. They only end up with 13 points. But the key play in the entire game, other than the game ending interception, is the JSN touchdown. And the fact that the Patriots going into halftime with the lead, with Mike Tomlin in the building, you know, covering the game for NBC, decided to do what Mike Tomlin says you don't want to do. And that's live in your fears. The Patriots were living in their fears. They were living on short runs to Ramondre Stevenson.

16:10They get over midfield and they call a run on fourth and five. When you have Seattle reeling, you get a couple yards and then you punt at the end of the half. And you know who didn't punt on fourth down? Mike McDonald. He calls a play action pass. Let's hear it.

16:30Jourdan Rodrigue:And it's going to be fourth down and less than a yard. Drew Locke is going to go under center. Ibach's behind him. Wilson stays in a tailback. Play fake. Drew looks. Drew throws. Ball is caught. Guess who? JSM brings his ankle. 30. Play by 20. He's a go. He is. Touchdown Seahawks. JSM on a quick turn in. Takes it 45 yards. Runs right through the heart of the Patriot defense. And he lances their heart. Reminds me of a lot of plays from that Super Bowl where they got the linebackers, Robert's playing in that case to suck up on the play action fake. And on a day where I was like, JSN's been kind of quiet until that touchdown.

17:16He ends up with eight catches for 122 yards. This is a game where neither team went over 300 yards. And yet JSN just getting his MVP numbers. And I know McDonald didn't have a perfect game, but I do think that's a big difference between these two coaching staffs in this game about how they handled those situations. One is playing to win. It felt like one was playing not to lose.

17:37Jourdan Rodrigue:that call is mcdonald's to make to go for it on that fourth down i want to also say it shows he had some faith in brian flurry his new offensive coordinator and in part you could really see why because that looked like a very san francisco 49ers thing to do like not go for it on fourth down kyle shanahan almost like just never does the thing but on a short yardage play like that to line up in that formation with the fullback to run like a longer developing play action to have the receiver come off the line of scrimmage as if he is going to go for the deeper concept but then sit right in the soft part of that zone where that system often puts linebackers in absolute hell like and then to have him turn and then have the yards after the catch I know Seahawks I'm sorry to say this.

18:32Jourdan Rodrigue:It just looked very like vintage. Kyle Shanahan is going to steal your soul in this moment kind of play. And I loved seeing the cohesion between Mike McDonald actually making that decision and going for it. And then trusting Brian Flory was going to call that type of play. Obviously he most recently coached in San Francisco. So to me, it was like a lot of callbacks in a cool way. That's what I love about football is like, we're all products of stuff we did before. and that was some of this game very much. I mean, you could see it in the game plans for both teams too. No doubt. And look, Clint Kubiak was with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco.

19:09Seahawks fans will take anything that looks like the 49ers offense under Kyle Shanahan this season. I am thinking of our friends that are waking up in Europe and they're listening to the podcast and they're like, wait, Sam Darnold got hurt? Also, A.J. Brown hurt his ankle in this game, limped off. Mike Vrabel would not give any update after the game. He was limping off under his own power, but that happened. That was an important part of the Patriots offense struggling down the stretch because at that point in the game, he was the guy Drake May was looking to on big third downs. He had, I believe, three catches and at least two first downs of those three catches, maybe all three.

19:51Sam Darnold leaves with a hip injury, and we're excited football's back. We're a little let down. you know when Darnold gets hurt and it's just a lackluster first half and it just feels like a bummer of a kickoff game and we're riding high taping this right afterwards because we got real football in the end and yet it's week one like the Patriots lost to Geno Smith last year in week one in the Raiders and went to the Super Bowl the year before Gerard Mayo beat Joe Burrow and the Bengals in Cincinnati in week one. And we know what happened there.

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