Santa Clara, California
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Clichés are annoying. They’re overused, nobody likes to hear them and few people like to actually use them because they often feel like they should be saying something more creative or insightful.
Unless you’ve just won the Super Bowl and you’re just ready to shout it as loud as you can because all of it has been just so true.
“Defense wins championships!” emphasized Jaxon Smith-Njigba, a wide receiver who usually spends his time trying to carve defenses up.
It’s unlikely that the culture of the NFL will turn away from the search for the next high-powered offense, the quest to put together as many explosive plays as possible, where touchdowns are always the ultimate goal.
But, man, this Seattle Seahawks team just made the case that maybe the focus should be on putting together a team of bruisers who can absolutely suffocate a top offense when it matters most.
“When it’s all said and done, boy, those are a bunch of bad boys,” said Ernest Jones IV, the middle linebacker who is the heart and soul of the Seahawks defense.
What the Seahawks did on Sunday isn’t just unusual, it’s close to unheard of. For three quarters, The Dark Side – the intimidating nickname bestowed upon this group – held Drake Maye and the Patriots offense to 78 yards.
Seventy-eight yards. There are games when the opening drive goes that far.
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This wasn’t just some middling offense that got shut down by a great defense, either. Maye passed for more than 4,000 yards this year and finished second to Matthew Stafford in the MVP voting. He’s not had a great postseason, but his quality has shown at every clutch moment throughout this Super Bowl run. He’s a great player with a bright future and the Seahawk defense made him look like a junior varsity quarterback brought up to play in the state title game because all the other guys got hurt.
The craziest thing is that the Seahawks didn’t even do it with that much effort from a play-call perspective. There weren’t a ton of blitzes or dramatically unusual formations or looks for Maye and the Patriots. For the most part, they lined up in their base defense or a variation of it and just went after Maye.
And they got there. Repeatedly.
Maye was sacked six times, hit 11 times, lost a fumble and threw two interceptions that essentially sealed the game.
It didn’t take long for the Seahawks’ defense to realize they had the Patriots’ number.
“Honestly, mid-first quarter,” said safety Julian Love when asked by CNN Sports when he knew the Seahawks had the Patriots where they wanted them.
“And it’s not necessarily like, ‘OK, yeah, we’re gonna jump ahead’ or anything like that. It’s like, ‘OK, they have to earn each play.’ They might complete a pass here, they might break a tackle here or there, but that’s the nature of our defense. We swarm to the ball. We make them line it up and earn it each play. And it was just a style, it’s a style thing. They’re getting excited they got even a four- or five-yard run. And then we create a negative play. The next play, it’s just us lining up again and again on defense to just impose our will.”
At about the time that Love was feeling that his defense had the Patriots on the ropes, Jones said the feeling on the sideline changed.
How does one describe what it feels like to know you’re showing up in a big way in the biggest game of your life? What’s it like to know that you have been given the biggest opportunity and you’re fully taking it?
Judging by the attitude from the Seahawks after the game, it’s a whole vibe.
“We all felt it. We felt it during the game that we were dominating, even when they scored the touchdown they scored, because that was a lack of us looking ahead,” Jones told CNN Sports.
“It takes a lot to lock into those … moments where you got them on the ropes, but I think that’s where Mike comes in. Mike’s been really like, no matter what, the way anything is going, he keeps us straight ahead, going forward. “
Mike is head coach Mike Macdonald, who at 38 years old, just became the third youngest coach in history to win a Super Bowl.
Macdonald came to Seattle from Baltimore, where he put together a fearsome Ravens defense and studied under John Harbaugh. He was expected to reignite a franchise that had grown used to being OK under former head coach Pete Carroll. The Seahawks were always good, but they were never great in Carroll’s final years.
Before this year, the Seahawks hadn’t won a playoff game since 2019. They hadn’t advanced past the divisional round since the last time they were in the Super Bowl 11 years ago, which they lost to the Patriots.
Suffice to say, Macdonald has more than done his job. And it starts on defense.
“I’m not surprised, it’s what they do,” he told CNN’s Andy Scholes on the field after the game. “Guys pick each other up every time, that’s what we’ve been doing since last year. It’s awesome to do at this stage.”
Inflicting pain on mind and body
The effect of this Seattle defense was clear after the game on the man they targeted most all night: Maye.
The second-year quarterback out of the University of North Carolina came into this game carrying the weight of history on his shoulders. After all, it was another second-year quarterback who kick-started the best period of the franchise’s history: Tom Brady won Super Bowl XXXVI at 24, a year older than Maye is now.
The disappointment – with how he played, with the final score, with having this season come to an end – had Maye in tears as he spoke postgame with reporters. He gamely stayed for a long time, answering questions, but it was clear the game had taken a toll on him, most of it due to the opponents’ swarming defense.
“They’re well coached. You know, we knew they can be in the right spot. They mix it up. And I think they’ve got good players at all three levels. That’s the biggest thing,” Maye told CNN Sports.
“They made more plays than we did. And, you know, I got to make better throws and move in the pocket and change the launch point and do a lot of things … at a better level for us to win.”
Maye looked like he’d just survived a fight. His hair was pressed down, his eyes were tired and his body sort of sagged as he sat in his chair. He had taken off his jersey and pads but still wore his cleats and the rest of his uniform.
All week, Maye was as chipper as one could be. It had been a long season and he was a little banged up, but from Super Bowl Opening Night through all the media availabilities that this week demands, he was charismatic, polite and charming. What stood out most was his energy. It seemed like Patriots staffers would have to tear him away from the microphone because he was happy to keep talking about his team and their season.
On Sunday night, he looked like a man who’d had his soul ripped out. And that’s what a great defense does to quarterbacks.
That might come off as a little dark. But take it from Smith-Njigba: That’s the point.
“Man, the real Dark Side. S**t gets dark, for real.”