3 Keys to Victory for Patriots in Week 2 vs. Seahawks
The New England Patriots are traveling to the West Coast to face one of their tougher opponents of the season, taking on the Seattle Seahawks in a primetime showdown Sunday night.
This matchup has turned in several great games over the last few years. It will obviously look a lot different with the Legion of Boom now gone, along with the Tom Brady reign in New England also recently ending. This will not be the typical Sherman-Brady matchup of old. Instead, now Cam Newton squares off against Jamal Adams.
This Week 2 game will be one to watch closely, as a tough matchup like this will help define who this Patriots team is moving forward in the season. A new-looking New England squad will have their first huge test in a game they are projected to lose.
Let's take a look at what they have to do to overcome the odds, prove who they can be, and take down this Seahawk team on the road.
Simplify Passing Attack for Newton
This game will be really telling to the future and potential of New England's offense. Last week showed that the Patriots can scheme up ways to move the ball downfield, mostly revolving around their run game. The team rushed for 217 yards and rushed at the highest efficiency in the league.
With all that being said, the approach this week and in the coming weeks should be much different. The Seahawks are not the kind of team that you can run those power gap runs against 30 times a game like we saw against the Miami Dolphins. The approach will have to change quite a bit. With the Seahawks' front seven being designed to swallow up those runs up the middle and blitzers like Bobby Wagner and Jamal Adams coming in to blow those runs up, New England will likely find themselves taking to the air a lot more than last week.
While outside of Adams, the Seahawks' secondary is nothing spectacular, they can present some challenges for a passing offense as inexperienced and unproven as New England. But the Patriots will have to take their chances through the air in primetime on Sunday.
The only way to find success in this passing game is to scheme up ways to get certain guys the ball. Dagger concepts off play-action will do the trick against a Cover 3 read secondary like Seattle's. The way their secondary generally operates is like normal Cover 3, until someone enters the given zone of a defender. Then, that defender has that guy in man coverage, one-on-one. By executing dagger concepts and having a running back come out of the backfield for a pass, it can be easy to manipulate that kind of defense, especially the linebackers over the middle.
Other ways in which New England can stimulate the passing game stem primarily from RPOs, which we saw some flashes of last week against Miami. One specific RPO that could be dialed up is one in which the Patriots employ some switch releases to change the cornerback's assignment mid-play. Some switch releases off the RPO with Damiere Byrd running deep may be something we see New England toy with this week. Byrd, being the speedster that he is, would be perfect for this concept.
Overall, don't ask Newton to sit back like Brady and throw out of an empty backfield. That's probably not going to bode well for New England. Expect some RPOs and play-action pass attempts like last week, with maybe a few more difficult throws from Newton. The pass game should ideally look a little less routine and designed than it was last week. Open up the playbook just a tad bit for Newton and diversify the play-call variety.
Create Pressure Off the Edge, Prepare Secondary for Passing Attack
Russell Wilson had a fabulous day last week against the Atlanta Falcons. He showed exactly what he is, which is one of, if not the best quarterback in the league, with D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Chris Carson all being heavy parts of the passing attack.
35 passing attempts from Wilson last week definitely does not represent a common trend in Seattle, as Pete Carroll loves to have the run open up the pass, which is a phrase that will drive every analytically-driven football fan up a wall. Point being, if you are the Patriots, you are hoping that the offensive approach from the Seahawks spends more of it's time on the ground, following Carroll's old philosophies, rather than entering a shootout with this high-powered offense.
Signs point to that being the case, as Seattle was facing a secondary last week that has really been poor for many years. This time around is obviously a different story, as Seattle is now facing one of the league's best secondaries. With New England having a solid claim for being the No. 1 secondary in the league, the Seahawks may air on the side of caution by sticking to the ground with the strong running of Carson.
While Carson is a great running back and the Patriots' run defense was so-so last week, New England will take all the runs from him they can get. Belichick has been known for letting running backs run free while he delegates his attention to the pass game. Most recently, Belichick let Derrick Henry run wild while in the 2019 wild card game while he shut down Ryan Tannehill and the Tennessee Titans' high-powered passing game for most the contest. While the 2019 New England offense failed to put points on the board and take advantage of their opportunities to win the ball game, that defense made the game very winnable. One could expect a similar approach in this game, to shut down Wilson and the passing offense, and give the 2020 Patriots' offense to take advantage of their opportunities and score.
Belichick would be betting that Carson can't win a game single-handily and show a sign of confidence in his offense to battle it out in a likely low-scoring, dog-fight affair.
Look for the Patriots defense to seal off the edges and find ways to create pressure off the edge.
It will be most important, however, for the New England secondary to be on their game and really shut down this passing game early and often.
Try to Mitigate Sloppiness
One negative that could be drawn from last week's game against the Dolphins was some sloppiness on both sides of the ball. This was expected, as no preseason games, a shortened summer of practices, and a boatload of roster turnover occurred this offseason. Naturally, for any team, there should be some sloppiness in Week 1. The Patriots get even more of a pass just because of all these circumstances.
With all that being said, the sloppiness may fly against another team with lots of roster turnover like the Dolphins. However, facing a legit, deep playoff contender like the Seahawks will call for New England to play a near flawless game.
You can bet any dollar figure in the world that Belichick brought up sloppiness in film sessions this week. He surely has reminded his players to play a more disciplined version of football. He knows and has probably made his team well aware of how a turnover like the N'Keal Harry fumble in the endzone last week almost changed the trajectory and the outcome of that game.
If New England can play a clean game of football and follow the two points above, they should have a good shot at pulling off the upset on Sunday night in CenturyLink Field.
