FOXBOROUGH - You never know how much the accumulation of hits can impact a quarterback, especially a young one like Drake Maye. But if you ever wondered what it looks like when a quarterback gets sped up because of pressure, seen or unseen, look no further than the opening drive of the Super Bowl loss to Seattle.
After recording a pair of first downs behind the strength of Rhamondre Stevenson’s running (and receiving), offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels wanted to continue his initial pattern of using his outside receivers to run vertical routes and have the secondary pieces - running backs, Hunter Henry and Pop Douglas - work the short-to-intermediate areas of the field. But a first-down play call went sideways when Jared Wilson’s chip help for left tackle Will Campbell actually sprung Campbell’s defender, Derick Hall, for a sack on Maye.
Maye, who had been under siege for the entirety of the playoffs, bailed on a relatively clean pocket the very next play, never seeing a wide-open Stefon Diggs running down the seam or, for that matter, both TreVeyon Henderson and Hunter Henry open against linebackers underneath. While he scrambled for a handful of yards, it was a sign of things to come for Maye and the Patriots offense. *
On third down, Seahawks head coach/derfensive play caller Mike Macdonald sent all-everything cornerback Devon Witherspoon on a blitz that, quite frankly, the Pats didn’t pick up properly, with Campbell and Wilson blocking the same defender. At the same time, Witherspoon was unabated to the quarterback, forcing Maye to race to his right and throw the ball away. And so it began…
"We had a tell on their guards and their tackles, how they like to set,” you’ll recall Witherspoon saying after the game. “They gonna overset on certain rushes; they're gonna fall for certain moves."
The Pats have never publicly admitted there were obvious tells, even months later. Morgan Moses shut down a question about it earlier this week, and line coach Doug Marrone didn’t take the cheese either.
“It's something that we monitor ourselves, and we just try to make everything look as consistent as possible,” he said on Sunday. “There's some situations that you get in these games where you're behind, and you've got to throw the football. That pretty much everyone, you know, will then throw the football. You know what I'm saying? Or you're in two minutes with no timeout. … what you don't want to do is you don't want to give it away in situations where you know it can go either way.”
But when I asked McDaniels about how the Seahawks stressed their protection plan and what lessons were there to be learned, the long-time offensive coordinator fell on the sword.
“I didn't do a good enough job. Point it at me. They 'out-everythinged' us in the game," McDaniels said, noting that Seattle did a good job with their rush concepts and when they did or didn’t blitz (and I’ll add, how they covered in some of those scenarios).
"We have a lot of things we learned. But I think this will be a different game; I think it will be a new game. It's a new year. We have some different players. They have a few guys that are new. They certainly found some opportunities last year, and hopefully we've done a good job trying to limit those Wednesday night."
As the Super Bowl evolved, the Seahawks dialed up more blitzes with Witherspoon than they had all year, with the main objective an attempt to box Maye in, preventing him from escaping the pocket horizontally, or if he did, doing so with a free runner hot in pursuit (hence the throwaway I described earlier).
It was also interesting to go back and watch how often Macdonald trusted his front four to create havoc. They were playing at such a high level that for all the exotics Macdonald has in his bag, he didn’t need to dig all that deep to exploit the Pats’ protection plan or unnerve a jumpy Maye. Between that and McDaniels feeling like he needed to consistently give his left tackle help (oftentimes taking away a receiver from the play), well, the offense never found its footing until it was far too late.
This year’s version of Campbell appears stronger and more confident. Also, smarter. He was consistently setting vertically last season, allowing rushers more of a runway to attack him. This summer, he has varied his approach, and at least to my eyes, has made it more difficult on opposing edge rushers.
"It's a chess match between a tackle and an edge rusher. They have a plan, we have a plan, and it's about who can disrupt the other's plan,” Campbell mentioned after a joint practice with the Eagles. “It's kind of like a pitcher. If you know the pitcher is going to throw a fastball every time, more than likely, you're going to hit it. So, trying to keep people on their toes."
"He's had a really good mindset. Locked in," McDaniels said. "He had a good spring, good camp - trying to work on the things he knows at his position are important and critical to his improvement."
An improved Campbell - and he was playing on that strained MCL back in February - could open more avenues for the Pats to attack. But the group they’ll be facing made just one major change, losing Boye Mafe to free agency and replacing him with veteran rusher Dante Fowler. Otherwise, Seattle is just as scary as it was a year ago.
“I think that they’re very, very talented, sound, play with great fundamentals,” Vrabel said. “They’re good with their games. They have a very good mix of youth and veteran players. [Byron] Murphy II, Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence - they’ve all done it at a high level.
“Whether they pressure or whether they game or they straight rush, they do a fantastic job of applying pressure. They’re excellent in the run game; they play with their hands, they play square. This will be a great challenge.”
If this offensive line is up to it, expect a much more competitive game on Wednesday night. If not, and you’re the praying type, pray for Maye, because he might need it.