That's a wrap on the season, with a game that sometimes happens when a hot defense gets to the big game. Maybe not the '85 Bears, but I was thinking of the 2015 Broncos shutting down the Cam Newton Panthers. There was no beating Seattle yesterday.
The game. Kind of ironic based on the way 90 percent of the game went that only a penalty on a late Kenneth Walker touchdown run prevented the over from winning. It was 45.5, the final points total was 42, and it was well, well under that for most of the game (12-0 after three quarters). Thirty meaningless points in the fourth quarter, although it certainly swung a whole lot of bets and playoff competitions.
The Seattle Defense was lights out, to say the least. Around halftime I saw a stat that had New England with 4 first downs and 6 punts, which pretty much continued into the fourth quarter. Those arguing the past couple of weeks against the Patriots in general and Drake Maye specifically had a field day, but there's really not that much to say. I'm not sure very many quarterbacks would have done anything against a defense playing at Seattle's level.
Surprises, well, it was a great game from Kenneth Walker, who deservedly received the MVP. It could have also gone to The Defense, but hard to assign it to one player. I saw some suggesting it should have been Jason Myers, but no man, those were kicks you're supposed to make. Walker far exceeded my expectations against a really good New England run defense. He's going to get paid this offseason.
Nice game for Cooper Kupp, better than I expected for AJ Barner, and another nice outing for Mack Hollins. Rhamondre Stevenson also fared pretty well. Maye finished with nice final numbers (sacks and turnovers aside), so there's that, but we watched the game -- rough outing.
There were a couple of shaky moments for Sam Darnold. A throw or two that looked close to being snagged by the defense and taken the other way. A play or two where the pass rush was just a half-step late. I'm not ripping Darnold, who had a great postseason and season. Had I been rooting for the Patriots, though, I know today I'd be thinking about a couple of close plays that didn't get made that at the very least would have swung momentum. But, not New England's day.
Probably the worst moment for the Patriots offense was a Drake Maye interception with 10 minutes left in the game and the score 19-7. It was second down, near midfield, and a touchdown drive there would have actually made it a game. The ball was put up for grabs for no apparent reason. And it was all over but the celebrating. Congrats to Seattle.
Prop bets. Looking at my various predictions from last week, hits were Kupp, Hollins, Seattle defense TD, combined sacks over, Seattle giving 4.5, and the under. Misses were Henry, Smith-Njiba (injury a factor), Walker under (ugh), New England defense TD, and both defenses recording an interception. Not great, but not bad. I won a couple of bets and hope you did too. (I even won a halftime square with 9-0, something that should finance a nice meal out on Valentine's Day.)
Halftime show. I don't talk politics here (or anywhere really). I was at a Super Bowl party that had both shows, enabling (or requiring, depending how you look at it) me to see some of each. In a perfect world the sum total of conversations after the halftime show would be "It was great!", "It was pretty good." or "It sucked." Or perhaps "Hey was that Janet Jackson's nipple?" But we don't live in a perfect world, obviously. Strictly in terms of music, Bad Bunny isn't my thing but the ladies at the party seemed to enjoy. Regarding the other halftime show, the artists performing music seemed OK (I'm excluding the old guy jumping around in his shorts yelling, I don't know what he was doing).
Commercials. The tight end commercial was far and away the best one I saw. Smart and funny. The various commercials where people were digitally made younger (Dunkin, Jurassic Park) had some humor, but they also just really creep me out. The Netflix commercial for the Brad Pitt/Cliff Booth movie was confusing in that I thought I knew what the movie was but I was waiting for the title to actually show up and it didn't. My general opinion, for what it's worth, is that the commercials weren't great. Only a couple actually made me smile, but maybe that's on me.
Post-game. Just kidding, I barely made it through the fourth quarter.
So that's the season, and it seems appropriate that an NFC West team won, with that division having three of the league's very best teams all season long. Had Bo Nix not been hurt and the Broncos been the AFC team in the game, maybe they'd have fared a little better, but probably not by much. Seattle's year, congrats to Mike Macdonald's bunch.
Enjoy the offseason, we'll start talking about next year before you know it.
