I don't think that many sane and/or rational people gave the Patriots (1-1) much of a chance at all to win tonight in Sunday Night Football at CenturyLink Field vs. the Seahawks (2-0) which is why Seattle's 35-30 victory was entirely predictable if you only look at the final score and knowing that the Pats were a 4.5 point underdog coming in. However, the way that New England hung around while Russell Wilson (21-of-28 for 288 passing yards, 5 TDs; 39 yards rushing) absolutely shredded their overrated secondary was more than admirable, especially since it took a goal-line tackle by Seattle on the game's last play (an ill-fated 1-yard loss by Cam Newton) to seal the win. It's a real shame that these two teams (fun fact: with the league's oldest current head coaches) don't meet more often because every time that they do, it's an instant classic. In fact, their last five meetings have all been decided by seven points or less and the last three have all ended on the goal-line.
Newton (30-of-44 for 397 passing yards, TD; 47 yards rushing, 2 TDs) deserved better but he can at least take solace in the fact that this performance likely earned him a ton of money since at the moment he is the 48th highest paid QB in the NFL (gross, right?). Down one of his few weapons-James White-who missed the game for a tragic reason (his dad was killed in a car accident while his mom is in critical condition from it), Newton did everything he could to win his Patriots road debut. He already has built an obvious connection with Julian Edelman (8 catches on 11 targets for a career-high 179 yards) but perhaps the most promising aspect of Cam's numbers was his constant involvement with Damiere Byrd (6 catches, 72 yards) and N'Keal Harry (8 catches, 72 yards). We'd all love for New England to trade for a star receiver-say Allen Robinson or Odell Beckham (on second thought....) but the reality is that Newton will likely have to make the most of his new underwhelming at best supporting cast.
I didn't realize until the incomparable Sunday Night crew of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth mentioned that Wilson had never received a single vote for NFL MVP. Wait what? If this non-stop highlight reel for him was any indication, that will soon change this season. He spread the ball around to seven different receivers led by a second-year beast named DK Metcalf (4 catches, 92 yards, TD) and the speedy Tyler Lockett (7 catches, 67 yards, TD) and five guys caught touchdowns from Ciara's husband. Amazingly, Seattle almost found a way to blow it as they stupidly tried a deep pass to Lockett on 3rd-and-1 from their own 31. Starting at the 19, the Patriots got the ball back and quickly marched the ball down the field (9 plays, 79 yards in 1:42) so that awful decision by the Seahawks definitely stirred up memories of their Super Bowl 49 blunder for the ages.
It felt like Bill Belichick should have used his last timeout earlier in the drive but the Patriots almost made that null and void since Henry's 12-yard catch-and-run ended at the 1-yard line with three seconds left in regulation. This is when the Pats offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels got in the way by calling for the most obvious play that he could think of: Newton took a shotgun snap and tried to run to the left but he was easily gang-tackled at the 2-yard line as time expired. After running for a pair of touchdowns again in his second game as a Patriot, it felt like everyone knew that they'd keep it in his hands to try and win it. Is it crazy to ask why Cam couldn't have done a play action pass but honestly who would be open since I'm sure that Edelman would have been doubled.
Losing is never enjoyable but games against teams from outside of your division and conference often times aren't as valuable for the most part. I don't want to make too big a deal out of it but this was that elusive loss that proved to a national audience that with a healthy Newton, the Patriots will be a factor both in the AFC East (one of life's greatest certainties) and possibly the AFC as well. Honestly, what more could we ask for in this most uncertain year/season in our lives? Things couldn't have started better for the visitors as they picked off Wilson three plays into the game with Devin McCourty being in perfect position to intercept a pass that clanked off of ancient Greg Olsen's hands and the captain returned it 43 yards for the touchdown.
It takes way more than that to rattle Wilson as he brought his team 13 plays for 75 yards in 8:12 right after Devin's pick-six. Seattle tied it with a four-yard touchdown catch by Lockett from Wilson. Newton and the Pats took another lead on their following drive which eerily imitated Seattle's opening score: 12 plays, 72 yards in 6:28 that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Newton. This won't be the last time I probably say this in 2020 but this evening was the first time that the Patriots clearly missed Dont'a Hightower and Patrick Chung-two of their veteran leaders on the defense that understandably opted out from this nightmare Covid-19 season. Stephon Gilmore was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 and he just got a very rare raise from the Pats but much like Newton on the other side of the ball, he simply cannot do it all alone. He got burned by Metcalf for a 54-yard bomb that tied it at 14 midway through the second quarter and that turned out to be the score at halftime. The Pats had another chance to grab another lead earlier in the second but Nick Folk yanked a 51-yard-field goal that would have made it 17-14.
Cam seemed to have things cooking on the opening drive of the third quarter (13 plays, 68 yards, 4:48) but it stalled in the red zone and they were forced to settle for a 25-yard field goal by Folk. The rest of the frame was defined by depth players on Seattle's roster making incredible plays: David Moore had a twisting catch and got his feet inbounds (with the second one hitting the end zone marker) for a ridiculous 38-yard touchdown that gave the Seahawks their first lead at 21-17. We all know that Bill struggles so much to draft decent wide receivers so maybe he should start to mimic Seattle who finds good ones on scrap heaps and deep into the later rounds of the NFL Draft. For instance, Moore was a seventh-round pick in 2017 and rookie Freddie Swain was a sixth-round pick who made the most of his one target by converting a short catch into a 21-yard touchdown that put the Seahawks up two scores (28-17). That drive began thanks to Cam's only significant mistake of the game: he forced a pass to Byrd on the sideline that got intercepted by cornerback Quinton Dunbar.
I'm sure that many Pats fans went to bed at that juncture, figuring that it's late on a Sunday and their favorite team was probably done at that point. Have a little faith, my friends. Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Newton found fullback Jakob Johnson with a play action pass for a 1-yard touchdown (the 1st career NFL TD for the German). Things looked bleak again as Wilson hit running back Chris Carson (72 yards rushing; 36 yards receiving) with an 18-yard touchdown pass. Trailing 35-23 with 4:32 left in the fourth and being so far away from home during a pandemic, I honestly would not have blamed Newton or other Patriots for (basically) giving up by then. Newton and Edelman thankfully didn't agree with that loser's mentality though as they hooked up for a 33-yard catch that went down to the 1-yard-line. On the next play, Cam took it in for his second rushing touchdown of the game. With only 2:16 left, New England was running out of time on the clock but incredibly, they got the ball back and had a wonderful chance to steal the win.
The stats show a game that you normally would believe that the Patriots found a way to win: they had seven more first downs (29-22), they ran 10 more offensive plays (70-60), gained 35 more total yards (464-429) and committed seven less penalties (9-2) so just how did they lose? It's tough to single out a player when the defense gives up 30+ points but I thought that former Jet Jamal Adams (game-high 10 total tackles, 6 solo tackles, 1 sack and 2 quarterback hits) proved as always that getting the hell away from that dumpstar fire of a franchise is a good thing. New England's offensive line or assigned blockers could never seem to slow him down.
No doubt that the Patriots will have the next few days off (at least in terms of normal practices) since they'll need their bodies to get reacclimated from traveling back here from the West Coast. When they do return to work, they'll be focused in on the Vegas Raiders (0-1) who host the Saints (1-0) tomorrow night in their team's home opener in Sin City. Regardless of what happens against New Orleans (that figures to be a Saints win), the Raiders coming to an empty Gillette Stadium next Sunday afternoon (1, CBS) has to be a win if the Patriots have any plans of going back to the playoffs this season. In fact, I think that's one of Belichick's most underrated genius aspects: his teams hardly ever lose to an opponent that is clearly below their weight class. The Pats almost always take every game seriously and their singular focus is annually rewarded by piling up double-digit win totals year after year.
