The Seattle Seahawks’ resounding 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX was spearheaded by their defense. Mike Macdonald was brought in because of his defensive expertise, and he had the Patriots on the ropes pretty much all 60 minutes at Levi’s Stadium.
The one who was dominated most? It might have been Josh McDaniels.
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The Patriots’ offensive coordinator had few answers as the Seahawks held quarterback and MVP runner-up Drake Maye to the sixth-worst EPA per dropback in a Super Bowl since 2000. New England’s offense as a whole struggled on late downs especially, with a 33% success rate for the game per RBSDM.com, and the Seahawks recorded six sacks and three turnovers, including an interception returned for a touchdown. The game plan and personnel formations overall felt pretty vanilla, as noted by Yahoo Sports contributor Dan Pizzuta.
Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald heard the hype all Super Week for McDaniels, who was named Assistant Coach of the Year at Thursday’s NFL Honors. It’s a regular season award, and nobody’s taking it away from him, but McDonald pulled no punches in noting the stark mismatch on the Football 301 Super Bowl live reaction show.
“I would say Mike Macdonald’s probably coached two of the top three defenses this decade of football,” McDonald said, also referring to the 2023 Baltimore Ravens. “And we’re talking about Josh McDaniels?”
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McDaniels entered Super Bowl LX with a chance to cement a unique legacy with a fourth ring as a coordinator, which would tie for the most of all time. He didn’t get it, but he still has six as an assistant coach overall with Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots’ dynasty from 2001-2019.
Part of the reason McDaniels’ legacy is unique, though, is because for as good as he’s been as an assistant, he’s also been fired twice after bad head coaching spells with the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders.
“One of these guys is actually getting his team prepared, ready to play,” McDonald said. “And the other guy is coasting on having an elite quarterback, again. Because when he’s been away from his elite quarterback, what does it look like? … And this is the same offense he was running with the Vegas Raiders. So why is this good now? Explain it to me. No one can do it, and that’s why he got his ass beat today.”
Still, McDonald said the Super Bowl doesn’t change how he feels about Maye or the Patriots’ bright future, given they’ve picked in the top five the past two drafts and got to the Super Bowl early in their overall build.
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[More on the Patriots: New England team feed]
Football 301 co-hosts Nate Tice and Matt Harmon agreed that the Patriots’ game plan was suspect, and that Mike Vrabel didn’t do his best coaching job either overall.
“Felt like the whole offense played tight, and McDaniels is part of it,” Tice said. “I thought it was a very traditional, static call sheet. First down runs. Unsuccessful first down pass? Here comes a second down run. … [The Seahawks] were just teeing off on it.”
Now, Tice said New England’s next step includes an injection of talent on offense.
“They need about five guys to make it better,” Tice said. “It’s a hard offense because you need guys winning. You need [Rob Gronkowskis]. You need [Julian Edelmans]. You need guys with some juice to win some 1-on-1s.”
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That could help McDaniels evolve as a play-caller as well. He already has a big leg up at quarterback in Maye, who’s only in his second season.
“What does [McDaniels] do? What does he do to help people? What does he do to help his quarterback?” McDonald said. “He did nothing today, or the past three games, or the 17 games before that. It’s just iso ball.
“But I’m watching Drake Maye hit incredible passes all season long. There’s a game against the Cardinals burned in my brain where he throws a bender in the middle of the field vs. Tampa 2 and throws it in between four defenders, and it’s dead on. And I’m hearing about Josh McDaniels. Like, what is happening to my society? Can we watch the games please?”
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