Patriots defense gets exposed and lets down Cam Newton in loss to Seattle

The Seahawks gashed the Patriots on Sunday Night Football.

This isn’t a hit piece. In fact, the New England Patriots should be ashamed of nothing. They battled valiantly against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football and it came down to the very last play in which Cam Newton was stopped at the goal line in the 35-30 loss.

However, the defense now has film to watch for the remainder of the season, because Russell Wilson and the Seahawks’ rushing attack absolutely had their way with Bill Belichick’s typically-staunch unit. However, that unit is without a lot of key players, so, again, this just means the Patriots will have their work cut out for them.

Belichick shouldn’t have any issue with that. But, man, how close was this?!

Newton, after a conservative Week 1 performance from the offense in the win over the Miami Dolphins, showed out this time around. The Patriots fully unleashed him and he passed for 397 yards, rushed for 47, and scored three total touchdowns. His only blemish in this one was an interception in the third quarter that set up a Seahawks touchdown.

The offense spread the ball around, with Newton hitting seven different receivers. The team converted 7 of 12 third downs and cashed in on their only fourth-down attempt.

Though the lack of a running game (25 total rushes for 67 yards with Newton pretty much doing it all) was a big issue, that’s conversation is for another time.

At the end of the day, this offense did more than enough to get the job done against a talented Seahawks defense, but the Pats’ D hardly made any stops (and the final one they made was thanks to an incredibly dumb play call by Seattle).

Wilson gashed the Patriots secondary, going 21-of-28 for 275 yards and five touchdowns. His one interception came thanks to a dropped pass by Greg Olsen. Most of his other incompletions were him throwing the ball away when he was under pressure and didn’t want to force it.

Additionally, the Hawks ran for 154 yards on 30 carries, good for over five yards per rush.

All in all, this isn’t the Patriots’ defense of the last few years, and it’s not going to be. The Seahawks have one of the best offenses in the league, so, again, this isn’t anything to panic about, but the truth is the defense got exposed. Belichick is usually able to scheme his way in circles around opposing coaches, but that’s not going to work when you’re missing this much personnel and have the hardest schedule in the league this year.

Seattle averaged over seven yards per play, converted nearly half of their third downs, and won the battle at the line of scrimmage overwhelmingly.

This game film is going to prove advantageous for New England as the year progresses. The defense will learn a ton from it and it’ll no doubt help them against other high-powered offenses in the Chiefs, Ravens and Rams.

But, for the moment, the Pats have some serious issues to solve on the defensive side before they face Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson.

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