The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks may have been the two best defenses in football over the last few months. While all of the pre-game hype was centered around quarterbacks Drake Maye and Sam Darnold, the defenses have delivered with two very strong performances.
The Patriots found themselves down 3-0 at the end of the first quarter despite the fact that a few big plays had been enough to get them into Seahawks territory multiple times. Oddly enough, Maye's first quarter was enough to keep one of Tom Brady's more dubious postseason streaks alive.
Despite all of the success Brady had during his nine Super Bowl appearances with New England, six of which he came out on top in, he never found the end zone in the first quarter in any of them. Maye helped keep the streak going with his own uneven showing in this first quarter.
This shows that the Patriots' offense is indeed struggling, but it also proves that they have three quarters left to figure out some sort of way to crack through the Seahawks and take home their seventh Lombardi Trophy. Time will tell, however, if they have the ability needed to do that.
Drake Maye keeps Tom Brady's streak of scoreless Super Bowl first-quarters alive
The biggest problem for New England, once again, has been the offensive line. Maye has been sacked twice already, and pressure from players like defensive back Devon Witherspoon has helped throw the Patriots' offense into disarray in the early going here.
Running the ball hasn't been much better, as the combined ineffective performances of Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson have put even more of a burden on Maye and his arm. Unfortunately, that has played into Seattle's hands, and they have taken advantage by stonewalling the offense.
The one saving grace is that Seattle has also struggled on offense. Sam Darnold completed just four of his first 13 passes, many of which were targeting Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Darnold's big miss on a broken play that would have been a walk-in touchdown had to be a massive sigh of relief for anyone in the state of Massachusetts.
The Patriots have found themselves down in the Super Bowl before, so trying to overcome deficits like this is nothing particularly shocking for fans who have seen this before. Maye is taking after Brady in this regard, but it remains to be seen if he