The New England Patriots were thoroughly beaten down by the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 60 on the offensive side of the ball, as both quarterback Drake Maye and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels picked a bad time to put together their worst games of the season.
While Maye will take on most of the responsibility for this stinker, McDaniels did him no favors by coming to battle with a game plan that was such a huge deviation from what the Patriots successfully ran throughout most of the campaign.
New England ran just under 80% of their snaps in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end) after never topping 70% in any game prior to this one. The Patriots didn't run any sets from empty looks, had just one "jumbo" play with six offensive linemen, and ran 21 personnel (two running backs) at a season-low clip. What was McDaniels thinking?
Patriots OC Josh McDaniels hurt New England in Super Bowl 60 with odd gameplan
The real secret ingredient behind Seattle's "Dark Side" defense is how effectively they can stop the run with five or six defensive backs on the field. With two ultra-versatile veterans in Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence on the line and rookie safety Nick Emmanwori functioning like an extra linebacker, Seattle is uniquely equipped to slow down New England.
Part of the reason some offenses from the Kyle Shanahan tree can struggle against Seattle is how compact they often are. Seattle is confident in their ability to both defend the run in between the tackles and overwhelm offenses by crowding the line of scrimmage.
The answer to that strategy comes in one of two forms. Teams can either load up with big formations and try to beat them at their own game by running the ball, or try to spread them out and force them to play with lighter boxes. McDaniels did neither of those things until he had to late in the game.
McDaniels was clearly worried about how his offensive line would hold up in pass protection against a very aggressive Seahawks pass rush. However, he may have gotten a bit too conservative, and Seattle very clearly smelled blood in the water.
Then again, players like Will Campbell and Jared Wilson were performing at such a poor level that it can be reasonably argued that any plan McDaniels cooked up would have fallen flat. Regardless, McDaniels himself would likely say that he could have come into this game with a more well-rounded plan of attack.