Here are five reasons why the Seattle Seahawks will defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX:<\/p>\n
Sam Darnold protects the football<\/p>\n
Darnold played the best game of his career in the NFC Championship victory over the L.A. Rams, but it\u2019s hard to forget that he led the NFL in turnovers this season with 20. According to Pro Football Focus, Darnold produced a 3.4% turnover-worthy play rate, which tied for sixth-highest among qualified passers. In the playoffs, he\u2019s only committed one turnover-worthy play across 59 dropbacks.\u00a0It\u2019s hard to imagine the Seahawks returning to Seattle without the Lombardi Trophy if Darnold continues to protect the football against the Patriots.<\/p>\n
The Seahawks strike first<\/p>\n
New England has had the lead at halftime in all but three games this season and trailed in only one against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 3 (14-7). Placing the Patriots in a hole early will allow Seattle\u2019s defense to sit in nickel and dime packages, which is the strength of the \u201cDark Side.\u201d Mt. Carmel alum Rashid Shaheed could be the difference-maker in this regard considering his big-play ability on offense and special teams.<\/p>\n
Tackling improves in the open field<\/p>\n
As good as the Seahawks have been on defense, tackling has been literally hit or miss. Seattle has the most missed tackles (102) of any team against the pass this season, according to PFF. New England ranked 13th in yards after the catch (5.2) in the regular season, but the Patriots\u2019 pass catchers have been even better in the postseason with 6.4 extra yards per reception. If Mike Macdonald\u2019s defensive gameplan is predicated on getting the ball out of Drake Maye\u2019s hand quickly, then getting the ballcarriers on the ground just as quickly is vital.<\/p>\n
Pass rush exploits Will Campbell<\/p>\n
Maye was the fourth-most sacked QB in the NFL during the regular season (47), and he\u2019s been sacked 15 more times this postseason. It\u2019s the most any QB has had to endure to reach a Super Bowl since 1970, according to Next Gen Stats. Including the playoffs, Campbell has allowed 12\u00bd sacks. The No. 4 overall pick last April has been baptized this postseason against a gauntlet of edge rushers, including Khalil Mack, Odafe Oweh, Will Anderson Jr., Danielle Hunter and Nik Bonitto. Next up: Five-time Pro Bowler DeMarcus Lawrence. This could be a flashpoint for the Patriots in this matchup.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Walker III keeps running<\/p>\n
If the Seahawks are able to lean on Walker in Santa Clara on Sunday, it likely signifies everything went according to plan for Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak. Walker has produced at least 111 total yards in four of the last five games, and has four rushing touchdowns in the playoffs. While New England has been an overall elite run defense this season, it\u2019s been vulnerable in the red zone at times. Walker ranks top 10 in both yards per carry and rushes of 10-plus yards in the red zone, according to NGS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are five reasons why the Seattle Seahawks will defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[54239,60491,63187,81200,6423,752,54234,54021,74,76,75,6427,11191,61380],"class_list":{"0":"post-169154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-demarcus-lawrence","9":"tag-drake-maye","10":"tag-kenneth-walker-iii","11":"tag-klint-kubiak","12":"tag-new-england-patriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-rashid-shaheed","15":"tag-sam-darnold","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-san-diego-headlines","18":"tag-san-diego-news","19":"tag-seattle-seahawks","20":"tag-super-bowl-lx","21":"tag-will-campbell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}