How Seahawks’ defensive game plan smothered Patriots: Super Bowl 60 film review
By Ted Nguyen
Feb. 10, 2026 | Updated Feb. 12, 2026
In his heart of hearts, Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald wants to break things. He wants to wreck opposing protection schemes with his blitzes and simulated pressures and show you that your precious rules for your pass blockers are all a facade when the rubber hits the road.
However the Seahawks defense excelled this season because he tempered down his aggressiveness. Macdonald calls the plays, but it was defensive coordinator Aden Durde who recognized the defensive line was so good, they didn’t need to be as exotic schematically. The shift to becoming more of a front-four pass rush team allowed them to be more multiple and flexible on the back end.
But against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60 on Sunday, the Seahawks smelled blood in the water. They blitzed quarterback Drake Maye early to build a lead they would never relinquish, winning 29-13. Defensive back Devon Witherspoon, who blitzed more in the Super Bowl than he had all season, told The Athletic they saw something in the Patriots’ protection scheme that they wanted to expose. He blitzed seven times, getting QB pressures on six of those, and directly caused the fourth-quarter defensive touchdown that sealed the game.
Part of what makes Macdonald’s system unique is he wants his players to learn the entire defensive call, not just their individual jobs. Instead of teaching specific blitzes tied to fronts and coverages, he teaches pressure patterns that can be used in many fronts with different coverages. By learning what everyone else is doing, they can interchange roles within each call. This is important to give offenses multiple looks while running the same blitz and be able to adjust calls based on the offense’s protection plan.
The Seahawks ran a double B-gap blitz three times against the Patriots. The last time they ran it, they scored their game-sealing defensive touchdown.
5:21 remaining in the first quarter, second-and-13
Macdonald called the double B-gap pressure for the first time with 5:21 remaining in the first quarter. The Patriots were in a second-and-13 situation, and Macdonald wanted to be aggressive to force them into a third-and-long. Nickel Nick Emmanwori lined up on the offense’s left, while linebacker Ernest Jones IV lined up to the right. Emmanwori and Jones mugged their respective gaps.
The Patriots must have thought Emmanwori was the bigger threat to blitz because Maye kept sliding the protection (the direction the center goes) toward him rather than Jones. Most offenses would slide their protection to the “Mike” linebacker. In this instance, the running back didn’t have any protection responsibilities and ran a route.
Emmanwori blitzed and Jones dropped. There was one more rusher than the offense could pick up to the left, so Maye had to throw the ball “hot.”
Up to this point, the Seahawks played a lot more man coverage than usual, and when Maye looked to his outside receiver. It appeared that corner Josh Jobe was playing man press technique. However, the defense was actually in a cover 2 zone.
Maye threw hot to running back TreVeyon Henderson, but because Jobe was in zone, he fell off the receiver and tackled Henderson for a 2-yard loss.
9:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, first-and-10
Macdonald called the same pressure pattern in the fourth quarter, with two players blitzing through the B-gap, but from a different front and coverage. Note the Patriots’ formation here with a tight end to the boundary (short side of the field) and the running back lined up away from him.
Witherspoon lined up as the nickel to the wide side of the field.
Like in the previous example, Emmanwori lined up to the left, and Jones lined up on the right. Again, Maye slid the protection to Emmanwori, but this time, Henderson stayed in to protect and was responsible for Jones.
Again, the defense brought one more defender than the offense could block, and Witherspoon was unblocked as Henderson blocked Jones.
The defense was in cover 4 this time, but the Patriots had a good play call with a quick out.
4:48 remaining in the fourth quarter, third-and-8
Later in the fourth quarter, the Patriots lined up in the same formation with the tight end to the boundary and the running back on the opposite side. Again, Witherspoon lined up to the field.
Again, Maye slid the protection to Emmanwori, which made little sense considering Jones is the better blitzer, and the Seahawks blitzed two from the field earlier in the fourth quarter. Perhaps Maye rushed his process here because the offense was in no-huddle and you don’t usually see pressures in no-huddle. But one of the reasons the Seahawks defense is so great is that they are so in sync with their communication. You can see them communicating to get the call in, and they executed flawlessly.
Again, the back blocked Jones, and Witherspoon was unblocked.
However, unlike in the previous clip, Maye was looking deep. Waiting for the route to develop gave Witherspoon time to get home and cause the ball to be intercepted by defensive end Uchenna Nwosu, who returned it for a touchdown.
“It’s all about timing. You have to time up the blitz perfectly. We knew how they would protect in certain looks,” Witherspoon told The Athletic. “We knew the running back stepped over.”
In the first quarter, Macdonald called a blitz on 23 percent of his plays. One of the reasons they turned up the heat early was because they knew they could expose the Patriots’ protection scheme. Also, blitzing is a way of caging Maye, one of the best scramblers in the league, in the pocket by surrounding him with additional bodies. Whether it was intended or not, the early pressure caused Maye’s internal clock to speed up for the rest of the game.
7:52 remaining in the first quarter, third-and-9
Knowing that the Patriots would get into a “5-0” call whenever they saw an odd front with a defender head-up on the center, Macdonald had a double-edge pressure called with Witherspoon blitzing from the left and Emmanwori blitzing from the right.
From Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ 2016 playbook
Against an odd front with a nose tackle, the center has the man head-up on him, while the guards and tackles fan out to block the defender outside of them. The running back has to block any additional pressure. However, the Seahawks had two defenders rushing from the secondary, which meant running back Rhamondre Stevenson could block only one.
Stevenson blocked Emmanwori, leaving Witherspoon free, running full speed at Maye.
Initially, the defense showed a two-high look with Witherspoon lined up over the slot.
After the snap, both safeties rotated to play man coverage, as the Seahawks had a cover zero (man-to-man with no deep help) blitz from midfield. Emmanwori didn’t do a good job of containing Maye, but the coverage was tight, no one was open, and Witherspoon closed in on Maye in a hurry to force a throwaway.
“For him to have that much trust in us, for us to work that hard to show that we could do that, it goes hand-in-hand,” cornerback Riq Woolen said after the game.
Macdonald dialed back the blitzes after building a lead and let his front four dominate like they have all season. The Patriots played close games all postseason and never found themselves in a heavy-passing script. Having to pass to get back into the game was the coup de grâce for an offensive line that struggled even when they had an element of unpredictability.
To make matters worse, the Patriots had to help rookie left tackle Will Campbell, who struggled mightily, on every play. The Seahawks are already excellent in coverage, but when you can’t free release one or two eligible receivers, it makes it even easier for the Seahawks zone coverages to clog up passing lanes.
The Seahawks defense was simply a nightmare matchup for the Patriots. They haven’t run the ball efficiently all season. Having to rely on the pass against this defense is a losing battle. Having to rely on the pass with a below-average offensive line against this defense is a death sentence.
Fittingly, the most consistently excellent team all season took home the Lombardi Trophy. This Seahawks defense is a special unit that is unique in its ability to shut down the run while committing its on-field resources to stopping the pass. They don’t have an entire roster of blue-chip players like Seattle’s famed Legion of Boom. They have a group of exceptional players that complement each other perfectly. Teams around the league may try to copy the Seahawks’ formula as they did with the Legion of Boom, but it’ll be nearly impossible to assemble a unit that fits so well together. Even if they do, they won’t have the NFL’s best defensive play caller.
