LeGarrette Blount: Seahawks Defense ‘Not Immortal’

Since returning to the Patriots following his release by the Pittsburgh Steelers two months ago, LeGarrette Blount has picked up right where he left off last season.

Needing a reliable downhill rusher after the season-ending injury to Stevan Ridley, the Patriots re-signed Blount just days after the Steelers cut him, and his rough-and-tumble running style – combined with the team’s already strong passing attack – has put the Patriots on the verge of their fourth Super Bowl title.

“It’s an honor to be back here,” he told the media on Tuesday. “I enjoyed my time here when I was here last year, and it’s an honor to be back, just the fact that they care enough about me to bring me back here.”

“They’re a winning franchise, before I came apart of it and now that I’m a part of it,” Blount said when asked about the Patriots’ consistent success. “They’ve always been a winning franchise and obviously they’ve got the best quarterback in the league on their side and it’s always hard to beat him. Once you have the best quarterback in the league and possibly the best quarterback in NFL history on your side, you always have a chance to win.”

When looking at the offensive matchups for Super Bowl XLIX, the running back that gets all the attention is Marshawn Lynch, Seattle’s rusher whose bruising fashion and straight refusal to be brought down earned him the nickname “Beast Mode.” Blount says there’s “nothing personal against [Lynch] or against any of the Seahawks fans or players” going into Sunday and just wants to do “whatever it takes…to make sure we come out of this game with a ‘W.’”

“Whatever he’s doing, I recommend him to keep doing it, because he’s been successful in this league at it,” Blount said of Lynch. “However he’s handling everything he’s been successful in this league running the football so whatever he’s doing I hope he keeps doing it. He’s probably one of the best running backs in this league.”

Blount’s stats since returning to New England haven’t been too shabby either. In five regular season games, Blount rushed for 281 yards on 60 carries, averaging 4.7 yards per attempt with three touchdowns. After the Patriots all but abandoned their run game in their divisional round victory over the Baltimore Ravens, Blount went off in the AFC title game, rushing for 148 yards and three touchdowns in the Patriots’ AFC Championship blowout of the Indianapolis Colts.

But going up again the Seahawks’ stout run defense will be no easy task. Seattle gave up just 1,304 rushing yards this season, the third lowest in the league, while their minuscule 3.4 yards allowed per carry put them just .2 yards behind the Detroit Lions for the best in the NFL.

“Obviously they’re a pretty good defense,” Blount said. “They were good enough to get here, they were good enough to get here last year, so we are going to put a plan together to hopefully make sure we come out victorious.

“I don’t care about them being the top defense, that doesn’t bother me. They were good enough to get here, just like we were good enough to get here. They’re not immortal. They can be beaten.”

Now just five days remaining until Super Bowl Sunday, Blount is relishing the chance he has been given in coming back to the Patriots, with the 28-year-old now gearing up for the game that he called “one of [his] dreams.”

“I feel like they gave me a chance to come out here and show that I can do what I’ve been doing in this league for a couple of years,” he said. “I can run the football and I can do it effectively. I was excited to become another asset to the team, another part of the team and another weapon that they have. I was excited that they gave me another chance to come back and be a part of what’s going on today. I don’t feel like I had anything to prove, but I just wanted to show people that I could still run the football.

“They knew that I could run the football; they know that I can effective with it; they know that I have big play potential; they like my style of running and I fit in perfectly with this offense. It was a perfect match.”