Patriots Take 2: Josh McDaniels Deserves Super Bowl XLIX Co-MVP

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels deserves much more credit than he’s getting for the Patriots’ 28-24 win over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Patrick Semansky/AP

There are a lot of heroes in the New England Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl win, from rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler to Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady. One person who hasn’t gotten nearly the recognition he deserves is offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

From highlighting the key players that helped the Patriots offense stay on schedule to building a game plan designed perfectly to take advantage of the Seattle Seahawks’ biggest weaknesses, McDaniels flexed his football IQ muscles and proved why he’s been such a hot head coaching candidate over the past two years.

In the process, he also proved why the Patriots and their fans should be grateful that he’s sticking around for at least another year.

The Patriots became only the fourth team to put up 28 points or more against the Seahawks this season, and Brady became the only quarterback to pass for more than 300 yards against them.

We’ll get into all the details of his performance and a lot more as we wrap up our film review sessions for the season.

Under Pressure

Here’s a look at our weekly breakdown of pass-rushing and pass protection.

Offense (51 total pass snaps):

Nate Solder: 51 pass-block snaps; 3 hurries; 1 sack
Dan Connolly: 51 pass-block snaps; 2 hurries; 1 hit
Bryan Stork: 51 pass-block snaps; 1 hurry; 3 hits
Ryan Wendell: 51 pass-block snaps; 1 hurry
Sebastian Vollmer: 51 pass-block snaps; 3 hurries
Rob Gronkowski: 9 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
LeGarrette Blount: 8 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Shane Vereen: 8 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Brandon Bolden: 1 pass-block snap; 0 hurries

In total, Brady was pressured 15 times (10 hurries, four hits, one sack) out of 51 dropbacks; that’s a rate of only 30 percent, which is respectable against a solid pass-rush like the Seahawks.

I took a stop watch to Tom Brady’s throws, and on average, he got the ball out in 2.24 seconds. That’s even quicker than his average for the season of 2.38 seconds to throw, the second-lowest in the league according to Pro Football Focus.

The quick-hitting passing game allowed Brady to stay clean and upright, and neutralized the Seahawks’ speed and quickness up front.

Defense (26 total pass snaps):

Chandler Jones: 22 pass-rush snaps; 2 hurries; 1 sack
Rob Ninkovich: 21 pass-rush snaps; 3 hurries; 1 sack
Sealver Siliga: 15 pass-rush snaps; 0 hurries
Vince Wilfork: 15 pass-rush snaps; 0 hurries
Chris Jones: 10 pass-rush snaps; 1 hurry
Dont’a Hightower: 8 pass-rush snaps; 1 hurry
Alan Branch: 7 pass-rush snaps; 0 hurries
Akeem Ayers: 5 pass-rush snaps; 1 hurry
Darrelle Revis: 1 pass-rush snap; 0 hurries

In total, the Patriots pass-rush created pressure on Russell Wilson nine times (seven hurries, two sacks) on 26 pass snaps by the Seahawks, accounting for pressure on 34.6 percent of Wilson’s dropbacks.

Rob Ninkovich and Chandler Jones were once again the stars of the day, as they’ve been all season long, but it was interesting to see that Jamie Collins finished the game without a single pass-rush attempt. That’s indicative of his role as a spy on Wilson, helping to ensure he stayed in the pocket.

For that matter, the entire Patriots defensive line was up to the task of containing Wilson, as we see on this play with 1:12 remaining in the third quarter.

Notice how everyone stays in their lane. The focus isn’t as much on getting pressure as it is on keeping Wilson in the backfield. They only sent three rushers after Wilson on this play. In fact, the entire game, the Patriots sent more than four rushers after him on only five occasions.

Strong Showings from Danny Amendola, Shane Vereen

LeGarrette Blount took a lot of crap for his statement that the Seahawks defense was “not immortal,” but thanks to some good game-planning by Josh McDaniels, the Patriots proved Blount right.

The game plan focused on an assault against the short area, underneath the soft belly of Cover 3.

The game plan was clear almost immediately, when Amendola caught the second pass of the game and Vereen caught the third. Vereen’s catch went for five yards on 3rd-and-2, and took advantage of the space underneath linebacker K.J. Wright’s coverage. We’ve seen this route before, a quick out from the backfield, and this was a perfect situation to use it.

Amendola got one of his receptions in a similar fashion on 2nd-and-8 with 3:38 remaining in the first quarter. He ran underneath a clearing route by Brandon LaFell, and once he got into the soft spot in coverage, Brady let the ball fly. Amendola turned around and caught it, and picked up 10 yards before being run out of bounds.

In total, Amendola and Vereen caught 16 passes for 112 yards, mostly on short routes that got them in favorable matchups and allowed them to catch the ball in stride.

Go Back to the Well

Another reason McDaniels gets credit is for having faith in himself and in his game plan. The Patriots stuck with the plan even when they fell behind by 10 points; they didn’t start chucking it downfield hoping to mount a quick comeback, but instead kept with the death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts strategy and marched the ball down the field with efficient drives.

But McDaniels gets a particularly high mark for going back to a play that had failed him earlier in the game.

On 1st-and-goal from the 4-yard line, Brady misfired a wide open Edelman on a pivot route in the front of the end zone. Edelman went down and looked despondent as it appeared he had missed an opportunity to score a touchdown in the biggest game of the year. Amendola came through with a touchdown catch on the next play, but thanks to McDaniels’ confidence in the play, Edelman would get his chance again before the game was over.

McDaniels thought the play would work, and he was right. He wasn’t going to let one incomplete pass ruin his well-designed goal-line play.

Edelman caught the game-winning touchdown on the very same play that had missed earlier, from nearly the exact same spot (3-yard line). Once again, Edelman juked Tharold Simon clean away from him and got open for Brady to lay in an easy throw.

Butler Did It With A Pick In The End Zone

Most Seahawks and NFL fans are being very critical of the Seahawks’ decision to throw the ball on the 1-yard line instead of handing it off to star running back Marshawn Lynch. The decision to throw the ball wasn’t necessarily bad, but the play call wasn’t good for the situation.

That being said, there was a relatively large window for Wilson to complete the pass to Brett Lockette for a touchdown, but Malcolm Butler’s route recognition and burst to the ball allowed him to slam that window shut on Lockette’s fingers.

Just look at the window before Butler gets there:

For him to get there on time, he had to start accelerating before the pass left Wilson’s hands. In fact, he was off to the races around the exact moment that Lockette planted his right foot to cut for the slant route.

He also had to get past the pick being set by Seahawks receiver Jermaine Kearse. For that reason, cornerback Brandon Browner (bottom of the screen) also deserves some credit for holding strong at the line of scrimmage and not being knocked backwards. Any loss of space between Browner and Butler may have been the difference between an interception for the Patriots and a touchdown for the Seahawks.

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