Super Bowl 60 Preview: How The Patriots Lift Their 7th Lombardi Sunday Night

Let's skip the pageantry. Let's not pretend this preview will be met with any level of impartiality. Unlike Tom Brady, who's getting properly scolded by former teammates and Patriot fans across media row in San Francisco, I do have a dog in this fight, and I'm not afraid to say it.

The Patriots have been doubted all year. They've exceeded my wildest expectations, and have done so in predominantly dominant fashion. Yet, as the Super Bowl approaches, they still aren't getting their due respect. 80-90% of media picks I've seen have been for Seattle, with the few that haven't coming from either former Patriot players or likely Boston-bred analysts.

It's just how we like it. It's where we're most comfortable. Listening to excuses as to why we're here. Hearing the schedule argument beaten to a pulp yet somehow still getting airtime. Laughing in the faces of those who are incapable of rational thought because they're so upset the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl.

So we'll be the underdogs Sunday, as we've been all year. We'll go into the game with little outside expectations, with people clenching their fists in hopes we crash down hard and fast enough for them to get their "I told you so" moment.

We'll be the hated, as we've been for 20+ years. We'll smirk and listen as people's blood boils over talking about how dumb it is that a Boston team is in the championship again, understanding their anger is simply masked jealousy.

That doesn't mean Sunday will be easy. Seattle has one of the nastiest defenses in football, coached by one of the great defensive minds in football. They have debatably the best and most elusive/explosive WR in the game in JSN, and a run game headed by Kenny Walker who's playing some of the best ball of his career. As can be said with the Patriots (but often isn't), you don't win 14 games in the regular season and play in the Super Bowl by accident. The Patriots will have to play one of if not their best game of the season to beat them. Here's why they can.

Josh McDaniels

Seattle's defense has allowed more than 20 points just six times this season; three of the six have been to the Rams. While that's a scary thought, I see it as opportunity.

With two weeks to prepare, I have to imagine Josh McDaniels has closely observed what the Rams were able to do to this defense that basically no one else this season could. I have to imagine that playing 12 and 13 personnel, which the Rams do as much as anyone, is something the Patriots will try more than they typically do. I have to imagine Drake and Josh will scheme a few one on one deep shots, which the Seahawks are prone to giving opponents in third and long situations, as found by the best film watcher in the business.

While the majority of Patriot players and coaches will be new to the big stage, Josh McDaniels won't be. I expect him to have identified every weak spot in this defense, big or small, and schemed up ways to expose them. I expect the Patriots to show Seattle formations they can't find on film as it was implemented in practice this week. I expect a trick play or two. I expect one of the biggest reasons the Patriots have experienced the turnaround they have this year, Josh McDaniels, the assistant coach of the year, to be at his best, and put Drake in positions to be at his best. I think watching the Rams can help get there.

Our Defensive Line > Their Offensive Line

The Patriots defense has been chronically underappreciated in these playoffs. The historic numbers they've put up, the best since the 2000 Ravens, have mostly been poo-pooed by their competition, which is a topic I'm refusing to get riled up about for the 1,000th time.

Milton Williams is the obvious place to start. What he's done all season, after the Patriots took a leap of faith on the mega contract they gave him, can't be overstated. The Pats rush defense went from best to worst to best with him on, off, and back on the field throughout the year. He's made multiple game-sealing sacks, and countless other non-stat sheet plays that provide massive game impact. He's one guy that isn't going unnoticed.

Who is to some degree is Christian Barmore, Williams' interior line buddy. Barmore finished the regular season second in the league in DT pressures (Milton was third). Him and Milt are as lethal as any interior duo in the league, and have shown all postseason they can stop the run and get pressure on passing downs by themselves. Like Seattle, their ability to do so allows the Pats to play an extra DB, which against Seattle may be crucial in keeping more speed on the field to check JSN and Rashid Shaheed.

Seattle's offensive line by all metrics is good not great. If our D line plays as well as they've played these playoffs (I haven't even mentioned Chaisson, Tonga, Landry, etc.), we can keep Kenneth Walker in check, and provide messy looks to Darnold in the pocket. Our chances improve drastically if even one of those two things occur.

Our Secondary Is The Best Seattle's Played In Months

JSN is incredible. Shaheed is electric. Kupp is ole reliable, and Barner is an underrated TE. Everywhere you look the Seahawks have weapons on offense. But unlike the Hawks' first two playoff opponents, the Patriots have guys to matchup with them.

The Patriots boasted the 9th best passing defense in the league during the regular season, and there's not much of an argument to be made they've upped their game in the playoffs.

It's been nine weeks since the Seahawks have played a top 10 pass defense - back in November when they played the Vikings at home, a game in which Darnold threw for a season low 128 yards and was sacked four times. The defense scored as many touchdowns as the offense in that game (1), and despite the Vikings and fourth-stringer Max Brosmer gaining just 162 yards, Seattle's offense never found their mojo. Fortunately that day they didn't need to.

Seattle has played just three top 10 pass defenses all year, and none of those teams (Saints, Texans, Vikings) had a top 10 offense to pair with it like the Patriots do. We're a step up in class defensively than what Seattle is used to, and I think that high flying offense will find there to be more turbulence than they're comfortable with.

We Have The Better Quarterback

The "I'm seeing ghosts" Sam Darnold is long gone, and I'm frankly tired of hearing about it. Sam has been incredible these playoffs, much better than Drake. But he's also played the 49ers and Rams defenses, while Drake is the first QB to ever face and beat three top five defenses in a singular postseason (now four of the top five).

Despite Drake's struggles, every time we've needed him to make a play (or plays) he has.

In the Chargers game, when the offense moved the ball but couldn't punch it in, he led an 80-yard drive on their first possession of the fourth quarter to essentially put the game away.

Against Houston, after fumbling the ball on what seemed like every other play, he did the same thing, pushing the lead to 12 as the fourth quarter began on a 71-yard drive.

In Denver, he played the exact game he was required to play. Every possession ended with a kick. He didn't put the ball in harms way. He leaned on the run game and defense, and on the biggest play of the game, took a naked boot leg and kept running to Super Bowl Sunday.

This game likely won't be pretty, as both defenses are playing elite level football. Drake and the Patriots have played three of these types of games in a row, where the Seahawks haven't. I like Sam Darnold, and I'd likely be rooting for him if he wasn't playing the Patriots. But if you gave me one QB to go make a play at the end of the game, I'm taking my guy. And I feel pretty good about it.

We're Warriors

I'm posting it again cause it's my favorite video of the year.

There's something special about this team, something that as a fan pulls at your heartstrings. It's a team with a bunch of castoffs, that came into the season with no expectations. They aren't the most physically gifted team, not a team whose depth chart strikes fear in you.

But they're tight. They play for each other, and they play for their coach (the Coach of the Year btw). I can listen to Steph Diggs' postgame interview after the AFC Championship game on repeat, and imagine there's a bunch of guys in the locker room that share a similar feeling.

It's a team that's easy to root for, if they didn't have the Patriot logo on their helmet. It's a young QB who's trying to prove himself but refuses to let outside noise affect him. It's a veteran WR in Steph proving people wrong, both on and off the field as the vocal leader of the team. It's guys like Rob Spillane who after going undrafted and thrown to the wolves by multiple teams became the voice of the defense. And guys like Chaisson and Tonga, each on their fourth team, signing one year prove-it contracts and having career years.

These guys are warriors, physically, mentally, and emotionally. And there's something to be said for a team like this, in games like this, when no one expects anything from them. I'll take us. I like us. We all we got. We all we need.

Let's go shock the world.

Patriots 23, Seahawks 20