How the Seahawks and Patriots are preparing for Sunday’s clash of similar styles

RENTON, Wash. – While building a new culture in Seattle, head coach Mike Macdonald has consistently emphasized playing a physical style of football nobody wants to deal with.

The first road trip of the Macdonald era has his Seattle Seahawks facing a New England Patriots team more than happy to play that way. It’s their preferred style, too.

In their 16-10 Week 1 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Patriots had the lowest early-down pass rate in the league at 34% (all stats provided by TruMedia unless stated otherwise). They leaned on running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who had 120 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries. Only Houston’s Joe Mixon and San Francisco’s Jordan Mason had more carries in Week 1. New England successfully kept the ball away from quarterback Joe Burrow, whose offense had just eight drives in Week 1, the lowest total in the league.

In their 26-20 win over the Denver Broncos, the Seahawks had the sixth-lowest early-down pass rate at 43% (the league average was 54%). Trailing 13-9 at halftime in part because of struggles up front, Seattle rode running back Kenneth Walker III in the second half, and he finished with 103 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

The Seahawks know they can air it out when needed, but feeding Walker is something everyone on offense can get behind. It’s also not as if they ran the ball at the expense of the passing game. Geno Smith threw for 112 of his 171 yards in the second half and connected with running back Zach Charbonnet on a 30-yard touchdown.

“When we need to throw the ball and need explosives down the field, I think (offensive coordinator Ryan) Grubb will dial it up for us,” receiver DK Metcalf said, referring to their first-year offensive coordinator. “But if running the ball is what we need to win games, then why not?”

New England wants to shorten games with its run-heavy approach because of its lack of premiere talent. The team is led by journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who plays behind a work-in-progress offensive line and throws to an underwhelming set of pass catchers. Last year’s leading receiver, Demario Douglas, had just 561 yards.

The Seahawks, on the other hand, have plenty of offensive talent. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett had more receiving yards last year than New England’s entire receiver room. Still, Grubb, in his first team meeting this offseason, told the offense that the run game would be a significant part of their identity. Despite inheriting a group of pass catchers similar to what he had when designing a prolific passing attack at the University of Washington, Grubb believes in the value of knocking linemen off the ball in the run game.

When left guard Laken Tomlinson was asked about Seattle’s preferred play style, he laughed and said, “You watch the second half?”

“Offense and defense, that’s how we want to play,” Tomlinson said. “Obviously, the emphasis for us going forward (is) start a lot faster than we did, get that going in the first quarter, first play.”

Both Seattle and New England are coming off strong defensive performances. Neither Bo Nix nor Burrow had much success throwing the ball. Denver’s running backs had just 64 yards on 20 carries. Cincinnati’s Zack Moss and Chase Brown combined for 55 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. The Seahawks forced three turnovers, held the Broncos to a pair of field goals on the two defensive drives that began in their territory and limited Denver’s dink-and-dunk passing game with sound tackling. The Broncos averaged a league-low 2.6 yards after catch in Week 1.

“We practice tackling every day,” Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen said. “It’s a big emphasis around here. You can just tell it’s just natural to everybody. Everybody is just going in there, and we trying to get guys down. On Sunday, it reflected how much tackling practice we’ve had. We’re just going to continue to build on it.”

The Seahawks will want to stay true to their identity again in Week 2. The Patriots will, too, considering they’re facing a similar talent discrepancy this week. Sunday’s game is likely to be an ugly, physical slugfest.

“They have a ‘through, not around’ type of mindset, which is the same type of mindset we have,” Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “We go through, not around, over here. I love playing against teams like that. With a team like that, you just have to go at them face-to-face. There’s no tricks. There’s no there’s no secret. … It’s just, like, man-to-man, whoever is going to win, wins.”

The Seahawks on Sunday may be without Walker, listed doubtful Friday with an oblique injury. Macdonald described Walker as day-to-day. Losing Walker would elevate Charbonnet to RB1 for the week. He had just 12 yards on eight carries against Denver, but Seattle is confident in him as a lead back based on last season’s 462 rushing yards on 108 carries. Charbonnet last season had an above-average success rate and produced first downs at one of the highest rates in the league among qualifying running backs. Walker’s absence would also mean some action for second-year running back Kenny McIntosh, a preseason standout who missed most of last year with a knee injury.

“They still haven’t seen Zach Charbonnet yet, Kenny McIntosh,” Metcalf said, “I think we’ve got a stable of backs who have that same effect that Ken has.”

Equally important as the person carrying the ball are the guys doing the blocking. Many of Seattle’s issues in the first half against Denver can be attributed to the front line. Right tackle George Fant allowed a sack on the game’s first play (Fant also didn’t practice Wednesday and is considered day-to-day). On the next play, center Connor Williams allowed a quarterback hit that led to an interception. Right guard Anthony Bradford was flagged for holding in the end zone, resulting in a safety. Tomlinson blew a block in the end zone that led to another safety. A holding penalty on Metcalf negated a Walker rushing touchdown in the third quarter. These are some of the problems Grubb discussed in the offensive meeting Tuesday.

“He was very honest with us,” Metcalf said. “In my opinion, I thought we all needed it. We’ve just got to block better as an offense and just eliminate the stupid penalties where we kill drives on our own and not the defense doing anything to hurt us. At the end of the day, it’s all in our hands. We’re the only people that can stop ourselves.”

On defense, the Seahawks hope to tackle even better than last week, especially in the backfield. They pressured Nix on 44.9% of his dropbacks but only registered two sacks. On those two plays, Nix scrambled out bounds behind the line scrimmage as opposed to being dropped in the pocket. Nix had one of the league’s lowest pressure-to-sack ratios in Week 1, and Brissett was one of the few quarterbacks who was even better at avoiding trouble. He scrambled four times for 34 yards and produced three first downs. He was sacked only once, and that was because he slid behind the line of scrimmage after scrambling out of the pocket on third-and-11. Playing keep away requires running the ball well and the quarterback avoiding mistakes like sacks and turnovers. In that sense, Brissett could present a legitimate challenge for Seattle on Sunday.

“Jacoby is a really good quarterback. He’s highly intelligent,” Macdonald said. “He’s underratedly mobile. If you let him run, he can move going forward. He delivers an accurate ball. He plays efficiently. He definitely has a very strong grasp of what they’re asking him in terms of executing their system. They’re playing clean football right now.

“It doesn’t look like the new age, sexy offenses that you’re seeing these days, but I’ll tell you what, it’s really, really effective. It comes down to how you move the football, and they’re doing that effectively right now.”