Stopping Lynch and Seattle Zone Blocking, Key for Patriots Defense
 Jamie Collins and Dont'a Hightower will have to have big games for the Patriots defense on Sunday in trying to slow the running game of Seattle in the Super Bowl (USA TODAY Images) |
The key matchup on Sunday when the Patriots take on the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona may come down to the Seattle running game against the New England defense.
Seattle’s offense was at its best when the running game was stretching the opposing defense horizontally. To counter this, the Patriots front seven especially linebackers Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins will have to be big factors in the game plan.
Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch and QB Russell Wilson combined for over 2100 yards rushing in 2014 and the Seahawks boasted the league’s #1 rushing offense. Seattle averaged 172.6 yards per game, 5.3 yards per rush and 20 rushing touchdowns.
Zone Blocking Tough Task: The Seahawks institute a zone-blocking scheme that operates best when moving the play horizontally and stretches the defense to its limits and allows cracks that Lynch can exploit. The Jets and Miami use a similar scheme, so it is something the Patriots have seen before. But Lynch is far more dangerous than any back New England has faced this season. The task will be a daunting one.
Seattle offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell expects Bill Belichick and Pats DC Matt Patricia to mix things up to disrupt the Seahawks offense.
“Fronts, coverages, all different kind of things and you have to be able to anticipate some of the things that they might do and you have to be able to adjust,” Bevell said Wednesday. “During the game, there’s definitely some un-scouted looks that are probably going to come up. So we just have to be ready to make those adjustments on the sideline as they come.
There’s all the D-linemen, all the linebackers, they use them really all over the place,” he added. “They can use them as down linemen, they can use them as linebackers, they use their safeties as corners, they’re all over the place.”
Discipline Key: The key will be from a New England standpoint is to maintain discipline and beware of the zone-read option because if they crash down inside too early, Wilson will pull the ball back and make them pay by keeping it and bouncing the ball outside. This is an offensive scheme that the Patriots have been inconsistent with on the defensive side of the ball.
It has been an indispensable part of the Seattle offense since Wilson took over and it is simple in its approach but difficult to stop. Wilson operates out of the shotgun and either hands the ball off to Lynch or pulls it down and breaks to the outside. They worked it to perfection in the closing moments of the NFC Championship against Green Bay.
Normally Seattle leaves the defensive end unblocked and Wilson reads the end’s movement, and makes his decision to keep the ball or hand it to Lynch. Crashing down too early…something Chandler Jones has been guilty of many times this season would result in a clear running lane for Wilson to exploit. If the defensive end plays back, they hand the ball to Lynch and there’s one less DL to try to stop him.
Patriots LB Rob Ninkovich knows the task at hand. “You’ve just got to know what your responsibility is,” he said. “If your responsibility is the quarterback, then that’s who you’ve got. If it’s the running back, then that’s who you’ve got. You have to understand what your job is and can’t get overaggressive and play the wrong person because that’s how it hurts you. Again, it’s just being smart and doing your job.”
How Linebackers Will Have to Dictate: Where the Patriots will look to counter is to slide up an extra defender in the box, probably Pat Chung and try to take away some of the running lanes. But it will be dependent on Hightower and Collins to be the difference makers on Sunday against both Lynch and Wilson.
Both Hightower and Collins have been outstanding of running from sideline-to-sideline this season and making plays. Look for the Patriots to try to dictate matters and have Collins crash into the line of scrimmage and try to force the play to one side, where Hightower, reading the play will react and attempt to seal the lane off.
The Patriots have done a lot of run blitzing this season, but must remain really cautious of that. Lynch has the ability to turn a broken tackle at the point of attack into a long touchdown run. Look for Hightower to be used as spy on Wilson in this one, trying to limit him from breaking big gains in the running game.
But they’ll need a big effort from the defensive line to do more than just set the table. If the Seattle offensive line starts to win the battle up front, the Patriots corners will begin to have to cheat in the running game in support. That will open up the play-action pass right over their head, something Wilson excels in.
If the Patriots can contain Lynch enough to force Seattle into obvious passing situations, then they have the secondary and coverage ability to stop Seattle’s offense. Darrelle Revis, Brandon Browner and Kyle Arrington give the Patriots excellent man coverage at the corners. Devin McCourty and Tavon Wilson (in nickle situations) will rotate coverages depending upon the situation.
The key is the running game, and whoever does a better job on Sunday will have a great chance of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the game.
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