On a yet another rainy day in Seattle, just their 81st in a row with some sort of rain, the gritty young Seahawks mounted another comeback on their homefield and dispatched the New England Patriots, 24-23 with a last minute touchdown at CenturyLink Field on Sunday afternoon.
No matter what you think of the Patriots effort on either side of the ball a few guys did show up to play on Week 6 in the Pacific Northwest.
Lets start with rookie defensive end Chandler Jones, who is quickly becoming Pro-Bowl and possible All-Pro material with another stellar game of 9 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 tackle for loss, 3 QB hits and forced fumble, his 3rd of the season. The guy is what some would say a “high motor player”. If you don’t love him already, you should.
You can also include LB Brandon Spikes 5 tackles, 2 tackles for loss both on Seattle RB Marshawn Lynch and 1 QB hit. He is truly developing into the player they drafted three years ago out of Florida.
Offensively it was RB Danny Woodhead 71 yards from scrimmage; WR Wes Welker 10 catches for 138 yards and 1 TD, WR Brandon Lloyd 6 catches for 80 yards. The offensive line also did a great job keeping Tom Brady protected against an aggressive sack hungry defense.
Also TE’s Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez toughed it through injuries. After that handful everyone else needs to look in the mirror, especially the secondary.
New England gave up 6 passes of 20 yards or more. The largest was 51 yards with an extra 15 tacked on for a hit to the head of the quarterback by Spikes. There was a 50 yarder from rookie QB Russell Wilson to WR Doug Baldwin and a 46-yard pass to WR Sidney Rice for a TD. Rice also had a 29-yard catch, Baldwin added a 24-yard TD catch and TE Zach Miller had a 22-yard catch.
That’s 222 yards on 6 plays, Wilson only threw for 293 yards total.
This was a winnable game except for the big pass plays and the dumb penalties. Some costly mistakes on offense, like two intentional grounding calls and players not holding onto passes that hit their hands only to turn into INTs were just as bad.
I expected a tough game in Seattle with a loud crowd, bad weather and a swarming defense but New England stood up to those challenges. They unfortunately shot themselves in the foot and cost themselves a win.
Patriots at Seahawks Gamebook. This includes the box score, all the stats, play by play, drive charts and more.
Patriots at Seahawks Game Recap.
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Turning Point of the Game
Patriots leading 23-17, go 3 and out with 3 minutes to play, Seahawks get a very good punt return to help set up the game winning drive.
Offensive Player of the Game
Seattle QB Russell Wilson was 16 of 27 for 293 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs.
Defensive Player(s) of the Game
Seahawks LB Bobby Wagner had 14 tackles (7 solo) and 1 tackle for loss.
Game Notes
Starters for the Patriots were:
On Offense:
LT Solder
LG Mankins
C Wendell
RG Connolly
RT Vollmer
TE Gronkowski
TE Hernandez
WR Welker
WR Branch
WR Lloyd
QB Brady
On Defense:
DE Cunningham
DT Wilfork
DT Love
DE Jones
LB Ninkovich
LB Mayo
LB Spikes
CB McCourty
CB Arrington
S Wilson
S Chung
Inactives for the Game:
Patriots
1. WR Julian Edelman (hand)
2. S Steve Gregory (hip)
3. TE Mike Hoomanawanui (concussion)
4. LB Dont’a Hightower (hamstring)
5. DE Jake Bequette
6. LB Tracy White (foot)
7. OL Matt Tennant
Seahawks
1. G John Moffitt (knee)
2. DT Clinton McDonald (groin)
3. DT Jaye Howard (foot)
4. WR Charly Martin
5. S Winston Guy
6. CB Danny Gorrer
7. CB Jeremy Lane
The spread (Patriots MINUS 3 1/2) WAS NOT covered. The over/under (44 1/2) WAS COVERED. I GAVE the points (PATRIOTS) and took the UNDER. I am now 2-4 vs. the spread and 3 of 6 calling the under/over.
The Patriots are 4-3 as the road team in the series, 3-2 at the Kingdome and 1-1 at CenturyLink Field.
Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 150-64.
Since 2003 New England is 33-7 in October games.
Bill Belichick is now 195-107 including playoffs in his career.
Belichick coached teams are 3-2 vs. Seattle, he is 2-1 against the Seahawks with New England.
Tom Brady is 1-1 vs. the Seahawks. Overall including playoffs he is 143-44.
Brady has 310 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time. Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.
Brady has thrown at least 1 TD pass in 38 consecutive games.
The Patriots are 83-16 when Brady throws at least 2 TD passes in a game.
WR Wes Welker now has catches in 107 consecutive games including playoffs, 90 as a Patriot. The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.
The Patriots sacked Seattle QB Russell Wilson 2 times, while allowing Brady to be sacked 1 time.
New England is PLUS 10 in turnover differential. The offense has given up 3 INT and 3 fumbles, while the defense has 6 INTs and 10 fumble recoveries.
The Patriots were 1 for 6 in the red zone. They had 1 TD, 3 FGs, 1 turnover and 1 take over on downs.
New England was 8 for 18 (44%) on third down conversions and 0 for 1 (0%) on 4th down attempts.
Pete Carroll is 51-51 in his NFL career. He is 18-20 in his third season as a head coach with the Seahawks; he was 6-10 with the New York Jets and 27-21 in 3 seasons with New England. He is 2-3 in the playoffs (1-1 with Seattle; 1-2 with New England) for an overall record of 53-54.
He is 2-1 vs. New England, 1-1 with New York and 1-0 with Seattle.
Russell Wilson is 3-3 in his rookie season. He is 1-0 vs. the Patriots.
The Seahawks were 4 for 12 (33%) on 3rd down conversions and 1 for 2 (50%) on 4th down attempts.
Seattle was 2 for 3 (67%) in the red zone. They had 2 TDs and 1 FG.
Seattle is MINUS 1 in turnover differential. The offense has given up 6 INT and 4 fumbles, while the defense has 5 INT and 4 fumble recoveries.
Clete Blakeman was the game referee. The temp at kickoff was 63 and cloudy with rain.
Attendance – 68,137 at CenturyLink Field in Seattle WA
Post Game Interviews
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patriots QB Tom Brady post game press conference via patriots.com
This Week in the AFC East
Miami edged St Louis, 17-14
Buffalo nipped Arizona in OT, 19-16
NY Jets whipped Indianapolis, 35-9
AFC East Standings
Jets 3-3/2-0
Patriots 3-3/1-0
Dolphins 3-3/0-1
Bills 3-3/0-2
Next Week
The Patriots will host the New York Jets next Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Kick off is at 4:25 p.m. on CBS.
Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII
photo credit: ap photo
