Diante Lee

And ultimately, I think that the story of this game, while I think that Seattle was able to move the ball pretty effectively, just not punching it into the end zone, I think ultimately what we're going to remember is a dominant defensive performance, especially up front.

Right.

That doesn't mean you have to go full Ben Johnson and like every fourth down we get in the first half, we're going to go for it.

But it was pretty clear, I think, after the first quarter that it was going to take a different level of urgency if they wanted to change the flow of the game.

All those fourth downs that Billy mentioned all around midfield or M plus territory where it would have been justifiable, even if you had failed to at least take the shot, especially once you're chasing 12.

Right.

Because now it's a two possession game.

you're going to have to chase points one way or the other.

But they kept playing as though the expectation was that they were going to outlast.

The Darnold turnover's coming.

That's how they played the game.

And that's not a strategy, right?

Hope is not a strategy, not in the Super Bowl.

And it kind of just seemed like the Patriots just kept hoping that this game would play out the way the rest of the postseason had played out for them.

That if we just sit back long enough, no matter what's going on with our offense, we'll force a turnover.

We'll get the field position where we want it to.

And truthfully, I mean, they did have Seattle backed up.

for a good chunk of the game which is really where the game kind of started to lose its juice because they were always inside their own 25 their own 30 and couldn't get much going but I think that them waiting and waiting and waiting for Sam Darnold to ultimately hand them a win proved to be a mistake and I think that what we really got out of this is that what we had seen for the first few weeks of this playoff run was true that Sam had done a much better job I think of avoiding turnovers now there were some risky throws especially early in this one but I think that

After kind of those jitters in the first quarter wore off, they really were able to handle business.

And I think that Clint Kubiak did a good job of managing his quarterback throughout.