Super Bowl 60 Recap: Talent > Scheme

El primero de mayo. Hello and welcome to the The Sandy Podcast. I'm your host, San Duzeme Jr. Follow me on the Blue Sky app at The Sandy, that's T-H-E-E-S-A-M-D. Join the YouTube community. Subscribe link is in the podcast description. For all content, audio, and visual, hit up the lead, samd.com.

Subscribe and rate the podcast, five stars, nothing less, tell a friend. Podcast available at all major podcasts and platforms. Musical production done by May 1st Music. Support him at soundcloud.com slash mayfirstmusic. Super Bowl XVI happened last night, and while the game more or less was a dud, there were certainly some moments that made you realize that the Seattle Seahawks indeed were the best team in the 2025-2026 NFL season. Defense wins championships. That's been something that's been said for seemingly my whole lifetime and probably all of yours.

But last night that truly came into shape. Blitzing when they weren't supposed to blitz. Running zone. It was a lot of mixing up of coverages. Disguising, attacking the weakness or the perceived weakness of the other team. It was very much an old school traditional backyard brawl when it comes to the Seattle Seahawks and their defense. Now, this might not be the Legion of Boom from back in the day.

This might not be the 2000 Ravens. This might not be the 85 Bears, but the 2025-2026 Seattle Seahawks definitely were a defense that will be in those conversation regards to, for that one year, that defense was top tier. Let's get into all the reasons. So, Mike McDonald, there was a great article by Bill Barnwell on the 4-Liter Network after the game. He talked about all the things that the Seahawks did to confuse Drake May. And while Drake May, there's a lot of conversation, there have been a lot of conversations in regards to how good is he? Is he a franchise QB?

Did the Patriots strike gold, getting him third amongst the three QBs that were taken just a couple of years ago? I think last night we saw there's a lot there for him to learn. And not to say that he's not going to be good, but it just goes to show So like when you put a neophyte in that position, it's not guaranteed that the person is just going to respond and just light things up. And whether it was horrible play calling, which you could certainly bring that into the piece, whether it was, you know, I think Drake may being scared at times of just being nervous. You know, with Sam Darnold on the other side, maybe Drake May was the one that was seeing ghost last night in Santa Clara. But there was certainly something going on with Drake May that made him realize tonight is not my night. And he was getting rid of that ball and he was erratic with his throws.

Not that Sam Donald was that much better on the other side, but Sam Donald did enough. They certainly handed off to Kenneth Walker and made sure Kenneth Walker got the ball enough to get the job done for the Seahawks to go ahead and take it to the crib and get their second Lombardi. So Bill Balmwell did a really good article and he broke down that during the regular season, the Seahawks blitz. Let me get to the screen here. Let me just go right to the screen. All right. So to get there, the Seahawks blitzed only 27 percent of the time, the fifth lowest rate in the NFL.

So that goes into the regular season. Right. So the Seahawks blitzed only 27, 20.7 percent of the time. That's the fifth lowest rate in the NFL. Yesterday, last night, that number dropped to 15.1 percent of the time, but it was heavily split by half. McDonald blitzed May 33.3 percent of the time in the first half. So you go from only blitzing 20.7, we're round up 21 percent of the time.

And then you only blitzed overall in the game last night 15% of the time. But in actuality, in that first half alone, you dialed it up higher than both of those numbers to 33% of the time. For a team that's widely known as a zone scheme and a zone front and requires the front four to get in that backfield and cause havoc. They dialed it up 33% of the time. And with that, it was specific blitzes, certain types of blitzes. It was who he was blitzing instead of just sending an extra linebacker or having someone come, you know, a cornerback blitz. It was designed specifically for certain players to attack specific spots in the defense.

And that's what made the difference for the Seattle Seahawks last night. You know, there's arguments that Devin Witherspoon should have been MVP last night. And you could do that. He certainly made enough, you know, splash plays, game-changing plays. I think Kenneth Walker still should have gotten the MVP and deservedly so. But Witherspoon, he had just rushed a quarterback 33 times across 12 regular season games. Witherspoon hadn't been sent on a single blitz in Seattle's past four games, which covers the final two regular season contests and the playoff wins against the 49ers and the Rams.

Last night, though, Witherspoon was blitzed seven times on Drake May. Now, one was like to wipe that by penalty, but the other six pass rush blitzes produced one sack and another one that was a strip sack. It really turned into an interception, which turned into a pick six. Creating big plays and creating big plays from unknown places. That's something where, you know, if we're really trying to get into schematics and how things go, having that ability to I'm going to bring a guy. You don't know where I'm going to bring him from. And it's not something you could just leverage off of.

I study the tape. Studying tape is one thing. Right. And that's bare bones foundational when it comes to analyzing and preparing and doing the groundwork to get your team ready. but I'm going to give you a wrinkle you haven't seen before. That's when you get into the boy genius territory. That's when you get into the guru territory.

When you're bringing stuff out that you can't say, oh, we saw that on tape. We saw that on tape a few weeks ago. We saw that on tape last year. We saw that on tape, you know, after your bye week, and now we got that. No, you don't. You don't. And at times, it looked as that Drake may end the whole Patriots offensive line, especially on that left side with the two rookies, were confused.

And that, like, they didn't know what was coming. And then that goes into the coaching because that staff that has been heralded for getting this team this far, although we're all ignoring that they had the easiest schedule in the league, the easiest strength of schedule in the league. We ignored all of that, or y'all did. I didn't. I kept trying to bring it up. But y'all wanted to look past that because, no, they're just that good. Okay, bet.

Now when they face the squad that was up to snuff or better than them, and could do things with their talented players. This ain't no scheming stuff because the Patriots are not going to out-talent you. They didn't out-talent the Broncos. That's not what happened there. Like what happened was that they out-coached the Broncos and Sean Payton got into that ego and was ego-tripping and coached himself out of a chance of getting to the Super Bowl, even with Jarrett Stidham as his QB. So the Patriots didn't get here by just running through, you know, a gauntlet. They got there by running through a really soft, easy, regular season and then being fortunate in the playoffs.

And, yes, that could be a thing. Like, there's a notion online of, well, this shows that the Patriots were really that good because it took a team like the Seattle Seahawks to knock them out. That's not what that means. Sometimes you can have a path that's paved in gold. Sometimes you can have an easy path, and that's okay. that doesn't take away from what you did you still beat the teams that were in front of you because you can have a layup of a path in front of you and you can still trick it off the Patriots didn't do that they didn't play with their food they finished their breakfast and they got to the Super Bowl and then they faced a team that they could not out scheme could not out coach it could not out talent and they took that L what McDonald and his scheme and his team and even Kubiak who's who's about to slide to Vegas allegedly what his coaches stayed ahead of the game even in the second half when the Patriots were trying to put up a fight and you know McDaniels was trying to cook up something and he did cook up a couple of adjustments to what they were doing. Ultimately, what they did was not enough.

The Seattle Seahawks were able to counter all the little punches whenever the Patriots tried to slip a jab. The Seahawks had that overhand right ready and waiting. And even though it was looking like it was going to be a field goal contest and it might be a whole last Super Bowl with no touchdowns, it really just came down to, oh, they got a bunch of dudes and we don't. They have a Kenneth Walker III, and we don't. Even without JSN, they handled the Patriots easily. Even without JSN. Even without a Rashid Shahid moment.

A truly dominant performance, even though the score doesn't really dictate that. And while the game doesn't have too many legendary moments, like there's no special moment from this game, It was just this team is really good, and this team is good and got here by way of an easy path, but you line these two teams up. You know, old notion of you line these two teams up and you let them go to 10, you don't know who's going to. Like, no, no, I know the Seahawks are going to win minimum 7 out of 10 times if they face the Patriots 10 times. Like, there's not much there. And let's get into the O-line, right? O-line is a thing, and, you know, whether you believe in investing in the O-line via the draft or via free agency, a lot was made about Will Campbell, fourth overall.

And the fact that he got hurt during the season, came back towards the end of the season, he looked like he was pushing through and battling through. So he was certainly not at peak Will Campbell, but none of these players are at peak any of themselves at this point in the year. But with that being said, going up against a front line that is formidable. I wouldn't say this is a dominant D-line. This is not a, you know, loaded with Hall of Famers D-line. This is not all pros up and down the line type of D-line. But this is a good D-line.

This is a bunch of dudes and they have depth and they can get home. Will Campbell, his knock coming out of college was, does he have the wingspan? Is his arms wide enough? And a lot of folks were not sold on Will Campbell at four. But outside of that, in terms of abilities, skill set, acumen, track record, he was supposed to be the top tackle off the board. But that one little flaw, or what people or teams believe to be a flaw in terms of arm length, it came to bite him in the biggest moment of his young career. Because they were open season on him.

DeMarcus Lawrence seized upon him. And it wasn't just one-on-one. It was, we're going to bring pressure from that side. We're going to make you and the guard, who are both rookies, try to figure this thing out in real time. Now, again, how they were not prepared for certain looks, that goes into coaching. But when you're talking about what Will Campbell had to navigate, it was a lot. And it wasn't just that he could tell he was still hurt.

But it looked like he was lost. He had some off-snap penalties, pre-snap penalties and all that. But when you're talking about Morgan Moses, they kept showing him trying to galvanize his guys. You know, he's a vet on that line. He's on the opposite side of Will Campbell. He's the right tackle. They kept showing Morgan Moses trying to inspire his teammates, trying to get his guys right.

There's only so much you can do, dogs. You can't accelerate someone's growth in real time. what I saw a lot in regards to offensive line play was in the fact that they didn't really provide a lot of chipping like at that at some point when do you chip if they're clearly seizing on Will Campbell yes he was the fourth overall pick yes he was highly touted yes he was playing well earlier in the season and was solidifying himself to being maybe worthy of that fourth pick But for whatever it was, the Seahawks, Kubiak, they saw something on tape. Excuse me, McDonald. They saw something on tape. And they were not afraid to seize upon an opportunity and dare you to do something. Was the adjustments in chipping?

They tried a little bit of that in the second half, but not enough for my liking. And you could argue by that point the game was already over, so maybe that adjustment should have came sooner. But there was a lot there, right? So in terms of Will Campbell, let's see, because there's some next-gen stats here that are kind of crazy when you're talking about the fourth overall pick. And we'll go into the screen share. Okay. Drake May was pressured nearly 48% of the time when the Seahawks rushed four or fewer.

So, again, even though they blitzed him 33 percent of the time in the first half, that's still 67 percent of the time where he was not. May was pressured of those 67 percent when he didn't blitz 48 percent of the time. That's an astronomical figure when you're really breaking down the numbers. OK, and I know numbers are a thing and people sometimes don't like to hear numbers because, you know, you can make anything sound good with stats. but this is raw data to me. I don't consider this advanced analytics. If you're telling me I'm not going to blitz you, I'm going to rush four or fewer 67% of the time and I'm able to get pressure on 48% of that 67, that to me is a really astronomical ratio to be able to get that off in a Super Bowl of all places.

So, all right, Will Campbell. He had allowed four sacks and 15 pressures through his first three playoff games. Four sacks and 15 pressures for the fourth overall pick through his first three playoff games. Again, this is an advanced analytics. This is raw data. So, of course, McDonald made sure that he was going to isolate Campbell one-on-one against Lawrence and Seattle's pass rushers. So, I mean, and it wasn't like Lawrence got in the backfield and had like a whole bunch of sacks.

It was just that constant presence collapsing the pocket, making Drake May move his feet. And that's something I thought Drake May was going to take advantage of. And again, when it comes into trying to understand what you have in a QB and is this QB a franchise QB or not, I just think when it comes to Drake May, he needs to realize who he is. And who he is is a guy that can, at times, move his feet and be mobile and be able to be a dual threat. Like, there's nothing wrong with being a mediocre Josh Allen. There's nothing wrong with being a bootleg Canal Street Josh Allen. And I feel like at times, because I mean, that to me is what you're seeing in Bo Nix.

I think what you see at his peak, that's what you're going to get out of Drake May is a bootleg Josh Allen and quarterbacks. You see that with Trevor Lawrence when he tries like there's a hesitancy for white quarterbacks to go all in on the dual threat QB thing. And I'm trying to navigate why that is, because the dual threat thing is not going to there's not going to be a regression. To solo threat QBs like the dual threat thing is going to be a thing for a very long time. Why not tap into that more? If you know you're getting pressured, if you know. With four rushers or less, they're getting to me nearly half of the time.

Then my clock has to speed up. And while his clock sped up to where he made some erratic throws, his clock was not speeding up. When it comes to I need to take off and get out the pocket. This pocket is collapsing. I need to get out. Escapability. You heard that word a few times, even on the other side with Sam Darnold.

He was able to get that off a couple of times. I have escape ability. So while not a true dual threat. Escapability is a thing and it should have been a thing more, I think, for Drake, maybe because that was a dimension that wasn't necessarily talked about as much as he was coming out of college. But he showed us last year and even certainly this year as he was second in MVP voting of, oh, yeah, he can move a little bit. They didn't really give us that much in this game. The game within the game to me was McDonald realizing the Patriots are not as talented as us.

I'm going to bring Hellfire and Brimstone to Drake May, and I'm going to dare him to beat me in a Super Bowl. Because who is he going to beat him with? Hollins? Stephon Diggs? Hunter Henry? Like, who was supposed to, like, Trayvon Henderson could have been a game changer type of dude, but they didn't use him in that way, and they didn't really try to run the ball that way. Stevenson couldn't really get off.

So, again, the game plan, if you're looking at this from a tiered system, To me, this game exposed Drake May. This game also exposed McDaniels in a shaky spot in terms of having this guy prepared, not making adjustments, and not being ready for what the Seahawks defense was going to dial up. This also goes to the Seahawks just had a much more talented team on both sides of the ball. And it was clear the Patriots defense tried their damnedest. Christian Gonzalez, a Bill Belichick pick, by the way. Everyone goes crazy about Vrabel and their free agency and what they've done last year in the draft, but Gonzalez is a Belichick holdover. He was clearly the best player on the defensive side of the ball for the Patriots last night, and it didn't matter because they kept giving up just enough to allow the Seahawks to get in the field goal range and to keep putting up field goals, to keep stretching out the lead because after a while it was like, yo, they might be able to win this, not nothing.

you might be able to win this 12 nothing because the pages offense was not moving the ball at all Kenneth Walker is about to get paid Kenneth Walker is about to get paid and there is a stat here that I want to talk about or a discussion here that I think is a larger point in regards to the value of what running backs are as opposed to wide receivers and I think there's there's going to be a market adjustment you can get off and you know shout out to Corey I get it done with four podcasts. He likes to hit me with stats about the value of running backs and the salary cap and all that nonsense. That's all cute. But there's a regression to the mean and it's coming. Because when I tell you, Kenneth Walker is probably going to get somewhere, and Barnwell mentions it in this article here, he's going to get somewhere in the neighborhood of $12 million. for $12 million. These are the types of players that sound for almost the same money last year.

Deami Brown and Tutu Atwell. That's laughable. So again, you can go ahead and have the value of running backs being diminished, but what you're not going to do is not have a good quality running back. And while you can give to me about the value of it and the money, don't spend money on running backs and that shit sounds cute. That shit works in some analytic boardrooms and stuff like that. I'd rather have a Kenneth Walker III at $12 million than De'Ami Brown and Tutu Atwell at $10 million. So I don't care what percentage of the salary cap it is, as long as I have a dude at running back and you could keep trying to strike gold with low round picks, taking running backs and hoping at that flash.

But I know when there's a good one, you pay for that good one. And whatever that money is, you pay for it. If I'm the Seahawks, and they just proved it, they could have brought back Geno, but they were going to have to pay Geno max bread. They didn't want to do it. Now, Sam Darnold was not cheating. He was still upper echelon in terms of his salary. Let me see.

Let me get that up real quick. come on so three years 100 million 55 of it guaranteed and a 32 million dollar signing bonus so you're talking about that's not cheap money three years 55 guaranteed 32 of which it was in a signing bonus. I mean, that's not cheap, bro. So having Sam Donald at that bread and you're telling me I'd rather pay that money for a Sam Donald than pay that money for a Kenneth Walker, the third, like if you think you're going to go out here next year with some Chardonnay and get it done, or you're going to draft somebody in the fourth, fifth round and get equivalent production from a Kenneth Walker, you may hit, but you better hit as opposed to I know what Kenneth Walker is. I know what he is. He is a proven commodity and he is a Super Bowl MVP. So while you can keep rolling the dice on I'll take a chance on the fourth round or sixth round or the fifth round or seventh round, go ahead.

But I know a proven commodity when I see it. And that proven commodity at 12 mil is worth way more than these fringe third, fourth, fifth wide receivers for damn near the same money. And that's going to flip. Like, as much as the game has tried to open it up and it's more offense and more receiver driven because the quarterbacks are making so much more money than back in the day. That push is still kind of happening. But what is also happening on the underbelly and the undercurrent to me is realizing, oh, but we but you still really need a really good running back. You may can do it with smoke and mirrors on the occasional year with a cheap running back.

But more times than not, you're going to win with a good running back. And those are harder and harder to find because the offense are getting more specialized. The niche, they're creating niches on niches when it comes to running back. Are you a three down back? Are you a third down back? Are you a scat back? Are you a tailback?

Are you a half back? Are you a dual threat back? What are you? They're creating niches on top of each other instead of, hey, is he nice or not? Because if we get into these Kenneth Walker stats, and this is more shade at the 49ers, but we will talk about it. Kenneth Walker had more runs of 20-plus yards, three, than the whole San Francisco 49er team in that stadium. That's a real stat.

And if you want to get into more 49er shade, as Kyle Shanahan was all over that pregame. Kyle Shanahan was in his boy genius aura on the pregame last night. And, of course, he got his mans there, Chris Sims, their buddies. And never forget, Chris Sims has a Kyle Shanahan tattoo, a tattoo that he shares with Kyle Shanahan. That's how tight they are. So, of course, they were on the pregame together last night. Anywho, the Seahawks defense had more sacks, nine, and takeaways, four, in two games at Levi's Stadium this season than the 49ers did in their eight home games combined.

Again, this isn't the 2000 Ravens. This isn't the 85 Bears. This isn't even the Legion of Boom to me. Not yet, but pretty impressive with the Seahawks able to pull off defensively. And if you want to get into, as we wrap this up here, just want to make sure I just put out something real quick. Super Bowl odds and let me get into sharing the screen here no yep alright Super Bowl 61 odds Seahawks are their favorite Seahawks gonna run it back they're not that good I don't see them being that good that they're gonna run it back Rams right behind them that Ravens number is crazy Harbaugh was a problem or was one of the problems in Baltimore I don't think he was that much of a problem that the Ravens should now be the third favorite and the Bills, nasty work. They should not be there.

How about them Eagles at plus 1,400? Who going to take that now? Who going to do a little sprinkle on the Eagles plus 1,400? How are the Chiefs plus 1,500? They think Mahomes going to be back like that? And with what weapons? See the 49ers here plus 1,700.

Broncos plus 2,000, that squad ain't getting back there. That squad ain't going to be number one seed again. I would love to be able to go the opposite way of, okay, it's plus 2,000 for them to win a Super Bowl. What are the odds that they will not? Or what odds they won't even get to the championship game? Like, give me those odds. I want to bet against teams going far.

Anywho. Let me see. Was there anything else that I wanted to bring up? No, I think we're good there. All right. So what you saw was a great game. What you saw was great for Seattle, obviously, but a great game.

And in terms of if you're about the philosophy of defense wins championships, when look, it was Super Bowl 60, 60 defenses have won the Super Bowl. However, there are certain defenses that stand a cut above, right? That are more of a reason for why their team won a Super Bowl than not. And I think this 2025, 2026 Seattle Seahawks, they won't be in that pantheon of the Legion of Boom, the 2000 Ravens, or, you know, the 85 Bears. But they will be remembered, like, yo, that defense got after it. And that defense surprised a young QB. That defense exploited a rookie left tackle and a rookie left guard in the biggest spots and at the biggest moments.

And the notion of scheme versus talent, I think, was on full display last night. Because McDaniels with the Patriots was trying to scheme Diggs open, trying to scheme Booty open, trying to scheme Hollins open, Hunter Henry. And it didn't work. Because at the end of the day, those dudes ain't going to beat what Seattle's going to counter you with. And that's where it ultimately always comes down to for me is talent over scheme. You can scheme your way out of anything. But if I got the horses more times than not, I'm busting that ass.

And I think that's what we saw with the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots last night. You know what it is. Appreciate y'all for listening. Just wanted to hop on real quick, give you a Super Bowl recap. I know you're going to be inundated with everyone giving you their opinion. So I have to slide in there and make sure I get minds off. Good game.

Great game, maybe, depending on how you want to look at it. But anti-climactic because the Seahawks were clearly more talented than the New England Patriots. Hey, got a lot of NBA stuff coming. Join the YouTube community. We're doing some stuff over there. We finally got the tech stuff figured out. Definitely going to be dropping some heat on the tech side if you're into that.

So be on the lookout for that. I will be dropping a link for that very soon. But yeah, NBA All-Star. Yes, the trade deadline came and went. Giannis stayed put. If Giannis would have got traded, y'all know y'all would have got something from me, but I didn't really view the other trades being noteworthy of dropping in with an emergency pod. But I will come back and spin the block and just talk about some of those transactions a little bit more.

Are the Wizards actually trying to win? I don't know. I doubt it. Anyway, for the Sandy podcast, I am the Sandy. I'm out.