Enemy Confidential: 'Great Challenge' Awaits Seattle Seahawks in Tough New England Patriots

An old school team with an offense built around a physical run game and a blue collar defense, the Seahawks expect a difficult fight from the Patriots on the road.

New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson (38) breaks a tackle from Cincinnati Bengals safety Geno Stone (22) on a carry in the first quarter of the NFL Week 1 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

RENTON, Wash. - While they may not be identical in every facet, Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald sees plenty of parallels between how his team and the New England Patriots each snatched Week 1 victories.

Getting their offense untracked in the second half against the Broncos behind physical running from Ken Walker III, the Seahawks rushed for nearly 100 yards in the final two quarters to orchestrate a comeback at Lumen Field. Getting physical on the ground themselves behind the bruising running of Rhamondre Stevenson and a hard-nosed offensive line, the Patriots hit 170 rushing yards in a stunning 16-10 upset of the Bengals in Cincinnati, giving coach Jerod Mayo his first NFL victory.

Defensively, Seattle and New England also dominated up front stuffing the run, limiting Denver and Cincinnati to under 100 rushing yards with no running backs finishing with more than 44 yards on the ground in either game, making their respective offenses one dimensional.

Set to face off against one another in a somewhat unlikely matchup of 1-0 teams in Foxboro on Sunday afternoon, Macdonald sees much of his Seahawks squad in the Patriots, lauding their sound fundamentals, quality coaching and schematic adjustments, and toughness when speaking with reporters on Wednesday.

"They have really good players with sound, good fundamental schemes, good change-ups. I know we have really good players with what I believe are sound schemes and change-ups," Macdonald explained. "We're going to have to see how each team is trying to attack each other throughout the game. This is going to be a four quarter old school football game. Like it's going to come down to who makes the plays at the end. That was the message to the team today. It's going to be a great game."

Hitting the road for the first time as an NFL head coach, Macdonald understands his Seahawks will need to bring their hard hats with them against an opponent who mirrors them in many ways. In particular, on offense, they'll need to buckle up for a physical, well-coached defense that made life miserable for Zach Moss and the rest of the Bengals running backs, holding them to under 75 yards on the ground last week.

Even more impressed by what he saw on tape from New England's defense at all three levels, Macdonald expects Mayo, who replaced legend Bill Belichick this offseason, will have his troops ready to shed blocks and rally to the ball when Ken Walker III, Zach Charbonnet, and Seattle's backs are handed the football.

"Very well coached obviously. But they play tough. They have good players. They play hard. All the fundamentals, just go right down the list, check, check, check," Macdonald said. "Play square, get off blocks, what it takes to play really good run defense. The numbers back it up. Tape backs it up. We've got a great challenge ahead of us."

With a chance to improve to 2-0 in their road opener and stay atop the NFC West standings early, here’s a closer look at the Seahawks upstart Week 2 opponent, including series history, additions/departures, a deep dive into scheme, and Macdonald's evaluation of the Patriots:

Series History

19th regular season meeting. Most recently beating the Patriots at home in 2020 without fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Seahawks hold a 10-9 all-time advantage in the series, though they did lose Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale in heart-breaking fashion in February 2015. Seattle has been victorious in the past three regular season meetings between the two former AFC foes, including winning at Gillette Stadium in 2016 when Tom Brady was still under center for New England.

What's New?

Departures: Turning the page from arguably the best coach in NFL history, the Patriots mutually agreed to part ways with Belichick in January, paving the way for Mayo to be named as his replacement on the sidelines. The organization also made a major change at quarterback, trading former first-round pick and three-year starter Mac Jones to Jacksonville for a late-round pick. New England lost several former starters in free agency, including tight end Mike Gesicki and tackle Trent Brown both signing with Cincinnati and linebacker Mack Wilson heading to Arizona. In August, the team shipped former Pro Bowl linebacker Matt Judon to Atlanta for a 2025 third-round pick.

Additions: Needing a veteran quarterback to hold down the fort until Maye was ready to play, the Patriots brought back Brissett, who began his career in Foxboro. The front office used free agency to add a few weapons for their veteran quarterback, signing ex-Vikings receiver K.J. Osborn, veteran tight end Austin Hooper, and speedy running back Antonio Gibson to supplement the skill positions. Through the draft, New England found two additional early starters in second-round receiver Ja'Lynn Polk and fourth-round guard Layden Robinson, while third-round tackle Caedan Wallace saw some action in the season opener as a sixth lineman.

Injury Report

Like Seattle, New England had a lengthy injury report on Wednesday, including starting left guard Sidy Sow being a non-participant due to an ankle issue. Eight different players were limited, including linebacker Anfernee Jennings and safety Jabrill Peppers. Center Cole Strange and receiver Michael Bourne are both on the reserve/PUP list and won't be eligible to play.

Inside The Scheme

Keeping things simple on offense in their season-opening win over the Bengals, the Patriots were one of only two teams last week to use only two personnel groupings on offense. New coordinator Alex Van Pelt dialed up 28 plays out of 11 personnel with three receivers, one back, and one tight end and New England's other 26 plays were in 12 personnel with two tight ends and two receivers. With the Browns last season, Van Pelt used 11 personnel 68 percent of the time and 12 personnel nearly 16 percent of the time, so that distribution does match up with prior track record. He did deploy 13 personnel with three tight ends more than five percent of the time in 2023.

Taking advantage of Stevenson's powerful running style, the Patriots called 18 gap runs compared to 14 zone runs in their season opener, with Stevenson toting the rock on 15 of those gap concepts. Interestingly, New England didn't lean much on play action in the passing game despite the success of the rushing attack, only attempting five play action drop backs with Brissett completing three of those throws for 26 yards and a 73.8 passer rating. In contrast, he threw 19 passes on traditional drop backs for 95 yards.

Making his NFL debut as a defensive play caller, defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington did a fine job of mixing up middle of field closed and middle of field open coverage concepts against the Bengals in Week 1. Per Pro Football Focus charting, the Patriots ran Cover 2 on 27.5 percent of their defensive snaps, the highest rate in the NFL last week, while also ranking in the top five in Cover 1 usage with man coverage underneath (39.2 percent). New England dialed up Cover 3 on fewer than 12 percent of its defensive plays, ranking near the bottom of the league.

Covington preferred to rush four or fewer last week, as the Patriots blitzed on just 23.5 percent of their defensive snaps in Cincinnati, the seventh-lowest percentage among NFL teams in Week 1. However, New England aggressively attacked Joe Burrow with simulated pressures, using such looks on north of 55 percent of their defensive snaps, sending pressure from the second and third level of the defense while dropping back a defensive lineman into coverage on more than half of their plays, easily the highest percentage in the NFL last week.

Macdonald's Thoughts

-On what he's seen from Jacoby Brissett over the years: "Jacoby is a really good quarterback. He's highly intelligent. He's underratedly mobile. If you let him run, he can move going forward. I think 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, like 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."

-On do-it-all defensive lineman Keion White: "Keion's a really good player. He can play inside and out. Just kind of fits the mold of someone that's been in that defense for a long time. He can play inside shade, outside shade, inside rush, outside rush. Plays very hard. He's a big guy. They move him around to kind of fit where they want him to fit within all the schemes. So, yeah, he's just one of many good players on their side."

-On Stevenson, Patriots ground game: "It's kind of a hat for a hat, and there's no fair dodging straight downhill. They have more schemes than just the duo play and things like that. I think some of the front structures that Cincinnati was giving them and the success of that play probably lent to more frequency and led to that. So it's good by them. They’re a sound football team. Everybody knows it. They're all on the same page. Just like on defense, they're square at the point of attack. They're coming right at you. There's not a lot of secrets to what they're doing, but it's very well designed. It's good football."