Should the Patriots beat the Seahawks on Sunday, it will be time to adjust our expectations even more (2024)

Patriots

Sure, the Patriots required some fortunate bounces, but they beat a team with major aspirations in the Bengals.

By Chad Finn

September 13, 2024 | 11:14 AM

Welcome to Season 13, Episode 2 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup …

One game into a Patriots season that began with low expectations, it’s a welcome plot twist that the main question entering Sunday’s home opener against the Seahawks has hopeful connotations.

The question: After their tough, disciplined performance in a 16-10 win over the Bengals — a showing that looked like it was lifted from the earliest phase of the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick union — should we recalibrate those expectations?

More concisely, is this team better than we figured?

For alleged prognosticators like me who suspected they wouldn’t win a game until deep into October, the answer is already yes.

It was encouraging, after all of the noise about whether Jerod Mayo was in over his head (which was unfair) and the sloppy preseason performances (fair to question), to see the defense look like its resistant and proud 2023 version, Rhamondre Stevenson rumble and shift like his 2022 self, and Jacoby Brissett play with poise under pressure.

Sure, the Patriots required some fortunate bounces, but they beat a team with major aspirations in the Bengals.

That was a good win, and in a sense, a validating win. It was also the blueprint for how they have to win — and Sunday’s opponent brings an interesting test, because the Seahawks, who beat the Broncos, 26-20, in rookie coach Mike Macdonald’s debut, have a lot in common stylistically with the Patriots.

Expectations have been recalibrated — I’ve got the Patriots winning five games now, rather than four, and being consistently competitive. Should the Patriots beat the Seahawks, that’s when it will be time to adjust our expectations to a greater degree.

Kick it off, Slye, and let’s get this thing started . . .

Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks

Christian Gonzalez: Well now, that’s exactly what Patriots fans were hoping to see, wasn’t it?

During training camp, there were occasional reports that Gonzalez wasn’t quite as sharp as he was during the start of his rookie season, when he more than held his own against the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill, the Eagles’ A.J. Brown, and the Jets’ Garrett Wilson in the season’s first three weeks, before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 4 against the Cowboys.

Those camp reports weren’t exactly alarming ­­— of course he was rusty, he hadn’t played football since October. Still, it was reassuring and exciting to see how sharp Gonzalez was against the Bengals. You wouldn’t have known he’d missed any time at all.

Just as he’d done during his 3½-game rookie season, Gonzalez shut down an elite receiver, holding the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase to three catches for 14 yards on the 20 routes that he was matched up against him.

Now, Chase wasn’t at his best — he was a bystander during camp while angling for a new contract, and he played at times like someone who was mad he didn’t get that new contract. (He reportedly turned down $35 million per season. If true, he has nothing to be mopey about.)

But Chase is an elite receiver — over his first three seasons, he has averaged 89 receptions for 1,239 yards and 10 touchdowns. And he did finish Sunday’s game with six catches for 62 yards, including a 28-yarder with linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley as the nearest defender. Chase just couldn’t shake Gonzalez.

Against the Seahawks, Gonzalez will face another challenge — and literally, a bigger one. He’ll almost certainly be matched up against Seattle’s 6-foot-4-inch, 236-pound hulk of a receiver, DK Metcalf.

Metcalf had just three catches on four targets for 29 yards in the win over the Broncos, but he eclipsed 1,000 yards for the third time in his five full seasons in 2023.

It would be fitting on a day in which Malcolm Butler is scheduled to perform “Keeper of the Light” duties at Gillette Stadium that another Patriots cornerback delivers a stellar performance against the Seahawks.

Gonzalez should be up for it. When healthy, he’s met every challenge in his young career.

Kenneth Walker: The Patriots’ run defense was solid enough against the Bengals, holding Zack Moss, Chase Brown, and Co. to 70 yards on 16 rushing attempts. Moss did score Cincinnati’s lone touchdown on a 5-yard run late in the third quarter, but the Patriots’ defense held steady for the most part.

The Seahawks could be a good test for how sustainable that will be in the absence of Christian Barmore, who is out indefinitely while receiving treatment for blood clots. Daniel Ekuale played 37 snaps — or 73 percent of the defensive plays — alongside Davon Godchaux at defensive tackle. Ekuale played 53 snaps total in three games last season, so there should be some question as to whether he’s ready to play the majority of downs in Barmore’s absence.

The Seahawks took command of their opener when they began feeding Walker the ball in the third quarter. He finished with 103 yards on 20 carries, but departed with what was reported as an abdominal injury with 10 minutes remaining.

Mayo offered Walker high praise this past week. “I don’t know what his Madden rating is or anything like that, but when you turn on the film, this guy pops off the film,” said the Patriots coach. (For the record, Walker’s overall rating in Madden 24 is an 87.)

Walker, whose importance to the Seahawks mirrors Stevenson’s with the Patriots, is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game with what is now being called an oblique injury. If he can’t go, it’s a huge blow to the Seahawks, who will have to turn to Zach Charbonnet, who lugged the ball for a measly 12 yards on eight carries in the opener.

DeMario Douglas: Brissett completed just 15 of 24 passes for 121 yards against the Bengals, with no Patriot catching more than three passes. (K.J. Osborn and Stevenson achieved that modest number.) Brissett didn’t commit a turnover, but he did scatter some throws — Hunter Henry’s prevention of an interception just before halftime was one of the game’s bigger plays.

This probably isn’t the week to unveil anything resembling an Air Van Pelt offense. The Seahawks have two excellent cornerbacks in Riq Woolen (who had an interception against the Broncos) and Devon Witherspoon (taken fifth overall in the 2023 draft, 12 spots before Gonzalez).

But the Patriots would be well-served by involving Douglas more. He’s the closest thing the Patriots have to a dynamic receiver, and he’s excellent at finding low-risk openings as the slot receiver. Douglas had just three targets against the Bengals, catching two passes for 12 yards. That’s not nearly enough usage.

The flashback

Any mention of Tony Eason’s name is likely to elicit eye-rolls and perhaps a few expletives from old-school Patriots fans. That will happen when you were a quarterback taken 12 picks before Dan Marino in the 1983 NFL Draft only to have the pocket presence of . . . well, pretty much what we saw from Mac Jones last year, if you want current context.

It’s understandably forgotten that Eason (like rookie Mac in 2021) had some fleeting but fine moments with the Patriots. He was downright excellent in the 1984 season, finishing with 3,228 passing yards, 23 touchdown passes, and just 8 interceptions while starting 13 games.

The finest of those moments came 40 years ago this week. The Patriots trailed the Seahawks, 23-0, in the second quarter of their Week 3 matchup after Seattle safety (and future Hall of Famer) Kenny Easley picked off a Steve Grogan pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

Eason relieved Grogan — who had started the first three games — and got the Patriots on the board before halftime with a 25-yard touchdown run.

Then came the real fun. The Patriots outscored the Seahawks, 31-0, in the second half — and tore off 38 straight points overall — with Mosi Tatupu running for a pair of touchdowns and Eason throwing scoring passes to tight end Derrick Ramsey (who had a super season) and rookie No. 1 overall pick Irving Fryar.

It was the biggest comeback in Patriots history to that point. Afterward, Eason noted that John Hannah — who would become one of Eason’s harshest critics — had gone “mildly berserk” in the huddle after falling into the 23-point hole. “

“It’s hard to remember what he said, but when someone is going nuts you tend to remember his face,” said Eason. “It was beet red.”

Grievance of the week

There were plenty of juicy details in ace ESPN investigative reporter Don Van Natta’s deep-dive this past week into Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s quest to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

It’s highly recommended reading, particularly on how “The Dynasty” — both the book by author Jeff Benedict and the Apple TV+ docuseries — came to be.

Let’s just say they are what you thought they were.

(Me, I whiffed like a punter trying to tackle Devin Hester in the open field on my initial assessment of the doc. Regrettable. There are regrets. Never dug the book, though.)

Our grievance here is somewhat ancillary to Van Natta’s theme, but man is it annoying. While detailing Patriots vice president of communications Stacey James’s campaigning with Hall of Fame voters on Kraft’s behalf, Van Natta writes:

A half-dozen voters pointed to James’s lobbying as another intangible in Kraft’s annual Hall of Fame campaign. With each passing year, they say, James has become more insistent and impatient.

“I was repelled by the push — this idea, we’ll do anything to win your vote,” a longtime voter said. “It was never articulated, but it felt that way . . . I don’t need to talk to anyone. And I can make up my own mind.”

One Hall of Fame voter said he urged James and Kraft’s other supporters to “go lightly — and that’s advice they obviously didn’t take.”

Geez, that’s just so obnoxious and self-important. Kraft’s candidacy — or anyone else’s, for that matter — should stand on its own merits. There’s too much secrecy around the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting, and that seems to invite a kind of petty behavior that might not occur with more transparency.

And for what it’s worth, of course Kraft belongs in, as unbecoming as the desperation may be. Dallas’s Jerry Jones, inducted in 2017, hasn’t won anything of note since Troy Aikman was his quarterback, and Aikman is in his 24th year as a broadcaster, so it’s been awhile.

Prediction, or the flashback really should have been two words: “Malcolm, Go!” . . .

It’s remarkable how much in common the Patriots appear to have with the Seahawks: a 30-something rookie coach replacing a 70-something legend, a veteran quarterback who has seen the NFL through different prisms in his career, a tough, aggressive defense, and an offense that is and will be heavily reliant on the running game. It’s tempting to pick the Patriots to go 2-0 for the first time since 2019, but unless Keion White continues his 42.5-sack pace, the more-talented Seahawks should win in a close one. Seahawks 14, Patriots 13.