Vision Board: Seahawks-Patriots

Byron Murphy faces a banged up Patriots OL, while Seahawks overcome some injury issues of their own: Seaside Joe 2023

Who could have ever predicted that the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots would end up having an interesting, albeit not super relevant or recognized, rivalry? Prior to Pete Carroll’s arrival, the Seahawks and Patriots had faced off 15 times, with New England leading the series 8-7.

Then they had the memorable 24-23 Seahawks win in 2012 with Russell Wilson besting Tom Brady on a late touchdown to Sidney Rice.

Then the Super Bowl, followed by two more close games in 2016 and 2020. Except for that one time, the Seahawks-Patriots rivalry has almost always delivered a good outcome and Seattle has won the last three regular season meetings.

While a playoff appearance seems out of reach, the Patriots proved in their 16-10 win over the Bengals in Week 1 that they’re not the team that’s going to roll over and lose to any decent team like they did while going 4-13 last season. Without many stars (or any stars?) the Patriots are going to tighten up and play some of the most fundamentally sound football in the league (seven of their losses last season were by less than a touchdown) and make you earn it.

At Vision Board we say: If you can’t earn it, ask for it.

Last week’s vision board hit 3-for-3: Tyler Lockett caught a game-winning pass, Kenneth Walker had over 100 rushing yards and a long touchdown run, Bo Nix was picked off twice.

The Vision Board used Survivor as a theme and that worked out pretty well, so for more one week I’ll dip into the other thing that I know about as well as I know the NFL: Reality competition shows. This week, the biggest moments and players in Big Brother US history.

Twins Twist::Seahawks lean on backup RB duo

Premise: Big Brother casts identical twins but keeps it a secret and has the players switch in and out every 24 hours

Matchup: Zach Charbonnet, Kenny McIntosh handle Patriots w/o Ken Walker

Big Brother has used this twist twice and it has worked surprisingly well for a Big Brother twist: They cast twin sisters in seasons 5 and 17 of the US version, but didn’t tell the rest of the cast about the twist and had them switch places every 24 hours. If the twins made it to a certain point in the game without being evicted or found out, they could both play in the game together. If you just want to see a twin reveal reaction, here you go.

The Seahawks have secretly hidden a pair of good backs behind Kenneth Walker and this week they’re going to need to lean on them against a potentially-great Patriots defense.

As I write this, Kenneth Walker III hasn’t officially been ruled out, but being designated as “Doubtful” is much closer to “OUT” than in so I’m assuming that he won’t play. Walker has an oblique injury and he missed two games in 2023 with an oblique strain, so whether they’re directly related or coincidental injuries, he might be out for a couple of weeks.

In his absence, the Seahawks are better off than most teams because they used a second round pick on Zach Charbonnet last year and he has more tools in his bag than the usual backup, as evidenced from his touchdown catch in Week 1. What Kenny McIntosh can do in a regular season game remains a mystery, as the 2023 seventh round pick has yet to make his offensive debut, but he might be even more explosive as a runner up the gut or around the edges than Charbonnet.

I thought about highlighting a receiver like DK Metcalf, but the Patriots only allowed three receivers to gain over 100 yards last season and two of those 100-yard games happened against the Dolphins in Week 8. It’s not any easier to run on the Patriots than it is to pass on them, but at least running backs are dual threats that can do both.

Universal Request: Seahawks running backs gain 150 TOTAL yards

Will Ryan Grubb call screen passes INTO the weakness of the offensive line, popping off a few long gains by letting Charbonnet leak out into the flats over and behind a struggling Stone Forsythe/Michael Jerrell?

If it seems like it’s not asking a lot for two running backs to combine for over 150 yards against the Patriots, it was last season. This Patriots defense was more than good in 2023, so they might be even better with Jerod Mayo in 2024. Only two running backs rushed for over 80 yards against New England (Breece Hall had 178, Raheem Mostert had 121) and they otherwise shutdown every other back. That was also the case in the passing game as only two backs had more than 50 receiving yards against the Pats.

I’m looking at 50-60 on the ground and 20-30 in the air from Charbonnet, plus another 50 total yards from McIntosh, and one of them scores a touchdown. For the twist’s sake, let’s call it McIntosh.

Dan’s Funeral::Macdonald starts a new era of Seattle D

Premise: The greatest play in Big Brother history

Matchup: The greatest Seahawks defense since 2013

In 25.5 seasons of Big Brother, any junkie would tell you that Dan’s Funeral is a top-3 moment, if not the best move and strategy in the history of the show. I wish I could get into the specifics, but it would take too long. Let’s just say that similar to Mike Macdonald, Gheesling showed the house one thing and behind the scenes was planning to do the complete opposite causing his opponents to see ghosts and trip themselves into unforced mistakes.

For that reason, Dan Gheesling is often cited as the best overall player in Big Brother history, something he has managed despite only being 24 when he was cast the first time. Can the Seahawks someday claim that they have the best head coach in the NFL even though Macdonald is also the youngest head coach in the league?

This season could be almost be like “Pete’s Funeral”, or at least, the death of Pete Carroll’s defense and the birth of Macdonald’s.

Macdonald delivered in Week 1, but I’m not going to pump the brakes on what I’ve been saying since Sunday: Against better quarterbacks and receivers than Bo Nix and his supporting cast, the Seahawks defense would have paid for some significant missed coverages and blown assignments that the Broncos couldn’t take advantage of in Week 1. So it just has to get a little bit better every week and that must continue in New England.

Universal Request: Macdonald holds Patriots under 289 yards

Though they had different coaches and different quarterbacks, the 2023 Patriots offense had a season-best of 382 yards in Week 1 against the Eagles, then were held under 300 yards in 11 of the next 16 games. When the Patriots were held under 289 yards (which is the mark they had in a 26-23 win over those Denver Broncos) last season, they went 0-9.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m being tongue-in-cheek about using the number 289, I don’t think it’s a magical number. It just so happens that the Patriots held the Dolphins to 288 yards last season and lost 24-17.

The Patriots ranked 31st in points and 30th in yards in 2023 and though they might have made little changes here and there that could make them slightly better on offense, they didn’t do anything significant and that was obvious in Week 1, as Jacoby Brissett passed for 121 yards and their leading receiver was Austin Hooper with 31 yards. The Patriots actually beat the Bengals…with 290 total yards of offense.

Maybe Mike Macdonald could win his first career road game as a head coach, then we’ll be talking about Bill Belichick’s football funeral.

Evel Dick’s Reign of Terror::Nice Byron’s Reign of Terror

Premise: Evel Dick uses hell tactics to advance himself in the game

Matchup: Byron Murphy II takes backup guards to hell

One half of another family-related Big Brother twist, Evel Dick was cast in season 8 alongside his estranged daughter Danielle and neither of them were told about the other until after the game had already started. Dick played recklessly, with no cares for how he would be perceived (or by proxy his daughter) and he became arguably the most infamous player in the show’s history because of his tactics to be rude, annoying, and offensive.

I don’t think a single Seahawks fan on the planet would mind if Byron Murphy II was rude, annoying, and offensive to New England’s offensive line this week.

Murphy had a quiet day statistically in his NFL debut, but played 40 snaps, helped Seattle shut down Denver’s running backs, and has been a favorite of Xs and Os twitter this week with several shoutouts in breakdowns of his elite power and moves. He’s going to potentially get a great opportunity to get a sack this week with New England ailing on the inside of their offensive line.

Universal Request: Byron Murphy II gets first career sack

NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger did one of his Twitter breakdowns on the Patriots offensive line this week, praising the rebuilt unit for being much better in Week 1 than they were in 2023. Like the Seahawks, two key components to that rebuild would be finding out who starts at guard, and like the Seahawks they picked one in the fourth round of the 2023 draft who started in Week 1: Sidy Sow.

But Sow was ruled out this week and Layden Robinson, the starter on the right side, is Questionable. Backup Zach Thomas is a player I’ve known from his recent stay on the Rams practice squad and it looks like he could be getting the start on Sunday. New England doesn’t have much guard depth on the 53-man roster, so they could be really reaching for help to protect Brissett and open lanes for Rhamondre Stevenson without one or both of their starting guards.

Well, one thing that Jacoby Brissett has in common with Big Brother 8 contestants: They wanted a wall between themselves and Evel Dick, while Brissett wants a wall between himself and Byron Murphy. He won’t have the same wall he had last week, so I’m putting it out there that Murphy gets his first career sack on Sunday. Oh Dick wanted to say one more thing in case you didn’t like the Vision Board this week…

In case you missed it last week, my wife Seaside Jay will be making two picks each week (a hero for the Seahawks, a zero for the opposing team) based on vibes, names, pictures she sees of the players…

Jay’s Says

The hero of the week is... Derick Hall. He and I have a shared common interest: cropped tops.

The zero of the week goes to... Patriots linebacker Anfernee Jennings. Tim Meadows as Principal Duvall in Mean Girls (2003) said it best...