Patriots vs. Seahawks: Full Report Card Grades for New England

Let's start with the good news. The NFL finally put a great product in primetime. 

The Patriots and the Seahawks (with a shoutout to the Cowboys) are possibly the two best teams in the NFL, and to see Super Bowl-caliber teams go down to the wire is exactly what we needed to see. If the Patriots came away with a win, it might have been just a little bit sweeter. 

Wins aren't easy to come by in the NFL unless you are the Patriots, but on Sunday night, Pete Carroll got the best of his former team that spoiled his chance at a second Super Bowl win. It was only fitting that another exciting battle between these top teams ended with another series of goal-line heroics. This time, it wasn't in the Patriots' favor. 

There were ups and downs all game long for New England, but the biggest issues happened on the defense. 

In the wake of the Jamie Collins trade, we can all point fingers, but Collins wouldn't have made a difference in this one. The defensive scheme is a mess, and it cost the Patriots a big win in November at home against a Super Bowl contender. 

Read on for the full grades from the Patriots' down-to-the-wire 31-24 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. 

Quarterback

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Tom Terrific's spree of laying waste to every opponent that comes in his path finally came to an end. 

This isn't to say that Tom Brady had a terrible game, because he didn't. But, he finished the game with no passing touchdowns and an interception that was about as ugly as they come. 

Brady had an interception that brought back memories of his interception that came at the end of the first half of Super Bowl XLIX on a pass to Gronkowski. It was ugly, and tonight's was equally ugly. Brady heaved the ball downfield in a fit of panic, which was very unlike the usually cool and calm Brady. 

Brady did try to put the team on his back in the second half with three of the most brilliant touch passes down the sidelines. Brady found Julian Edelman for a 33-yard gain on a 3rd-and-25 when the team needed something to give. Brady then found Edelman again on a fade route to the other side of the field on the team's final drive. And then for the cherry on top, Brady hooked up with Rob Gronkowski on a perfect lob pass to the outside as Gronk located the pass in a way only he can. 

The bottom line is that Brady played a pretty good game despite the result, but that interception was so poor that it has to lower his grade just a bit. Brady also tossed up a "hospital ball" that allowed Gronk to take a huge hit to the chest and subsequently miss four plays. 

Grade: B+

Running Back

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Blount Force Trauma strikes with a heavy bludgeon of the Seahawks defense. 

Statistically speaking, 21 carries for 69 yards isn't going to stand out unless Gronk is the one staring at Blount's yards on the ground. But, with three touchdown runs and a nice burst in his step, Blount may have had one of his best games of the season. 

The Seahawks are still a difficult team to run against. Blount was patient at finding some holes to work with. He also ran with such a sense of purpose and power for the entire game that he turned some plays from nothing into something. Getting any chunks possible on the Seahawks' front is a tall task, and Blount passed with flying colors. He showed great speed on the edge for his third touchdown of the game, which is something I am highly critical of because Blount is a far better north-south runner.

It would have been nice to see him get into the end zone at the end of the game, but that's an entirely different matter. 

Early on, it looked like the Patriots would utilize James White more which seemed like a great matchup. Though, White disappeared as part of the game plan. It would have been nice to see him used a little more. He did land a flawless legal pick on Richard Sherman on Edelman's beautiful deep fade route to keep the team's final drive alive. 

Grade: A-

Wide Receiver

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So here is the groundwork for the wide receivers. 

Based on the first half, the Patriots didn't have any wide receivers. No one was playing a role in the offense. 

In the second half, Julian Edelman became more of a focal point. Edelman's two fade routes that were key conversions for the offense were stunning. The timing and ability to haul in the over-the-shoulder tosses were remarkable. Edelman finished the game with nine catches for 99 yards and is without a doubt one of the toughest players on the field as he was fighting for extra yardage all night. 

Though, sometimes fighting for extra yardage and not going down can backfire big time. 

Edelman fumbled on the team's second to last drive, and ultimately it was the killer for the Patriots. Fumbles at key times are a good way to get your grade lowered in the blink of an eye. 

Meanwhile, Chris Hogan had no catches on three targets. Danny Amendola had one catch on one target. 

Malcolm Mitchell picked up a horrible false start that led him to immediately run to the sideline because he could already hear Belichick screaming in his ear and he felt Brady's frustration. Edelman bailed out the big penalty though. 

Grade: C

Tight End

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Gronkowski was outplayed on the stat sheet by Martellus Bennett against Seahawks, but both tight ends had a major impact on the game. 

Bennett and Gronk were even extremely difficult matchups for the safety-heavy, big, physical secondary of the Seahawks. Bennett recorded seven catches for 102 yards, which gives him three 100-yard games on the season. He also caught every pass that came his way. When Gronk went to the sidelines after a huge hit to the chest, Bennett made two catches that kept the drive moving. 

Gronk's big moment came on the fade route to set the team up in the red zone on the final drive. If Gronk hauled in the game winner on the fourth-down fade or drew a penalty flag (he might have had a case for one), Gronk would have pitched in an even bigger game. 

Gronk drew a defensive pass interference and a defensive holding at other points in the game. He was flagged for a false start, too. 

Grade: A

Offensive Line

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The Seahawks were without Michael Bennett, Martellus' brother. Regardless of Bennett's absence, the Seahawks still have one of the toughest defensive fronts in the NFL. Between Cliff Avril, Jarran Reed, Frank Clark and company, the Patriots offensive line had one difficult task on Sunday night. 

The offensive line surprised throughout the game. They bought time for Brady, and Nate Solder did an excellent job of protecting Brady. Brady was sacked twice, but overall that is a win against such a difficult pass-rushing team. One of the sacks was "allowed" by Shaq Mason, but it was ultimately a coverage sack as Brady made it through three progressions and no one was able to create separation downfield. 

As for run-blocking, the left side of the line did an incredible job, especially on Blount's third touchdown run. The offensive line was physical and won a lot of battles against the line of scrimmage. 

While normally being a question mark against stout defensive front, the offensive line put together a solid performance. 

Grade: A

Defensive Line

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It's a good idea to start with the good because there's going to be a whole lot of bad coming in the defensive grades...

Trey Flowers is starting to have a true presence on the defensive line. He isn't the most athletic or physically imposing pass-rusher, but he knows his role and his effort is through the roof at all times. Flowers now has four sacks in his last two games and is the team's leader in sacks. Four sacks is far from an impressive number, but he is still the team leader in sacks. 

After Flowers, the defensive line failed to accomplish much of anything. Jabaal Sheard spent more time on the bench than playing and we don't know the story behind that. 

Seahawks RB C.J. Prosise ran the ball effectively despite a 3.9 yards-per-carry average. 

Chris Long jumped offsides once. Rob Ninkovich did have a nice sack where he bumped the slot receiver and won in a speed battle off the edge. 

Grade: C-

Linebacker

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First things first, the departure of Jamie Collins still had nothing to do with the poor performance from the Patriots defense. 

In the first situation where we can ask what if Jamie Collins was on the field, Elandon Roberts was burned by C.J. Prosise down the sideline to set up the Seahawks on the one-yard line. Prosise is a former WR and an excellent receiving back because of it. Collins also struggled at defending wheel routes or deep routes to RBs, so let's debunk that right away. 

Shea McClellin, who somewhat assumed the Collins' role given the starting nod, was a failure in pass coverage. In fact, McClellin was horrible at just about everything other than special teams. 

The Patriots' leader and player who has been their backbone of the defense, Dont'a Hightower, was called for multiple penalties and beat in coverage. He nearly picked off a pass to start the second half, but that was his one shining moment. 

The LBs should also be helping at creating turnovers. The Patriots haven't been creating turnovers at all, and that is another problem we are seeing each week. 

The linebackers had a poor showing, and it contributed to the team's defensive debacle we all had to watch. 

Grade: D+

Secondary

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This is where it gets really ugly...

I almost feel bad ripping apart the secondary when part of the problem is because the scheme is a mess. But, the Patriots just failed to deliver in the secondary all night long. 

To start, Justin Coleman was awful. He was beat by Tyler Lockett twice on similar plays. One was a 36-yard pass to ignite the Seahawks' opening drive and the second was a DPI call on Coleman. 

Outside of a near interception on a ball intended for Jermaine Kearse, Logan Ryan had one of his worst games of the season and in recent memory. Ryan gets a lot of flak thrown his way, but he is a decent No. 2 corner. But, he was torched, burned and left for dead on the field as he was clearing off players in drop zones and gave up big pass plays to basically every Seahawks receiver. Doug Baldwin scored the game-winning touchdown on Ryan. 

Malcolm Butler might have been the only very dim, but still bright point in the secondary. Butler gave up the first TD to Baldwin, which was a perfectly executed play. But, outside of that play, Butler landed a massive hit on Prosise that likely saved a touchdown, or at the very least a long run. 

Devin McCourty couldn't cover all of the gaps in the defensive zones. 

I'll leave you with one play from the game that sums up the abysmal play of the secondary: 

At the end of the first half, the Patriots dropped nine players back in coverage. Doug Baldwin still made it behind the defense and scored a touchdown. Nine players! Nine! Nine in coverage! 

Just terrible. Can they get lower than an F? 

Grade: F

Special Teams

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It felt like it was time to believe in Cyrus Jones. In his first game back after being a healthy scratche the last couple of weeks, Cyrus seemed to have an impact on the return game. Just when he took a kick return back for big yardage, he fumbled at the end of the run and was bailed out by Nate Ebner diving on the football.

Ball security was an issue all game, and if Cyrus makes mistakes in the return game, he will go back to being a healthy scratch faster than Belichick can say Seattle four times in response to a question. 

On a positive note, Shea McClellin made a nice inside move to get a piece of a PAT and block the XP. Also, Barkevious Mingo had a nice tackle on punt coverage. 

Stephen Gostkowski wasn't a liability with his field-goal kicking as he made all of his PATs and a 30-yard field goal. But, Gostkowski did struggle on kickoffs as he kicked one out of bounds and another kick turned into an awkward squib kick that didn't seem intentional. 

It wasn't perfect, but Ebner's fumble recovery saved the team from a worse grade. 

Grade: B-

Coaching

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The Patriots have the best coaching staff in the NFL. So what in the world were they doing against the Seahawks? 

Defensively, Matt Patricia's play-calling felt awful. The team had a horrible two-minute drill defense that allowed a Baldwin touchdown with six seconds to go in the second quarter. Countless times the Patriots dropped eight or nine players into coverage and could not cover anyone. The pass-rush was non-existent if it wasn't for Trey Flowers and one nice play from Ninkovich. 

They are playing complacently. The secondary lacks chemistry. Third-down defensive percentages are awful. Sure, they had a couple of stands that ended in field goals instead of touchdowns. But, teams get to the red zone far too easily. It needs to stop. 

It feels like the Patriots are content with giving up huge chunks of yardage on defense by sitting back in loose drop zones. Newsflash: It isn't working, and something has to change now. 

On offense, the Patriots established the run which kept them in the game. It opened up the play-action for Josh McDaniels to utilize in the offense. 

The questionable calls came when the Patriots didn't look to use Edelman in the first half and then strayed away from James White throughout the game. There were some highly questionable play calls including a James White dive play on 2nd-and-long late in the game. And of course, the final red-zone possession was bizarre. 

Sometimes McDaniels gets too cute in the red zone. Running a QB sneak on first down was more than OK; it was a good call. The sneak usually works. Running with Blount on second down was also fine. But, going back to the sneak on third down after spreading all of the tight ends and blockers out wide wasn't fooling anyone. The Seahawks didn't budge. Then, the fourth-down decision to throw a fade to Gronk and either bank on a penalty or a catch was such a low percentage, surprise throw that it was bound to fail. That is a play call that works on first or second down. The element of surprise wasn't enough.

McDaniels' play-calling cost the Patriots a chance at overtime. 

Grade: D