FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The New England Patriots were so bad last year they fired six-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick. The Seattle Seahawks weren’t much better, reason enough to get rid of Pete Carroll — the only coach ever to lead them to the NFL title.
And on Sunday night, one of those teams will be 2-0.
“You see the direction that we’re trying to go, you see what happens when you do follow the process, and you do buy into the plan,” Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett said this week. “Some days … you’re not going to get the results you want. But I think it’s even more apparent after you do get those results.”
The Seahawks and Patriots have both fallen far since their matchup in Super Bowl 49, when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson at the goal line and Tom Brady knelt out the final seconds to seal yet another championship for New England.
Wilson is on his third team, as a backup in Pittsburgh after two unsuccessful seasons in Denver. Butler has retired, and he will be back on Sunday along with 20 teammates to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2014 title.
Belichick and Carroll are out of the league after failing to rekindle their success with new quarterbacks. Everyone on the team was invited but Belichick and Brady are not expected to attend.
“While some prominent members of that 2014 team now have broadcasting obligations and are unable to attend, nearly half of the team will be in attendance,” the Patriots said.
The teams replaced the two oldest head coaches in the league with the two youngest: Former Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo took over on the New England sideline, and Seattle went with ex-Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald.
“I think Coach Mayo and I would agree that this game is not about us. It’s not,” Macdonald said. “It’s about our guys going out and playing and making the plays that it’s going to take to win the game. Our age really has nothing to do with what’s about to happen on Sunday.”
Both won their debuts.
New England, which was 4-13 last season, was the biggest underdog in the NFL last week before beating Cincinnati 16-10. A year after going 9-8, Seattle was expected to beat the Broncos in the opener and did, winning 26-20 to get Macdonald off to a winning start.
“From a coaching perspective, our job is to teach these guys how to win,” Mayo said. “When you won a lot, having that sense of urgency to not fall into being comfortable (is important). We won one game.
“If we don’t go out there and execute and play right, we could be sitting right here and then you’re going to say, ‘Jerod, you seem like you’re in a down mood,’” Mayo said with a laugh. “That’s my job as the head coach of the team: to make sure that these guys are ready to change the page.”
Take them to the hill
The call came out from the New England sideline in Cincinnati: “Take them to the hill.”
It was a reference to the steep hill where the Patriots ran sprints at the end of training camp practices. The message: Their conditioning was a team strength, especially when trying to run out the clock at the end of the game.
“Just hearing that from the players, it meant a lot,” Mayo said. “That just means taking them into the deep water and all the extra things that we do, it pays off. It pays off in the long term.”
With the Patriots holding the lead in the final minutes, Rhamondre Stevenson ran the ball four straight times, picking up a pair of first downs that allowed them to run out the clock.
“We’re running one play the whole time and they’re not stopping it, so why change it?” Brissett said. “I think that was one of the cooler moments in my career. Everybody in the huddle was saying, ‘Let’s take them to the hill,’ because we knew we were in that much better shape than they were. And I think it paid off.”
Secondary stars
Seattle’s secondary was believed to be the strength of its defense and that showed in the opener. Safety Julian Love had 12 tackles and an interception. Riq Woolen sprinted across the field to get his first interception of the year after having only two picks last season. New safety K’Von Wallace played just a handful of snaps but forced a key fumble. And second-year cornerback Devon Witherspoon was all over the field being used in a variety of ways.
It was just one game, but it displayed some of the different ways that the skills of Seattle’s secondary can be used both in coverage and when bringing pressure.
“We played fast, simply put,” Love said. “We played fast. We played aggressive. Guys were able to try to shoot their shot, but they knew they had backup. They knew guys were on the way and so when you play that way, free, it all works together.”
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AP Sports Writer Tim Booth contributed to this story from Seattle.
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