Bill Barnwell
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Bill Barnwell
@billbarnwell.com
ESPN writer/yapper
New podcast: @mikegolicjr.bsky.social joins the pod to break down the Seahawks win in Super Bowl LX! www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhfr...
Seattle Reigns Supreme. Was this an All-Time Defense? | The Bill Barnwell Show
YouTube video by NFL on ESPN
www.youtube.com
February 9, 2026 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Bill Barnwell
New column: How the Seahawks blew out the Patriots:

・ The wrinkle Mike McDonald saved for a month and unleashed on a Pats offense that never adjusted
・The weird schematic decisions the Pats made
・The Kenneth Walker-Michael Dickson MVP debate and more!
www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...
Super Bowl LX: How the Seahawks shut down the Patriots
The Seahawks are Super Bowl champs! Let's size up Seattle's defensive wrinkles, an explosive RB, great special teams and Sam Darnold's performance.
www.espn.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Crazy that JSN had a quiet game and still might have had 150 and two touchdowns with a little bit better luck. He gets open here versus Christian Gonzalez on the post, but the throw lets Gonzalez back into the play and break the pass up to save a TD.
February 9, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Another season in the books for me - thanks so much for reading and interacting this year! Bluesky has really been such a pleasant alternative to the hellsite.
February 9, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Rough game for Drake Maye. But that in-breaker to Mack Hollins was in good googily moogily territory
February 9, 2026 at 5:15 PM
New column: How the Seahawks blew out the Patriots:

・ The wrinkle Mike McDonald saved for a month and unleashed on a Pats offense that never adjusted
・The weird schematic decisions the Pats made
・The Kenneth Walker-Michael Dickson MVP debate and more!
www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...
Super Bowl LX: How the Seahawks shut down the Patriots
The Seahawks are Super Bowl champs! Let's size up Seattle's defensive wrinkles, an explosive RB, great special teams and Sam Darnold's performance.
www.espn.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Pats brought Thayer Munford on the field for one snap in the first quarter as a sixth offensive lineman, picked up 21 yards, and then never used a sixth lineman again the rest of the game.
The NE offensive game plan was puzzling. 79.1% of snaps in 11 personnel. No game over 70% in regular season. Got dime 53% of the time but still couldn't run.

Zero snaps in empty to try to spread the Seahawks out. Season-low in 21 personnel, 1.5%. One snap in Jumbo.

Just let Seattle play its game.
February 9, 2026 at 4:59 AM
Pats showed 6-man front to try and take away the zone runs, so Seahawks go to pin/pull to start the next drive for 14 yards.
February 9, 2026 at 2:50 AM
Maye got away with one of those would-be picks but he wasn't getting away with two of them.
February 9, 2026 at 2:48 AM
Another Witherspoon blitz gets through on third down and Maye misses a slant he should hit.
February 9, 2026 at 2:13 AM
Pats throwing on third-and-1 if they're not willing to go for it on fourth-and-1...
February 9, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Darnold's been great at turning would-be sacks into incompletions or short gains with his legs, but he's left some throws on the field. The long scramble drill throw to JSN, the post to JSN that Gonzalez was able to catch up to before half, and on that third-down out versus the blitz.
February 9, 2026 at 1:55 AM
Bad Bunny got into the endzone and scored before either offense
February 9, 2026 at 1:39 AM
Pats on first-and-10:

Three pass dropbacks for 19 yards (6.3 ypc)
Six runs for 17 yards (2.8 ypc)

Obviously a small sample. But might need to try throwing more on early downs since their third-and-mediums have been a disaster
February 9, 2026 at 12:52 AM
Second-down sack for the Seahawks. Seattle shows two-deep before the snap and spins to single-high. Guard gets mauled up front by Rylie Mills, who was playing his 30th defensive snap of the season. Complete dominance on defense.
February 9, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Third-and-5 can be a run down in the NFL but you gotta block the defensive tackles
February 9, 2026 at 12:22 AM
Tendency breaker for the Seahawks. Devon Witherspoon had only rushed the QB 21 times during the regular season and zero blitzes during the postseason, per Next-Gen Stats. Seahawks blitz him there and Maye wasn't expecting it, forces a throwaway.
February 8, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Christian Gonzalez was on JSN on every dropback on that drive.
February 8, 2026 at 11:46 PM
What matters in this game:

🏈 Who controls the explosive plays/who creates them
🏈 Which of the weak spots in pass pro (Campbell/Bradford) get exploited
🏈 How the Pats hold up vs. SEA multi-TE sets
🏈 Whether Pats can run on early downs vs. SEA nickel D/light boxes
February 8, 2026 at 11:25 PM
Green Day have to be the only band to play 924 Gilman and the Super Bowl
February 8, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Bill Barnwell
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show will be interpreted by Celimar Rivera Cosme into Puerto Rican Sign Language, a unique dialect used on the island that academic researchers and other experts consider endangered.
Bad Bunny’s Sign Language Interpreter Will Make Super Bowl History, Too
Puerto Rican Sign Language is not the same as American Sign Language. Celimar Rivera Cosme will uniquely capture the rapper’s slang for the game’s deaf viewers.
trib.al
February 8, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Bill Barnwell
Battered by concussions, some former N.F.L. players are desperately searching for help beyond conventional medicine.

In this story, two of them (Derek Anderson and Brian Cushing) travel to Colorado to try psilocybin mushrooms.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...
N.F.L. Careers Scarred Their Brains. Could Mushrooms Provide Relief?
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:27 PM
ICYMI: A very large Super Bowl preview, including why this is appropriately the Explosive Play Bowl www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...
Super Bowl LX: Seahawks-Patriots matchup preview, prediction
Can Drake Maye hit enough big plays? Which Sam Darnold will show up? And will defense define this Super Bowl matchup? Let's go deep on Seahawks-Patriots.
www.espn.com
February 6, 2026 at 5:16 PM