We can break down the X’s and the O’s, and there are plenty. Take Devon Witherspoon, a heat-seeking missile of a cornerback whom Macdonald called the “lifeblood of our football team.” A second-team All-Pro selection who covers with the best of them and hits with the best of them, Witherspoon hadn’t had a single snap as a pass rusher since Week 16. That’s right: no blitzes in the final two weeks of the regular season, nor in either postseason game.
He rushed the passer six times in the Super Bowl, including twice in the first quarter — once disrupting Drake Maye, once sacking him. It was clear Macdonald, with two weeks to prepare, had taken the early lead in the chess game, one he wouldn’t relinquish.
“We had some pressures with ‘Spoon’ in the game plan,” Macdonald told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt. “We haven’t really sent him that much this year, but we felt like there were some opportunities in some of the longer down and distances, and he made them come to life. Sometimes it’s not how you actually draw it up. The player’s got to go make plays, and that’s what he did.”
Super Bowl 60 winners and losers: Kenneth Walker, Seahawks defense shine, Patriots OL struggles
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