Super Bowl Media Day: Bill Belichick calls Marshawn Lynch “best back we’ve faced”

At Super bowl Media Day on Tuesday, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had high praise for Seattle Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch.

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Cutting away from DeflateGate as Super Bowl week began, the Patriots head coach gave well-deserved praise to Lynch, who led the league with 13 rushing TDs and 17 all-purpose TDs – both career highs for a RB closing in on the dread “30” mark. The Skittles-loving RB has earned the mantra “Beast Mode” for his ability to bowl over defenders en route to long gains and TDs.

“Lynch is a tremendous back, best back we’ve faced. He does everything well, he’s got great balance, great power, vision, instincts, he’s great in the open field, he gets tough yards around the goal line, third down,” Belichick said.

Lynch finished 4th in the NFL in carries and yards with 280 attempts for 1,306 yards, the second highest total of his career. His 4.7 yards/carry in 2014 were also the second highest of his career and 10th in the NFL.

But in five career games against the Patriots, four as a member of the Buffalo Bills from 2007 to 2010, Lynch has never topped 100 yards in a game, and has only averaged 3.8 yards/carry against them – by contrast, he has a 4.3 career yards/carry average against the rest of the league.

The last time the Seahawks faced the Patriots was October 14, 2012 in the regular season. The Seahawks won the game 24-23.