The Patriots started the season as the best team in the league against the run. They ended it in Sunday’s Super Bowl submitting their worst performance of the season against an opposing running back.

New England led the league in stopping the run through the first half of the season, didn’t allow an opposing running back to crack the 50-yard mark until November, and yielded an average of 71.3 rushing yards in its first three postseason contests.

Bolstered by the likes of a healthy Milton Williams, Khyiris Tonga, and Christian Barmore heading into Super Bowl LX, conventional thinking was the Patriots would be able to figure out a way to slow Kenneth Walker and the Seattle ground attack. Especially because Walker was considered a complementary piece of the offensive puzzle who only moved into a starting role after Zach Charbonnet went down with a torn ACL at the start of the postseason.

But for much of the evening Sunday, New England failed to corral Walker, as the 25-year-old dominated the Patriots in the Seahawks’ 29-13 win. In all, New England allowed an astonishing 141 rushing yards, with Walker accounting for 135 yards on 27 carries.

Read Christopher Price's full story at BostonGlobe.com.